The first time I watched Lord of the Rings, I wished nothing greater than to be a stunning, willowy, and effortlessly cool elf who was, as practically all eight year-old ladies desired, married to Orlando Bloom’s Legolas. In my late teenagers, I grew content material with remaining human as long as I received the possibility to swoon over Aragon. However now, on the clever age of almost-31, I do know the reality: The biggest being that you could possibly ever hope to be in Center-earth is a hobbit. Thankfully, Tales of the Shire permits you to just do that.
Wētā Workshop’s Tales of Shire is a comfortable life-simulation sport that revolves round Tolkien’s coziest creatures, hobbits. Contemplating the high-demand for healthful titles and the enduring love for the Lord of the Rings collection, I at all times felt it was merely a matter of time till a sport celebrating these jovial and endlessly hungry creatures was developed. In spite of everything, what do hobbits do however are inclined to their land, drink, dance, be merry, and, often, set off on an epic quest to avoid wasting the world? I just lately had the possibility to do every one of these issues whereas taking part in a two hour preview construct of Tales of the Shire, however sadly, I did not stroll away from the expertise as content material as a Gamgee comfortable of their hobbit-hole. Whereas Tales of the Shire is charming and has some good fundamentals, Wētā Workshop might want to embark on a journey crammed with a number of quality-of-life enhancements and some main overhauls if it desires to make this sport one thing particular.
The preview follows your created character leaving their hometown of Bree to start out a lifetime of their very own in certainly one of The Shire’s quaintest villages, Bywater. If you get there, nonetheless, your first collection of quests entails proving that Bywater truly is a village, as an area curmudgeon implies the village is extra “Backwater” than Bywater.
This storyline serves as a form of tutorial for the sport, because it introduces you to a few of your neighbors and the sport’s core options: fishing, cooking, gardening, foraging, and nurturing relationships. Many of those options actually labored for me. The sport’s fishing mechanic, whereas not novel, is a enjoyable, tension-based mini-game that avoids being annoying or grueling. Regardless of not being somebody particularly keen on in-game cooking or crafting–generally I do these issues out of necessity–I truly discovered myself eager to spend a major period of time in my kitchen. Somewhat than simply hitting just a few buttons to make a meal, you’re inspired to cut and cook dinner your elements to create a extra textured dish.
This ties in with gardening and foraging, as high-quality elements, spices, and herbs assist elevate the meal’s total taste. I adored mindlessly wandering by way of the woods, choosing up hops, puffball mushrooms, and currants. One other system I actually loved in Tales of the Shire is Companion Crops, which supplies sure crops bonuses if they’re grown subsequent to a crop it will get together with. Conversely, there are some crops that needs to be saved in numerous beds, lest their high quality decline. After harvesting, accumulating, and fishing up elements, it was simple to throw ’em all into my huge pantry which you could seamlessly pull from whereas cooking. In brief, the extra “free-form” components of Tales of the Shire work collectively splendidly.
Nevertheless, the “nurturing relationships” facet is a distinct story. Although one of many methods you possibly can enhance your relationships–inviting your neighbors over for a cocktail party that can satiate their cravings–is enjoyable, that’s sadly in regards to the extent of what I loved. Whereas I appreciated the sport’s writing total, lots of the city’s villagers felt same-y to me, every providing the identical cheeky banter and, extra gratingly, irritating fetch quests. A lot of my time within the village was spent going forwards and backwards between a choose few hobbits, with a very egregious quest seeing me going forwards and backwards between the identical two hobbits upwards of 4 occasions.
And whereas the general atmosphere is beautiful and evocative of The Shire we all know and love–quaint, comforting, and verdant–I discovered myself constantly irked by the sport’s quirks. Bywater is crammed with hobbits, a transparent effort to make the city really feel lived-in that I perceive fully. However it shortly grew irritating once I was making an attempt to stroll round and meet my neighbors and nearly each hobbit I ran into was an NPC whom I couldn’t work together with. Regardless of being crammed with folks, it started to really feel a bit scarce.
In lieu of a conventional mini-map, compass, or another type of “breadcrumb path” to observe, Tales of the Shire chooses to immerse gamers by having them observe blue birds that can perch themselves atop fence posts and indicators once in a while. Whereas cute in principle, it will typically get a bit irritating once I was going quicker than the birds would seem, or once I was traversing by way of a denser area–such because the city sq. or woods–and would merely lose observe of them. Contemplating Bywater is so deeply embedded in nature and crammed with small bridges, winding roads, and solely a pair handfuls of NPCs you possibly can work together with, scattered in regards to the map, not with the ability to absolutely depend on the birds was irritating. Regardless of the sport clearly not wanting you to be always pulling up your map and shedding that sense of whimsical journey, I felt like I needed to. And these are simply a few my gripes.
Between the fetch quests, my rising frustrations with sure options, and the shortage of compelling characters or plot factors, I ultimately discovered myself not notably fascinated by leaving my little hobbit-hole. Nevertheless, not like a sport like Stardew Valley during which being pretty reclusive and specializing in creating your individual little slice of paradise is viable, Tales of the Shire appears reliant upon you interacting together with your neighbors. Partly since you’d be exhausting pressed to truly fill your whole day doing all of the actually enjoyable issues, even if you happen to do resolve to spend a piece of time giving your property a enjoyable little makeover.
This then relegates you to doing quests that aren’t notably unengaging for neighbors who aren’t notably participating. It’s additionally price stating that, at the very least within the preview, there was no calendar crammed with birthdays, festivals, or every other occasions. This gave me pause, as with out one thing to interrupt up the mundane features of the sport, I’m not certain that I might be compelled to maintain taking part in. Finally, that’s the greatest concern with Tales of the Shire proper now: Even a life sim sicko like me (do not ask what number of hours I’ve put into Moonstone Island and Fields of Mistria this yr) does not really feel pulled in by this sport. Although it has some nice options, pretty music, an artwork type that, whereas a bit clunky, feels suiting and provides quite a lot of appeal, and an unbelievable IP behind it, the entire bundle supplied does not fairly work. Thankfully, the sport was delayed out of 2024 and can as a substitute be launched in early 2025, hopefully giving the staff a little bit of time to shine the sport into one thing Gollum would covet.