What’s up, everybody, today we got a brand new trailer for the upcoming Lord of the Rings
video game “Return to Moria”, and while I and many others have been pumped about a
multiplayer game focusing on the dwarves - the show-stealer of today’s trailer is undoubtedly
the man voicing it - John Rhys-Davies.
But before we breakdown the references and other things we can glean from this trailer,
let’s watch it in full…
That’s right folks, Gimli himself returned to provide the narration for this trailer
and the natural question is - will he be returning to his famous role within the game itself.
There’s been no official word, so we can only speculate, but you may recall in a past
interview with some of the Return to Moria team here on Nerd of the Rings, it was mentioned
that Gimli will play a small, but important role in the game - so here’s hoping this
is just a taste of more to come! Either way, it was a delightful surprise to hear John
Rhys-Davies voice going into dwarf-mode once again.
His narration begins with declaring the dwarven story is more than what hobbits and elves
know as we begin the trailer with an exterior shot of Khazad-dum. Here we can see the iconic
Doors of Durin (which notably in the books are not destroyed like they are in the films
- instead they are simply slammed shut and barricaded by the Watcher in the Water - a
beast we will actually meet in a bit.)
We got a band of dwarves in the foreground on a ridge, presumably representing us players,
about to embark on this journey, and it looks like the exterior walls of Khazad-dum are
in the process of getting an upgrade - the dwarves have elected for a less subtle approach
to their great cliff face and we see the scaffolding still up where they are carving great images
of dwarves on either side of the door.
The next shot we see is two dwarves walking past a long dead member of their kin, who
met his end pierced by orc arrows. Definitely giving off some of those Fellowship discovering
a long dead colony-vibes.
Real quick, I will say I like the allusion in the opening line that there’s more to
dwarven history than what other races in Middle-earth know. The dwarves were an extremely secretive
bunch with things like their women and children, their language, and their history. It makes
me think we might get some hints of their great past in Khazad-dum within the game.
Next up we get the Bridge of Khazad-dum, which has been repaired since Gandalf’s fight
with the Balrog - oh, and in case you aren’t aware, the timeline for this game is after
all the events of the Return of the King - like, quite a bit after. They’ve probably tweaked
the timeline just a bit to bring the end of Gimli’s life and the recolonization of Moria
closer together, but we are probably looking at around 100 years after The Return of the
King.
In this image, we see the unfathomable depths below, and a later shot may indicate we will
meet some of the nameless things that dwell there. Next up we’ve got a dwarf coming
around a corner to reveal a mine and, based on its luminent nature, I’m guessing these
are mithril deposits, so perhaps part of the game will be attempting to mine the precious
metal.
As Gimli says “with hammer and axe we mine across Middle-earth,” we get a series of
shots showing a player jumping, then a bridge being built. As we’ll see shortly, building
bridges and defenses will be a big part of this survival game.
As the VoiceOver mentions delving for riches, we see a dwarf creating a tunnel which opens
up to a large room with some pretty impressive statues. I wonder if things like this could
play out in the game, where we open up our own passages that may or may not lead to massive
rooms and halls long closed off. Here we see five statues, two of which are very similar
and bear crowns and two great hammers. Another is holding a basket, while the fourth has
a smaller hammer - possibly a craftsman of some kind. The one that intrigues me most
is the seemingly elderly dwarf in the middle, who kind of looks like he may be holding a
broken staff in his left hand, and perhaps a glowing metal object in a pair of tongs
in its right. Considering this is a statue, it’s notable that this item glows, which
makes me wonder if this is some kind of original artifact made for a quest or something in
the game.
Now we see some stairs to both the left and right of the player presumably leading up
behind the statues, where it looks like there is a doorway beyond. This makes me wonder
just how large they’ve made Khazad-dum for this game - the bigger the better.
Next up we’ve got a shot of various dwarves mining away and I gotta say, this is the shot
that got me even more pumped about this game. At this point I really just wanna party up
with a bunch of friends and live my best dwarf life - mining, building, and battling my way
through Moria.
The John Rhys-Davies voiceover mentions the greatest treasure remains out of dwarves reach
- that being Moria itself. Meanwhile, we see this mysterious…perhaps doorway…that we’ve
seen before and the developers have thus far remained mum on. The room itself seems to
feature more dead dwarves - maybe some orcs as well, it’s hard to tell. But if this
doorway has special significance, it seems the dwarves made a last stand of it in this
room in particular. Just a guess here, but maybe this leads to some sacred place that
Balin’s company didn’t discover, like Durin’s throne room or a sacred forge or
something. Next up we see a dwarf swinging a hammer on
an anvil, perhaps hinting at some crafting within the game, followed by a montage of
a defense tower being built, as we see a dwarf archer manning it.
There’s a quick shot of dwarves carrying small barrels - perhaps these are explosive
material - or even more likely ale...surely dwarves gotta have their ale.
Next up is a Timelapse of a lot of things being constructed in a big open room. On the
left we’ve got beds, some chests, and mannequins - perhaps to either display armor we construct
or to serve as fighting dummies for weaponry. We’ve got some fires in the center along
with what looks to be a saw. On the right of the screen, we see a weaponry display and
some work tables - including one with torches sitting on it, which can’t possibly be up
to code. Another hammer slam and then we are on to
a couple wide shots showing tunnels and an open passageway and halls. I could be wrong
but I think this figure on the right is an orc - it definitely doesn’t look dwarven
to me.
Right before things cut loose, we get this shot of a dwarf with cool horned helmet as
the sunlight pours in from windows in the hall. Real quick, I gotta say I like this
detail as its described in Fellowship of the Ring how. Khazad-dum has windows at the upper
part of their halls to get sunlight into the mountain. This horned helmet is pretty distinct,
which leads me to think we may be getting some customization options in terms of the
armor our characters can wear.
We get a troll roar as we get a glimpse of one battling a lone dwarf who has even bigger
horns on his helmet. Next up we get some quick shots of gameplay as a dwarf uses a crossbow
to shoot at a good sized orc, and then we see what I alluded to earlier - the watcher
in the water. I’m curious to see if we see any other of the nameless creatures of Moria
or just the watcher. I will note that we do seem to be in an interior area here, so this
must be a case where the watcher has retreated back into the depths of the mountain. In the
books, it talks about the watcher having found its way to the outside lake through underwater
passages beneath the mountain, so perhaps he’s made his way back here.
Next we get some more combat as dwarves take on orcs and, it’s shown here that spiders
have made their way into Moria as well - as if we didn’t have enough things to worry
about. This is an interesting development and I wonder if the story they’re going
with here is that perhaps the cleansing of Dol Guldur and Mirkwood leads to the spiders
fleeing to the mountains, causing an unforeseen infestation.
Next up we see an orc chieftain swinging an axe at the camera, followed by a group of
dwarves cheering on some sort of victory or accomplishment. We also see the dwarves have
very different armor, hair, and skin customizations, so it looks like we will be able to really
make our characters our own in the game.
In our final shot we see two dwarves entering a room with a large statue holding a hammer
aloft, and the dwarves bow before it. I think there’s no question here that this is a
statue of Durin himself - founder of Khazad-dum, the father of the Dwarven clan of the Longbeards
(also known as Durin’s Folk).
Meanwhile, the John Rhys-Davies VoiceOver says “Come my fellow dwarves, rally together,
it’s time we take back our home” and I gotta say, hearing Gimli give this call to
arms is enough for me to be itching to play. I’m a total dwarf at heart so this game
is speaking my language right now.
We then get the title screen for The Lord of the Rings Return to Moria revealing that
it will launch this fall, just a matter of months away now. What’s also notable here
is that we not only see the Epic Games logo indicating the already known PC availability
of the game, but also the logos for PS5 and XBOX Series X & S - which were not previously
guaranteed. During my interview with the developers, they indicated they were really hoping to
get the game out for consoles as well, but this is the first official word that Return
to Moria will indeed be on next gen consoles.
Personally, I’ve had my eye on this game for a while and after the disappointment I
felt with the Gollum game, I’m really hoping the dwarves come through for us. But what
do you guys think of Return to Moria? Is this one you’re looking forward to? Let me know
in the comments.