Lord of the Rings is slowly coming back to the mainstream, but fans are wondering if the latest game, Return to Moria, has dedicated servers for online players.
Gollum may not have received the best reviews when it launched, but Lord of the Rings fans have a better game with The Lord of the Rings: Return to Moria.
The story takes you to the time after the events of Lord of the Rings. It follows Gimli as he tries to reclaim Moria from the goblins. The survival/crafting game will have players taking control of dwarves who will mine for resources. Their goal is to rebuild the Dwarven City of Dwarrowdelf. They must also be equipped to take on any goblins’ nests they manage to waken.
The game allows for multiplayer co-op among friends, but some ask, “Does Return to Moria have Dedicated Servers?”
What Are Dedicated Servers?
Dedicated Servers allow players to create private spaces in-game where they can craft the world as they see fit.
Open-world crafting games like Minecraft and Valheim, where players spend hours building their unique worlds, come with dedicated servers. These allow players to restrict access to who can come in and meddle with the worlds they’ve created.
At this point, some say that for any modern open-world crafting game, a dedicated server is necessary for players to continue enjoying games to their fullest without worrying about their hard work getting unexpectedly meddled with when they’re not logged into the game.
Does Return to Moria have Dedicated Servers?
Though Return to Moria does allow for co-op multiplayer, it has been reported that the game has no dedicated servers as of now. While players can share a space and rebuild Moria together, they must log out when the host logs out.
Players’ characters will still be saved outside of the game, but the game world information that they shared will only exist in the admin profile’s account.
Ideally, with a dedicated server, players can just save their version of Moria in their own space. This would allow them to log in and out of it. Still, since there isn’t a DS for Return to Moria, they must settle with peer-to-peer connections. This could be a pain, depending on how constantly online the game host will be.
What’s in Store for the Future
Though Return to Moria doesn’t have a dedicated server yet, there are plans to add them to the game.
In a recent post-launch interview for Return to Moria, game director Jon-Paul Dumont was asked about dedicated servers in the game. He replied, “Support for shared worlds is on our roadmap for next year.”
Dumont didn’t go into much detail about the dedicated servers, but the general idea is that players can save their versions of Moria and share them with other players. Other features teased for the game include an Xbox version of Return to Moria and players being able to cross-play across platforms.
So far, early reviews for the game have not been exactly sparkling. However, they haven’t been as dismal as the reception for LOTR: Gollum when it launched earlier this year.
At the time of writing, Lord of the Rings: Return to Moria is available for PC. PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S versions of the game are expected to launch on Dec. 5.
