izigame.me

I've played this game since its launch on Epic a year ago (it released as an Epic exclusive). Epic says I have 648 hours played on the game at the time of this review. Feel free to verify it, my tag is FireManeDavy.
The developers of this game are a tiny team, but, they are nerds for Lord of the Rings and that love shows throughout the game in its lore, plus its attention to detail. When this game launched, it needed some TLC. It has gotten that in the form of a handful of massive updates that add new content and fix tons of issues. I love Dwarves, I love LOTR, and I love survival craft so I love this game a lot.
A year ago this was priced at $40 on Epic, I'd say I've gotten tons of value out of that $40 and now it's a steal for its new regular price of $20 or $25. The developers are really receptive to feedback and always help out in their discord. They deserve all of the good fame they get from this game IMO.
Edit:
I have adjusted some information in my original review. I am going to go more into depth with my review of the game and review the aspects for which I love it.
COMBAT:
This one is a huge one that seems to irk a lot of people. It can feel hack and slashy at times. But, you can change the difficulty settings to tune combat to how you'd like. In a world, scroll over to settings and difficult. You can change things such as:
1) Aggressiveness of enemies (how frequently enemies attack and how many attack you all at once).
2) Combat difficulty (how much health enemies have and how much damage they deal)
3) Patrol Frequency, Siege Frequency, and Horde Frequency (these settings change how often patrols and sieges on your base happen. For hordes, it affects how much noise you make and how frequently hordes can ambush you when it happens).
There is a new item called Abakhs which are basically just temporary buffs to give yourself as well which you can find in barrels, crates, or chests found around Moria. Some such as the Power Abakh give you a boost to attack damage which can help you if you prefer to fight your foes, like me. You also have Cleansing Abakhs to get rid of poison, and a Resolve Abakh to get rid of despair and shadow. There are 8 different kinds.
There are also a couple of other difficulty settings to adjust now as well such as mining drops and drops from enemies. Fine-tune combat the way you'd like it. I do think the telegraphing of enemy attacks could be better, but, the game stands to get better over time.
BUILDING:
This is not as robust as other survival craft games like Valheim. You have a grid system to place your pieces on and currently, you can only rotate the pieces 90 degrees. The building in this game shines in the late game, which is unfortunate because I feel like a lot of people base the building on the early game, where you do not unlock much in the way of building options other than function. There are tons of building accents to build, pieces that can be phased into each other, golden floors, golden walls, Dwarven banners, rugs, and furniture! There are also monuments of the various Durins to build. The only downside IMO is that you have to build some things within the radius of a hearth, not unlike Valheim where you have to build within the radius of a workbench.
Building is one of my favorite things to do in games like this, I like building my own buildings and tearing down the RNG ones. Though, sometimes, the RNG ones are pretty nice and, if they're intact enough, I will repair it use it. Indeed, you do not have to build a base if you use an RNG building, but, it's more fun for me to tear things down, clean up an area, and then build my imagination of things. I love how everything looks when I have crystal lamps everywhere in various colors.
Feel free to check out some of the cool builds we made before the update on the discord in the challenge #3 thread. One of my submissions is on there as well.
STORY (SPOILERS)
The story is simple. You are a company of dwarves led by a descendant of Thorin and Gimli himself who cannot get into Khazad-Dum. You accidentally find yourself in Khazad-Dum and must survive with the help of a loyal friend and raven of Erebor, Aric, son of Arac. Throughout the game, your character(s) will have dialogue on various things you see in Moria. With plenty of lore to find and read, including lore surrounding Balin's attempt to reclaim Moria. You encounter a dragon which uses dark magic to cast cursed runs and shadow all over Moria, preventing the dwarves from entering outside. After slaughtering a massive Troll King, and with the help of Thorinn, you learn an ancestral recipe to slay the dragon.
The final fight is pretty typical. 2 Phases. 1st Phase a large arena with dialogue fitting of a Peter Jackson film of how the dragon's own horde is not gold, but, the bones of fallen dwarves. You go on to the second phase to kill the dragon. It ends with you walking out of Khazad-Dum and you being crowned as the new Lord of Moria. Not before a 1-on-1 talk with the Gimli himself.
SANDBOX VS. CAMPAIGN
What's the difference? For beginners, I recommend campaign mode. Think of campaign mode as a ride on a roller coaster. It is scripted and there is linear progression and certain areas that you progress through. The way you learn recipes is different as well. You will typically progress to new areas, rebuild statues to learn recipes, get new materials or gems that unlock other recipes such as upgrades to workstations, and then build those to level yourself with enemies. Or you can use Abakhs to level the playing field as well while you explore. There is a clear beginning, middle, and end to the game and your progression. Seeds can still vary, such as the rooms that make up those areas.
In Sandbox, the equation is flipped a bit. There is still a "story" to beat the dragon. But, it is not linear at all nor scripted. There are 4 levels (floors up) and 4 deeps (floors down) that are their own miniature maps. Room generation is different and even room types are different as well. There are different weapons and armor that you wouldn't find in the campaign. But, like Valheim, you can bring your character between worlds and so long as they have things in their inventory they'd bring that with them. Everything is "scrambled" so to speak, the second you leave the "beginning area" where you find yourself in Moria and hop the wall it is randomly generated.
Pros and Cons of Sandbox?
Pros are: there tend to be way more resources to gather overall in the sandbox. Sandbox feels more like a traditional survival craft experience with unexpected areas at every turn. Every new area feels cool to explore (and that is true even in the campaign).
Cons are: that the map is 2D atm. You have to get creative with waypoints when there are multiple floors within a "level" or "deep" that technically do not breach the height for the next floor. It does get a bit confusing too. But, it's not completely unmanageable with the filters in the map pane.
MISCELLANEOUS THINGS I LIKE:
SINGING:
Singing for almost everything. I love the mining songs and the drinking songs. They give buffs too which is really cool. Singing to the monuments of Durin about his founding of Khazad-Dum honestly never gets old.
QOL:
Tons of QOL since this game launched. Ambient music while exploring and music when you're next to a hearth. It doesn't play constantly which is a good mix of their original intention of you hearing the vast emptiness of Moria, but, with periods of nice music too!
Additional chests for increased storage space - and they look cool! Increased pallet sizes too are nice. Depositing similar items and sorting inventory is also a lifesaver. Scooping up tons of items on the ground by pressing and holding the pickup button was SO necessary (we remember the days of picking up everything 1 by 1).
More voice lines! There's new voice lines after you finish a song. It's a small change, but, I enjoy it.
Out of space. 10/10!