'The Lord of the Rings: Return to Moria' Gamescom Report

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The Lord of the Rings worldbuilding is as dense as they come, with Middle Earth having its own intricate histories, complicated languages to master, and involved geopolitics.

Between that core trilogy, The Hobbit and the imposing tome that is The Silmarillion, creator J.R.R. Tolkien really thought it all through. Yet even he left some wiggle room for expansion.

As such, video games have been trying for decades to plug existing gaps in the mythos, and to put their own authorial stamp on this rich saga. Indeed, we’ve had developers fleshing out everything from the backstory of Gollum to the afterlife of Celebrimbor and the various conflicts that occurred on the sidelines while Frodo & Sam were journeying to Mount Doom.

Although these spin-offs have, to varying degrees of success, enriched our knowledge of what happened before and during The War of the Ring, we know comparatively little of its aftermath. You see, the Tolkien estate is notoriously protective of this particular epoch in the universe (known as The Fourth Age), as they don’t want to run the risk of undermining the source material’s original ending.

It’s therefore quite a big deal for Free Range Games to have been entrusted with their own little slice of this time period. With their upcoming release The Lord of the Rings: Return to Moria, the team will be exploring what happened to the titular kingdom following Sauron’s defeat and how the dwarves went about reclaiming their homeland under the Misty Mountains.

Either alone or as part of a wider expedition party (in 8-player co-op), you will be able to roam a procedurally generated world, excavate its treasures and face off against a mysterious new threat.

Functioning as a survival game at heart, Return to Moria also has all of the usual fixings that you’d expect from that genre. You’ll need to mine resources in order to craft better gear and build up defences. There are survival meters that you’ll want to bear in mind as you stray further from safety. And, of course, there are terrible monsters lurking in the shadows.

To learn more about what’s in store, we sat down for a special presentation at Gamescom 2023, where we were treated to a live session demo and also had a chance to chat with both Game Director, Jon-Paul Dumont, and Christopher Scholz, CEO of Free Range Games.

Among other things, we spoke about how the title evolved into an “accidental” horror experience over the course of its development, the unique co-op mechanics that have been incorporated, and whether or not a certain Balrog will be making an appearance. Here’s everything we learned.

Bloody Disgusting: A lot of the iconography here, from the creature design of the orcs right through to the architecture of the mines themselves, will look familiar to those who have seen Peter Jackson’s movie trilogy. However, am I right in thinking that your game is based purely on the original Lord of the Rings novels and not any of the other preexisting adaptations?

Jon-Paul: That’s correct. The licensing rights with The Lord of the Rings are very complicated. Those movies certainly have their own distinct style, but that’s owned by New Line Cinema. And we only have access to the books here.

However, because all the various interpretations of Middle Earth that we’ve seen over the years are derived from the exact same source material, there is inevitably going to be some overlap.

I mean, for example, we watched that Amazon show [The Rings of Power], a good deal of which also happened to take place in Khazad-dûm, just like our game. And we quickly realised that it looked almost identical to our concept art. But the thing is, no one stole from anybody else here. It’s just a case of we’ve all been drawing upon the same influences, and so naturally arrived at some of the same places.

Likewise, we also have areas that you might recognise from the [Peter Jackson movie trilogy] — such as the Tomb of Balin — but again, that’s just because we’ve been studying Tolkien’s books. So, you’ll get to go to all of the same areas that The Fellowship visited and, in fact, will even be able to find collectable [mementos] that remind you of their adventures. Once you’ve unlocked the sandbox mode, you’ll be able to retrace their steps chronologically, all the way from the West Gate to the Bridge of Khazad-dûm.

So, to answer your initial question, we are strictly adapting the original books here. However, that doesn’t mean that there won’t be fun little details for movie and TV fans to discover, as there is inevitably some crossover with those other adaptations.

Bloody Disgusting: And when it came to fleshing out your version of Moria, how much of the work was already done for you in those books? Were you given a prescriptive outline of what you could and couldn’t do by the Tolkien estate, or was there a lot of blank space that you had to fill?

Jon-Paul: For sure, there was a lot of blank space. Where possible, we’ve tried to stick to Tolkien’s descriptions of Moria itself, but that only got us so far and eventually we had to commit to making some of our own decisions.

One of the biggest challenges was actually figuring out what happened next in the Fourth Age because there’s quite a bit of uncharted territory in that era of the canon. We had to think about things like: “What would the new threat be? Where did all of the orcs go after Mordor fell? How would the dwarves go about retaking Moria?”

And then, once we made those creative decisions, we had to ensure that they felt authentically Lord of the Rings. As if our contributions to the lore could have feasibly been written by Professor Tolkien himself.

Some of that was obviously about returning to his books, but we also went a little deeper with our research. A great deal of what Professor Tolkien wrote was inspired by poems that he had translated from Old English and Norse mythology. You know, the names of all the dwarves come from Elder Edda, for instance.

And so, we went back to [the very same well] and tried to use those stories as inspiration ourselves. The thinking was: “If they were good enough for Tolkien then maybe they will inspire us too.”

We’ve taken [cues] from Beowulf, other Nordic translations, and even weirder places. I mean, there’s one moment in the game — I don’t want to spoil it — where I got really stuck for ideas and I was listening to Led Zeppelin at the time. So many of their tracks were based on Middle Earth and their experiences with Tolkien, and they had this one lyric in a particular song that was exactly what I needed. Robert Plant cleared up my writer’s block!

Bloody Disgusting: Moving onto gameplay now: you’ve got all of the usual survival meters here — monitoring needs such as hunger and sleep levels — but we noticed that players will also have to manage the mines’ lighting. Is that just so that you’ve got clear visibility and can see what’s going on, or is there a horror angle to that?

Jon-Paul: Yeah, there’s a little more to it than just being able to see. If you stay in the darkness for too long in our game, then you put yourself at risk of falling into despair. Your morale will start dropping and before long you will even begin taking damage.

The best way to counteract this and to restore your morale is, of course, by drinking a pint of ale [Return to Moria’s substitute for potions].

Christopher Scholz: As in real life!

Jon-Paul: In terms of the light mechanics, we also have a day-night cycle that you need to keep on top of. Because, just like in the books, the orcs will become way more active after dark.

Bloody Disgusting: But how do you have a day-night cycle when you’re underground? Are there not places where it’s impossible to get natural light?

Jon-Paul: Well, we do have places like The Upper Hauls, which Gandalf describes in the books as having these great windows. That piece of lore gave us an opportunity to have areas where the day-night cycle is a lot more evident, and you can even use it to your advantage by luring trolls into the sunbeams that are pouring through the windows, turning them to stone!

Bloody Disgusting: That’s such a cool detail!

Jon-Paul: But there are also places deeper down where, as you pointed out, the sun can’t be glimpsed at all. The cycle is still in effect while you’re in those areas, but you kind of have to use your own internal clock. We did take a few [artistic liberties] too, by introducing bioluminescence, complicated light-shaft mechanisms and mushrooms that glow in the dark. Just to help you see your environs. We don’t want you to be stumbling around completely blind in pitch-black conditions.

Bloody Disgusting: I guess it’s about striking a balance between making it feel dark and intense, but also not going overboard. Do you want the game to be scary when you’re in the dark?

Jon-Paul: Exactly. We never intended for the game to be overtly scary, but we found that it ended up that way almost by accident.

Sure, when you’re playing in multiplayer the tone is a bit more light-hearted. I mean, you’re jumping around on tables, joking together and taking on enemy hordes in these big epic battles.

When you’re playing alone, however, there really is no one to keep you company in the mines. You could turn a dark corner and suddenly be faced with a bloodthirsty orc that catches you totally off guard. We didn’t build code specifically for those jump scares, but they do happen organically from time to time.

In fact, we’ve learned on the dev team that you should always check that you’ve closed the door to your base. Because if you don’t, the goblins will sneak in while you’re busy tinkering with your armour or whatever and give you a nasty jolt. It might not be Dead Space, but it’s enough to make you yelp out.

We also have a noise system that can be quite panic-inducing. So, the louder you are in combat or mining, the more you inadvertently draw attention to yourself.

In order for that heat to die down, you must return to your base. Should you push your luck or stay out too long, however, then you will end up triggering “the drums in the deep.” At this point the enemy will lock onto your location and start hunting you down, which can be a pretty stressful moment as well.

So, we didn’t intentionally script any horror scenarios or design the experience with that feeling in mind, but it kind of just happened anyway.

Bloody Disgusting: The idea of an accidental horror title is really interesting! You mentioned just then that the game has quite a different tone depending on whether you’re alone or with friends. Could you maybe expand upon that?

Jon-Paul: We always wanted Return to Moria to work for both solo and co-op players. We didn’t set out to design it in a way that meant those two experiences would be so vastly different from each other. Again, it was just sort of another happy accident!

You definitely feel safer when you are part of a larger party. I suppose it can be a little scary if you separate from the group in multiplayer, as there’s no leashing to speak of here, and you can easily get picked off. It’s kind of like Left 4 Dead.

But the real intensity comes in solo play. The spawn system doesn’t check if you’re playing with others and I once had this really frightening experience where I was digging a hole and ended up breaching through to the other side, only to be confronted with 15 orcs all [huddled] around a fire. We’ve got a dynamic kind of horror in that sense.

Bloody Disgusting: On a related note, what kind of cooperative actions are there in this game? How can people work together to alleviate those stresses you’ve mentioned?

Jon-Paul: One good example is that we have two different kinds of cookbooks here. There are rations, which you can quickly bake in the oven and take with you on your adventures, but then we also allow you to prepare [communal] meals over in your base. So, if you have a group of friends, then you can set the table and all enjoy a nice feast together.

Elsewhere, when you are digging for ore, it’s possible that inspiration might strike for your character. If it does, then you will have the option to begin singing while you work, which in turn gives you a stamina buff.

Christopher Scholz: Yeah, that mechanic really shines in multiplayer too, because one of the options you have when creating your character is how you want them to sound. We have 8 different voices to choose from and so, if you have several people mining together, they will automatically harmonize. They might even have call-and-response bits in the lyrics, like you’d get in a sea shanty.

Some of the songs are entirely in the Dwarven language, which is pretty neat to hear as well. In fact, when we presented them to the guys at Middle-earth Enterprises — with actual Opera singers performing for us — they got goosebumps. One of them even started welling up with tears because they found it so beautiful.

On the other hand, you can also sing when you’re drinking with friends. That will obviously be a bit slurred, and the harmonies won’t be working quite so well. For those recordings, we ended up asking the Opera guys to sing a little worse than usual, and to go against their professional instincts [laughs]!

But yeah, there are lots of fun things players can do in co-op.

Bloody Disgusting: Finally, we’ve seen giant rats, cave trolls and orcs in the gameplay today, but there is one notable absence from the bestiary as far as I can tell. It might be a bit of a cheeky question, but I’ve got to ask: Are we going to see a Balrog?

Jon-Paul: No, there’s not a Balrog. We actually had quite a bit of controversy about that internally.

From my point of view, the game being set in The Fourth Age meant that we had to tell a new story. There are plenty of Lord of the Rings games out there, and a good number of them already recount the events of Tolkien’s work, including that iconic encounter with The Balrog. This was our chance to do something different!

We felt that the Balrog was very much Gandalf’s obstacle to overcome, and that Tolkien wouldn’t have [rehashed] the idea. He certainly wouldn’t have done “Son of Balrog” or anything like that [Laughs].

But, yeah, it was a fierce debate within the team. We did go back and forth on whether we should just do the easy fan service thing. In the end, though, we decided to try and create something of our own that would be just as fearsome as a Balrog.

We know that a contingent of fans will be disappointed that there isn’t one here. It’s a double-edged sword when you’re trying to be authentic and I think, ultimately, as an independent team, we could afford to take that risk.

You know, we’re not on a big AAA budget and there’s a reason that we’re priced at $39.99 instead of $70. It allows us to make some bolder decisions like not having a Balrog. I think if we were a $100 million blockbuster there would definitely be an obligation to include it, because you’d have to appeal to as many people as possible to [recoup that investment]. We on the other hand have a little more freedom.

Developed by Free Range Games and Published by North Beach Games, The Lord of the Rings: Return to Moria will launch on the 24th of October for Windows PC via the Epic Game Store and on PlayStation 5. It will then later be released on Xbox Series X|S in 2024.

Opinionated, Verbose and Generally Pedantic. Loves Horror in all of its forms.

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The Girl Who Cried Monster was originally published in May 1993 (Spine #8) and the series adaptation aired on Saturday, November 11, 1995 (runtime: 22 minutes).

The ultimate escape from authority, responsibility and school, summer break is as precious to kids as any holiday, birthday or celebratory excursion combined. It’s a time of imagination and procrastination, a time for lounging in the sun, riding bikes with friends and endless hours spent in front of whatever screen one might deem fit to watch.

And in that time of freedom and fun, what could be more terrifying than a library?

The Girl Who Cried Monster is one of the Goosebumps series’ earliest entries and remains one of its simplest, concerning a monster obsessed girl and her run-in with a real life creature of darkness who also happens to be the town’s librarian. Combining the mundane annoyances of everyday kid life with the outlandish monstrosities that might lurk on the periphery of suburban normality, the book is an entertaining page-turner that roots its scares in the threat of a summer lost to study— and a flesh-starved, shape-changing beast.

The story was adapted for the screen almost immediately, being the first produced and fourth aired episode of the long running television series. As with many of the original installments, the adaptation adheres closely to the page, streamlining the book’s narrative while preserving dialogue and general story points. It’s one of the few episodes that truly captured the book on screen and helped to establish a precedent for viewers that would go on to be ignored far more often than it was ever adhered to.

With impressive creature effects and a stylish atmosphere, The Girl Who Cried Monster went on to make a visual impression that was as noteworthy as the book’s own reputation. A Goosebumps classic if there ever was one, it places the monster-kid so many young horror aficionados can identify with in the driver’s seat and despite summer schoolwork, aloof parents and a bratty little brother, shows what the macabre obsessed youngster is truly made of. After all, the book makes a good, if not somewhat contradictory, point: anyone forcing a kid to read during summer break has to be a monster, right?

The Story

Lucy is obsessed with monsters. She daydreams about them all the time. Her parents yell at her to stop tormenting her little brother Randy with monster stories, but she just can’t help herself. That is, until the day she encounters a real monster: the town librarian. Known for her tall tales and monstrous stories, no one believes Lucy’s terrifying accusations. And if she’s not careful, Lucy might become the victim of the kind of spooky yarn she tended to specialize in. A warning to those that might make the mistake of trying to take down a real monster.

The Girl Who Cried Monster was published in May of 1993, landing as the eighth title in the run. A simple story about a monster-infatuated, over-curious girl who stumbles upon the truth that her town librarian and leader of the summer reading program is, in fact, a monster himself. It concerns the isolation of mistrust and the common lack of support in young convictions, standing as a favorite in the franchise and one of R.L. Stine’s most memorable works.

The Adaptation

Aligned from the start, both the book and episode open with a voice over monologue from Lucy Dark. Her words profess a love of monsters and an obsession with torturing her little brother Randy with creature laden stories before going on to inform that when she met a real monster, no one believed her. On screen and on the page Lucy regales Randy with a tale about the Timberland Falls Toe Biter, a chameleonic creature that feeds on children’s toes. The show excises a scene that follows where Lucy manages to frighten her neighbor too, a boy named Aaron, with a tall tale about a monster in a tree. Either way, it is clear that Lucy will concoct monster stories for anyone willing to listen.

In both versions Lucy is ushered to the library for her Reading Rangers meeting, a summer reading program that she has been begrudgingly forced into. Aside from shifting the book she was supposed to have been reading from The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn to Black Beauty, her sit down with the librarian Mr. Mortman plays out similarly in the show. The episode places more emphasis on Lucy’s monster leanings, as she remarks she wished the horse in the book had two heads, but in either case she leaves the library with Frankenstein.

The book’s description of Mr. Mortman speaks of a beady eyed, short, bald and round man who is always wet, leaving wet fingerprints on pages and small puddles on his desk. The show mentions the wetness but fails to show it, also forgoing an aluminum pan of turtles that sits beside his desk on the page. In both versions, Lucy leaves the library before remembering that she had left her rollerblades there, causing her to double back.

In the book the library is a ramshackle old house that was donated to the town and revamped. It’s a small, cramped, creaky place that feels rundown and haunted. In the show the library is a towering building, more akin to a city library, filled with darkness and empty space along with towering shelves of books. Once inside and facing the monster however, both provide an eerie vibe that feels all at once vast and still somehow isolating.

In both versions she discovers Mr. Mortman’s true form. In the book, Mortman hums to himself as he unscrews a jar of flies and transforms. His face is described as blowing up like a balloon while his bulbous black eyes bulge and extend away from his head on meaty antennae. Onscreen the eyes bulge out similarly in stop-motion animation and the creature cackles as it feasts on crickets instead of flies.

The middle portion of the book extends the back and forth between Lucy and Mr. Mortman. She heads home and attempts to tell her parents what happened but they ignore her, playfully debating how big the meatballs should be for supper instead. The following week Lucy stays after Reading Rangers and hides in the library, shutting the door loudly to make it sound as though she had left. Lucy witnesses the man change again, wincing as Mortman crunches on his small turtles. Lucy manages to escape with Mortman in pursuit, hurrying away before the monster has a chance to identify her.

The same series of events occur in the show. While small details alter from page to screen, like turtles being exchanged for tarantulas, the biggest change comes with Mr. Mortman’s realization of who it is he’s chasing after. “Lucy… I know you’re in there…” he whispers, creating a fairly disturbing chase sequence that is absent from the page. What gives her away is the flash from a small camera she had brought with her in an effort to obtain proof, something that occurs later in the book. He corners her in the stacks but she escapes, running home and calling Aaron to recount everything she had seen.

In the book, Mr. Mortman shows up promptly at Lucy’s front door immediately following her flight from the library. He’s there to return her backpack. He asks if Lucy had stayed late, admitting his belief that someone had hid in the library to play a prank on him, but she assures him of her innocence in the matter and he leaves.

Lucy decides that she needs physical, photographic evidence if she’s ever going to convince others of Mr. Mortman’s true identity. Despite having a more contentious relationship in the book than they seem to have on the screen, Lucy calls Aaron and offers him payment if he agrees to accompany her on her mission. Still, he gets tied up with an orthodontist appointment and bails out, sending Lucy to the library on her own the next day with her camera in hand.

Like the show, the flash from her camera gives away her presence in the closed library and a chase ensues. Unlike the show, Lucy escapes with the camera and without being identified by Mr. Mortman. She convinces her parents to take the family out to eat at the mall so that she can get the photo developed right away only to discover that the picture depicted no one at all. Mr. Mortman’s empty desk and chair was all that stared back at her from the small image. Lucy’s parents shift from angry to worried as Lucy’s mania intensifies.

Onscreen, Mr. Mortman also shows up at Lucy’s door with her abandoned backpack. However, this Mr. Mortman knows exactly who was in the library and although he doesn’t make any nasty moves, he does threaten her subtly with talk of their “next little chat.” Lucy convinces her parents to get the photos developed immediately following this scene, leading to the realization that the monster cannot be photographed. Mr. Mortman bumps into Lucy outside of the photo shop in the show, condensing several other encounters that appear on the page.

Lucy’s parents invite Mr. Mortman to dinner to thank him for the summer reading program as well as his kindness in returning Lucy’s backpack. Lucy is mortified, brandishing the empty photograph and exclaiming that Mortman’s absence from the image is proof that the man is not human. Still, her cries fall on deaf ears.

The book allows for several more Mr. Mortman interactions as Lucy enlists Aaron to help her follow Mr. Mortman to his home in an effort to obtain proof of his monstrousness once and for all. Standing on an upturned wheelbarrow to peer into his living room window, Lucy watches as he transforms before a large tank and starts dining on snails and exotic fish. Before she can show Aaron, the wheelbarrow topples and she falls, causing Mr. Mortman to finally spy Lucy in his full monster regalia.

He transforms back and shares a brief exchange with Lucy, but it’s clear each now knows the other’s secret. At their next Reading Rangers meeting, Mr. Mortman locks her in the library and transforms, attacking Lucy. She only escapes by throwing the card catalogue into chaos giving Mr. Mortman pause, the librarian overtaking the monster in a desperate need to keep the system in order. Hiding in the library as Lucy did before, Aaron witnesses the whole exchange. With Aaron’s testimony in tow, Lucy once again confronts her parents about the terrible truth regarding the town librarian. Their response: invite Mr. Mortman to dinner.

Simplifying this and condensing the sheer amount of times Lucy hides in the library to see Mr. Mortman’s monstrous transformation, the episode moves right from the scene at the one hour photo place to dinner. At this point, the book and the show again sync up.

Mr. Mortman enters the Dark family’s home and is cordial and polite. He eyes Lucy knowingly and makes several underhanded remarks before inquiring about the night’s menu. In response to the question of what is being served, Lucy’s father replies simply, “you are.” It’s then that Lucy’s parents sprout sharp fangs, a mouthful of them in the episode, and close in on Mr. Mortman. Onscreen, the Dark parents become lizard people, scaly and green, something not described in the book.

Both the book and the show conclude in the same way. The Darks devour Mr. Mortman, explaining to their delighted children that no monster had come to their town in over twenty years which is why Lucy’s parents found her claims so unbelievable. It was too dangerous to have another monster scaring the townsfolk, so the Darks had to take care of the problem. The show concludes with Aaron showing up in a monster mask and nearly being eaten by the Darks, while the book finishes with fledgling monsters Lucy and Randy again being scolded for telling monster stories before bed.

In both cases the status quo is restored, summer is back on track and the suburbs are safe from monsters once more. Well, in a manner of speaking.

Final Thoughts

The Girl Who Cried Monster is lean and mean, a concise and controlled story about one girl’s fascination with monsters, both real and imagined. Not only an appeal to every kid that’s ever loved the weird and the strange, but a branch to those that have an imagination and a drive to convince others to come along for the ride.

On the page, the story is one of R.L. Stine’s classics. Accompanied by Tim Jacobus’ art of a maniacal man hungrily clutching a fly as a terrified girl watches silently from a red-lit doorway, its simplicity and ever building sense of tension allows it to stand out amongst the stacks and stacks of books that bear the Goosebumps name. On the screen, the story is streamlined even further, narrowing the events down to only a few choice encounters with the bulging eyed beast and ensuring that every moment Lucy and Mr. Mortman share the screen is infused with danger.

Still, it’s the creature effects on display for Mr. Mortman’s transformation that truly make this an episode worth celebrating. It’s a monster that feels slimy and alive, dangerous and hungry, and serves to further enhance the legacy of the page by providing a disgusting face to the repugnant description. The episode may not have been able to contain the various twists and turns that Stine charted for his ravenous readers, but the effectiveness of the creature work more than makes up for any literary extractions.

While it may seem contradictory to advocate against a summer reading program in a book designed for kids to read, it’s that kind of self-awareness that has always made Goosebumps the perfect foil for any youngster Hellbent on avoiding their scholarly duties. It’s a series that understands, embraces and exaggerates the power of imagination and uses the very logic of the anti-reading, summer-bound adolescent to prove why a book can be an incredibly entertaining way to pass the school-free months.

After all, if there were monsters in there, what kid wouldn’t want to go to a library?