I've Been Waiting Years for This Dwarf Survival Game But Will It Hold Up? - Return to Moria

Return to Moria gameplay with Splat! Let's Play Return to Moria and check out a game where you'll head deep into dungeons old and damp to claim treasures and wipe out hordes of orcs.
Key provided by developers
Download Return to Moria : store.epicgames.com/en-US/p/t...
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[@bikibaws]

if you rock & stone, you're never alone!

[@travismolnoskey2745]

Small correction about hordes, they're not only story driven, they are also triggered by sound and light. If you run around singing and mining with a torch you'll get way more hordes coming for you by drawing attention to yourself. Many of the game mechanics are pretty well explained in the journal. Edit: Also they're not that hard, as long as you prio blocking and get in a good funneling position you shouldn't die, I've gone through about 8 hordes and only died once because I was caught in an open cavern running back to base with no armor or rations.

[@steventaylor8723]

That doesn't change the fact that the combat looks like some Xbox360 stuff....

[@mrjtfang2]

@@steventaylor8723 Is this even related?

[@Cole444Train]

@@steventaylor8723 they didn't even talk about the quality of the combat... Stay on topic.

[@placeholdername3818]

I kind of like the constant sieges and I think it fits the setting. Moria was a hellhole filled with legions of goblins.

[@nephilimshammer9567]

They are dumb they stay only In blocks of areas

[@aleksanderhelgesen5457]

well, if the devs add traps, defences and other mechanics that would allow for some sort of 'automatic' handling of at least a portion of the raiders, then yes. But, judging from what I saw in the video, you just get raided randomly and then have to rush around trying to stop the raiders from ruining your base. Not especially efficient for a game that leans heavily on exploring.

[@tlk889]

@@aleksanderhelgesen5457 I could see some Orcs Must Die mechanics that would be useful and - more importantly - fun.

[@Ezullof]

I mean, it fits with the impression we had of Moria, during Sauron's reign, in the film. That's clearly the feeling that the devs were going for, but imo they failed to show a hidden threat always waiting to surge from the depths. In the setting, goblins and other things aren't an army anymore at this point. There might be horrors still lurking below, but the goblins and orcs won't be organized and certainly won't dare to attack dwarves. What we have here is more something that is fitting for another fantasy setting like D&D. Constant raids by greenskins because it's what they do. But in Tolkien's works, orcs and goblins only manage to be organized and real threats because evil has power and is growing. When evil doesn't have a strong presence, they just retreat and stay hidden. At the point in Middle Earth history when the dwarves reclaim Moria, a lot of the "magic" of the world is about to vanish. Imo it would have been a lot better to feature more obscure, hidden horrors that are disturbed by the dwarves.

[@matthewbreytenbach4483]

@@Ezullof The Goblins don't only form up around big threats like Sauron, they form kingdoms of their own when left to their own devices and cause pain and mischief for everyone in striking distance.

[@jairusstrunk94]

Also you can end the hordes and sieges. That eye in the bottom right of your screen shows the noise your making. A horde happens when it glows red. You get rid of that eye by killing the orc camp and the boss in that area. Then no more hordes. and almost no sieges.

[@brandocalrizion14]

Splat: "can i get a rock and stone." Me talking to the TV: "Rock and Stone Brotha!" my wife: 😒

[@Jack_Jack_907]

😂😂😂😂 Tell her we said *"Rock and Stone forever!"*

[@Eggson1]

For Karl!

[@TacozTheGreat]

Rock and Stone to the bone!

[@joshuaward1390]

Baruk Khazâd Khazâd ai-mênu

[@joe125ful]

Stone and Rocks..wait.

[@arglebargle42]

When you Rock and Stone, you're never alone!

[@DeaflyBassassin]

Rock and Stone, Brother!

[@JJBelyeu]

If you don't rock and stone, you ain't comin' home!

[@aldogon1676]

Rock and Stone to the Bone!

[@scrollfloh]

For Carl!

[@GiftingStray]

Rock and stone FOREVER!

[@jairusstrunk94]

The gold pile is a buff. you admire it then get more damage vs orcs. Great for when you're about to raid the camp to kill the leaders.

[@d1g1beastpr1me7]

That's hilarious! I've never seen a survival game where greed is a beneficial game mechanic

[@IanSebryk]

definitely waiting for the Steam release. but thanks for putting this on my radar.

[@rainjoubert5741]

You know what splattercat, for some reason listening to you yammer on while you play random games just brings a smile to my face. Thanks for existing and just making videos :)

[@Lexith03]

Honestly, after 41+ hours in the game and not yet finishing it due to exploring, mining, fending off raids, cooking, and more, I absolutely love this game. The fact that the devs are listening and working on fixing things from bugs to adding QoL already (in just a few days we get a big patch) is amazing. I look forward to playing this so much more as well as trying out the mods that are already in development.

[@Temulon]

Can you tell me how to place the Muznakan figures on Ori's alter? The game says to press E, I then press E but nothing is happening besides the dwarf character says something.

[@Lexith03]

@@Temulon so sorry for the late reply (hopefully you've gotten your answer by now, haha), but it should just place when you are clicking thr alter. The only thing I can think of is that maybe you're attempting to place the figures at the wrong alter. There are many different figures to be placed, but they all go to specifically named alters depending on the area you're in.

[@Temulon]

@@Lexith03 I figured it out finally. But thanks for getting back to me. By the way, it has been two months so you've had time to play the game, what do you think of it? Are you still enjoying the game?

[@tropa111]

6:34 Did I hear a Rock and Stone?

[@Jack_Jack_907]

*If you don't Rock and Stone, you ain't comin' home!*

[@sheldonventer2849]

Rock and STONE!

[@MrDowntemp0]

Splat talking big game about loving Dwarves. But I've not seen him Strike The Earth!!!

[@fabionovo9272]

Having some FUN

[@asureaskie8955]

​!!FUN!!

[@Benjaminagain]

ROCK AND STONE

[@tcs.eldavido701]

6:33 Rock and stone, to the bone.

[@kephryccephryc863]

rock and stone you beautiful dwarf

[@BlackViperMWG]

Holy mithril, this feels perfect! Shame it's on Epic though, but I will play it with my friends on steam when the time comes.

[@Urko2005]

Yeah ill wait for Steam.

[@totema6205]

this right here , me and my friends

[@manio22]

same here

[@CrimsonSp33d]

Plus with steam releases typically come big updates to drum up players. Let epic beta test it for em 😂

[@SemperBlood]

Yeah not a big fan of Epic.

[@MichaelDBruce]

Also rock and stone

[@rampager89]

Glad you played this! Hope to catch u live playing this!

[@Critical_Beer_Sip]

6:34 Did I hear rock and stone? xD

[@iorvaraybara7490]

Sieges are triggered while you are inside your camp - the longer time you spent there the more likely they will attack ,also kill the orc boss of the area to turn the number of raids and sieges down It is often easier to use an existing camp in a "safer" area to start crafting then making a new camp each and every biome.

[@shauncollins4755]

Splat!!!! Your stuff has not popped up in my feed for a while. Super happy I popped in to check out your stuff. Great playthrough

[@Cyenthie]

Thanks for the playthrough on Twitch! Well done on the review! If they can get that combat straightened up, and fix the possible missing plans during the random world generation, this would be much better

[@tomcunningham803]

ROCK AND STONE! TO THE BONE!

[@TheMunchkin9]

Did I hear a ROCK AND STONE?!

[@razorback0z]

I have about 50 or so hours in it now, solo and I am having a blast. The exploration is fun and the combat gets better as you get more gear. Im enjoying it.

[@Ghost-jj6ud]

I think what makes it tough with EGS games is a lot of them actually *are* Early Access in concept, but they don't have that on the store. Witchfire is definitely early access going off the Discord notes, but there's no indication of that on the store. This one gives me the same vibe, I'm pretty sure it's early access in some ways but there's no way to know.

[@igorthelight]

Yep! Just wait for a Steam release after a year ;-)

[@johnnygames857]

no this one is release 1.0 but EGS has exclusivitiy to it for now

[@sestrarsestror3417]

To be fair, I got to see EGS exclusives as saying "this is in alpha/beta, this needs at least one year time, but we need additional funding to develop."

[@blimtsk1297]

Witchfire says it's early access in the store page what are you on about

[@Reoh0z]

"Today in the world of games I've been wanting so much you're gonna have to watch this."

[@ProstoLyubo]

Thanks for showcasing this! I'm not up for more episodes though, surely there is more interesting stuff somewhere ;d

[@TheBod76]

For Karl!

[@mylesdrake2949]

For the deeps, you got to find the ranger camp that unlocks a brewing recipe for temp poison immunity you can brew. Shields don't allow poison build up for blocking. You can find black diamonds in orc camps and towns and in the deep dark, the deep dark being the roughest biome in the game. To get to it you got to ladder platform down those crevices in the ground that keep going down where your character says you can find the best gems down there.

[@SusCalvin]

The singing sounds exciting. There was lots of singing in his books, about great things and small.

[@Charon793]

Can't wait for this game to be free on Epic or released on Steam

[@nils-peterwihlney8732]

Feels a bit like an early access game without the early access tag, or early access price.

[@inaliFTW]

That's exactly what it is. If the game was early access it would be amazing. But, it's not apparently, there's little to no marketing. Which tells me... Epic and PS5 is a soft launch. They aren't calling it early access. Which is a terrible move as we've seen in the past and comes off as predatory. Sadly, this is the best Lord of the RIngs game I've ever played. The lore is sweet, Moria is pretty perfect environmentally, the scale is great. The music is great, but, we could use more of it. The biggest issue for me is that combat is just not good or fun, the moves are jank. Also, unfortunately most of the game is constant combat, so it really feels like you're fighting nonstop enemies in an unfun way. They could have made the combat sweet, it feels 50% complete and unpolished. Really sucks because the game does a lot of things much better than other similar titles. I hope they fix it up.

[@krazykuz13cmc]

@@inaliFTWthe fuck are you smoking shadows of war and mordor are fucking classics.

[@heneryslayzack1271]

if only someone would certify that this game is perfectly balanced with no exploits what so ever lol .

[@eptizzy]

it'll happen soon..... you know it

[@UrMomGreen.]

And drinking tea while doing it 😅

[@michaelfetter4541]

@@UrMomGreen. only if its yorkshire.

[@Steve-Cap]

You sold me on this game and many others! Thanks for all the great content Splattercat ❤

[@snactimusmaximus]

Good review, thanks!

[@TheMajorpickle01]

my initial impression of this is deep rock intergalactic meets valheim

[@pettey2767]

I love this game myself. But i have been waiting for your review of this game over anyone else. You just bring the right feeling to game reviews and I take your experience over many others.

[@JP-mg5ms]

Didn’t even know it had came out! It’s been a blast so far! Thanks for the video review and letting us know it’s out!

[@jairusstrunk94]

Um no.... Doors do NOT stop raids. They will break the door splattercat -_- you need to kill the CAMP which you probably did back in the mines and got confused thinking the door did it. Edit: Yes you did fight the orc boss. EVERY area with the horde eye in the right has a boss orc in an orc city, Somewhere on that map. Kill it. No more hords, almost no raids.

[@MrDinmaker]

Thank you for reviewing this one, I've been looking at it longingly for a few months and wasn't sure if it was worth picking up just yet, so your recommendaton is a big help

[@Nekoyashiki-san]

Thanks for this showcase in depth. ^^

[@schibleh531]

A fellow dwarf fan. Rock & Stone.

[@travisroth]

Thanks for a rounded review! I was v excited for this game, but had some trepidation about the Epic of it all. Now happy to wait for some patches & a Steam release. And yes, when you asked for a rock & stone, I said aloud "If you don't rock & stone, you ain't going home" to an empty room.

[@DirtyDwarfFTW]

Cursed EGS. My rage is immeasurable and my disappointment are boundless.

[@tinypixiebread]

*ROCK AND STONE! BROTHER DWARF!*

[@atto1355]

Been waiting for you to cover this so I get a review I trust!

[@krisclocksin8524]

Rock and Stone! It never gets old!

[@davijose82]

ROCK AND STONE!

[@Alex.Kandmor]

Dwarves are my fav race!!

[@AlexVriairu]

I'll take a look at it when it actually releases on a viable store front.

[@coolstorybro9732]

good thing about defending a siege is that you can actually grab food from the table mid-fight and fully heal up

[@AndyBBardrik]

I enjoy playing the game, currently solo. But I was hoping for a bit more. It is repetitive to always build the same base on different location, especially since you need those "Black diamonds" (do not know if they are called in English that way) to build the porter and they are annoying to farm. A central area where you build a big outpost and later on get more dwarves that you can assign tasks to, would be fun (Medival Dynasty alike) Additionally, it seems like my dwarf is constantly tired. You run around for a few minutes and dig some stones, tired... I would have liked to see more individual dwarf progression in there, to improve your stamina, damage output or similar. Now you only get new equipment, which is basically the progression within the biomes.

[@iorvaraybara7490]

orcs will drop gemstones - even black diamonds in sieges and raids

[@afbee]

MUCH APPRECIATED!

[@NatiRozenfeld]

Dude this look's like a weird version of DRG. Rock and Stone brother!

[@Toxilium]

Can't wait to play it when it comes to steam :)

[@evelyntelevision]

Man, what a bummer. I'm also a huge fan of dwarves and a lotr fan so I was really looking forward to this. I was already wary from the trailers but this seems to confirm my worries. Sucks because the premise of the game is a dream for me, I would love to explore Moria as a dwarf, that was always my favorite part of Tolkien lore.

[@GameTimeWhy]

It is early access right now. In 1 year it should be good

[@evelyntelevision]

I can't find anything anywhere that indicates that it's early access. @@GameTimeWhy

[@jairusstrunk94]

I've played for over 30 hours with a friend. I can comfortably tell you that none of the jank detracts from the exploration and lore. It FEELS like a lord of the rings journey. Rebuilding ancient monuments, then singing in Khuzdul, or english and getting buffs. Killing orcs and trolls. Decending too far down and running into absolute darkness and nameless demon monsters........ I can't recommend this game enough.

[@evelyntelevision]

awesome! thanks for the input, maybe i'll check it out after all

[@thereaper317]

I haven't had any issues with building its just mouse wheel and move. If there's room walls will snap to each other. Also haven't had nearly as many bugs as he has. It's essentially Valhiem with a Lord of the Rings skin

[@Cyb3rn3tiX]

right up your alley mate, cant wait to watch it =)

[@empza848]

after just the first 2 minutes of watching this video I am super hyped for this game. ... pity that it doesn't look like its coming to steam though :/ so much for wishlisting it

[@igorthelight]

It will be on Steam after a year ;-)

[@Cerytes]

@@igorthelight hopefully by then its been patched out and improved with the history of poor AAA launches recently maybe this is a blessing in disguise for us steam users.

[@R1ddle]

Epic pays for exclusives. Let them sink the money for no reason and wait for it to come to steam. The problem with exclusives is that people keep buying them so they keep remaining profitable.

[@Doug_M]

Maybe one day developers that do that will realize they are losing out on sales by going Epic only. I refuse to have anything to do with that Chinese spyware.

[@igorthelight]

@@Doug_M Do they actually loose anything? They get money and after a year release it on Steam ;-) Just some people would ignore that game on Steam because it was on Epic before.

[@adburns360]

I want this to be good, so bad.

[@jairusstrunk94]

it is good

[@Spremington]

Rock and Stone!!

[@OzrikTentakles]

This is pretty cool. I like world and models. I never would have considered it... thanks Splat o.0

[@Texsoroban]

I love splat he give the most honest reviews around.

[@codemon1352]

We fight for Rock n'Stone!

[@markwebb8376]

great commentary as per my dreams. thanks again .

[@archdrone]

"Close to the ground" a dwarf pun?

[@peteryeti9974]

Rock and stone!

[@krogan3760]

Dwarfhiem looks pretty good, will give it a look

[@neokoga]

Loved this look at the game

[@J_Vion]

ROCK AND STONE BROTHER!!!

[@aaronreynolds1504]

ROCK AND STONE FOREVER!

[@catonpillow]

0:54 'And so I figured why not give you the observations of a guy that's close to the ground.' Hmm...

[@HeadCannonPrime]

This feels VERY much like Deep Rock Galactic crossed with a survival game. What an interesting concept.

[@Hatsworthful]

A lot of the style and gameplay choices remind me of Valheim, especially how the building system works.

[@dustindemuth1605]

thanks for giving me permission to buy this game

[@Kulkanar]

Between this and Return to Nangrim you can now decide if you wish to restore a dwarf-hold to glory in either 3rd or 1st person, What a time to be alive!!

[@jessh5661]

Couple of notes: hoardes are the same in multiplayer. They're just waves and waves. Seiges happen if you don't sleep. If you sleep more, you'll get less seiges.

[@thrashjf83]

I will say making the erigion shield was the best thing I did in Moria, it's a shield that has the light of a torch on it.

[@jaredmoore9537]

You asked for it, and you got it. Rock and stone splat, rock and stone!

[@Oktokolo]

So they made a game about being a dwarf in the Mines of Moria - but you have less architectural freedom than in 7 Days to Die because they didn't make it a voxel game. Being a dwarf in a mine i should be able to mine and shape my surroundings in all ways i want. I should be able to cheese orc camps by going through the walls and throwing burning stuff at them from above. This should have been an immersive sim with lots of mining and building where you mine around the obstacles and win fights because you outsmart and outbuild the monsters instead of going in axe blazing.

[@Canadian_Ben_]

Rock and stone brothers!!

[@QuestIonAskin]

Suddenly, you hear a low rumbling on the other side of the rock. It sounds like it’s definitely chewing its way through the other side to you. You grab your axe and take up a fighting stance, waiting for whatever it is to burst through and attack. The wall crumbles. A light pierces through the dust. Silhouetted in the cloud, you see a dwarven shape. It lets out a billowing shout! “FOR CARL!”

[@JakeTHASnake01]

love your content brother god bless hope your doing great and thanks for the hard work on this video it shows and I enjoyed every minute

[@Raziel1984]

it is called return to moria, and he calls it a mine .... A MINE! XD

[@AndreasMadsen]

For rock and stone!

[@clickmcclick2675]

ROCK IN STONE!

[@Reoh0z]

Manual Lock mechanics have a bad habit of manually locking me to the wrong target.

[@foreignuser_]

i'll never spend money on the epic store but i'm excited for this to come to steam in a year i assume

[@christian_gamer_guy6447]

No surprise that you're playing this because of your love of dwarves, but I recently realized that I don't think you did a video on Dwarf Fortress, and it seems right up your alley so I can't image why you haven't done a video on it?

[@joaquinnievas9079]

A really great game! I've been absorved by it for the last 5 hours.

[@bauboshelis]

Rock & Stone Brother!!!

[@BlackGold-fc7tu]

Seems relaxing.

[@believerofbob-xm2mb]

Rock and stone brothers

[@TomasCyr]

18:30 Jackie? Is that you buddy?

[@mrfikss]

Hope you look back at this in a year Splat.

[@rayfox1984]

Aye, Rock and Stone!

[@EmodChannelClassics]

It's a shame about the combat, I feel like they could have improved it enormously relatively simply with some sort of counter attack system and dismemberment and executions. Goes a long way to make combat feel satisfying.

[@Grynfelt]

Those wouldn't have changed much, the combat itself is clunky and badly telegraphed, since it feels like a Valheim copy they should've just did what they did with the combat.

[@darkestdaysvideogame]

Well, this might be unpopular but even though its clunky it kinda fits this kind of game since everything looks a bit indie and clunky, jumping platforms and edge climbing, jumping from high places, mining whatever that white square is pointed at and not the actual character, AI (especially spiders often breaking and just standing in place), There being 3 different UI inventory type menus for some reason. Some of the weird design choices and regular game issues actually give it that dwarven mining till the end of times aesthetic. Combat is actually okay in with this perspective as it fits in, asides for attacks snapping to random shit if you don't use lock on.

[@Grynfelt]

@@darkestdaysvideogame Valheim was made with 2 people or something, even though they cut graphics for gameplay they still could do a decent combat that doesn't feel clunky and was way cheaper, the game doesn't need to be this expensive.

[@darkestdaysvideogame]

Yeah game should be $25 at best, that we can agree on. But most of the dev expenses comes from 3d artists, concept arts, designers and animations. Valheim was probably significantly cheaper to produce even though it probably has more content, still if this game gets content updates for free then it might become worth the asking price.@@Grynfelt

[@bestieswithtesties]

@@Grynfelt Yes it would have changed things a lot. No Valheim was not made by 2 people.

[@soggymarshmallow]

Splat must convince us of his fealty to Dwarfdom with a rousing chorus of "Diggy Diggy Hole"!

[@MrLukas2111]

Rock and Stone

[@LegionnaireScout]

As long as this is an epic store exclusive, its a no go