The primary time I watched Lord of the Rings, I needed nothing greater than to be a stunning, willowy, and effortlessly cool elf who was, as practically all eight year-old women desired, married to Orlando Bloom’s Legolas. In my late teenagers, I grew content material with remaining human as long as I obtained the possibility to swoon over Aragon. However now, on the sensible age of almost-31, I do know the reality: The best being that you might ever hope to be in Center-earth is a hobbit. Happily, Tales of the Shire allows you to just do that.
Wētā Workshop’s Tales of Shire is a comfy 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 sequence, 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 most of these issues whereas enjoying 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 cosy 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 needs 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 one in all The Shire’s quaintest villages, Bywater. If you get there, nonetheless, your first sequence of quests includes proving that Bywater really is a village, as an area curmudgeon implies the village is extra “Backwater” than Bywater.
This storyline serves as a kind 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 really discovered myself eager to spend a big period of time in my kitchen. Fairly than simply hitting just a few buttons to make a meal, you’re inspired to cut and prepare dinner your components to create a extra textured dish.
This ties in with gardening and foraging, as high-quality components, spices, and herbs assist elevate the meal’s general 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 provides 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 stored in several beds, lest their high quality decline. After harvesting, amassing, and fishing up components, it was simple to throw ’em all into my large pantry that you would be able to seamlessly pull from whereas cooking. In brief, the extra “free-form” parts of Tales of the Shire work collectively splendidly.
Nonetheless, the “nurturing relationships” side is a special story. Although one of many methods you may enhance your relationships–inviting your neighbors over for a cocktail party that may satiate their cravings–is enjoyable, that’s sadly concerning the extent of what I loved. Whereas I preferred the sport’s writing general, 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 instances.
And whereas the general surroundings is gorgeous 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. But it surely rapidly grew irritating after 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 individuals, it started to really feel a bit scarce.
In lieu of a standard mini-map, compass, or another type of “breadcrumb path” to comply with, Tales of the Shire chooses to immerse gamers by having them comply with blue birds that may perch themselves atop fence posts and indicators from time to time. Whereas cute in idea, it will usually get a bit irritating after I was going sooner than the birds would seem, or after 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 may work together with, scattered concerning the map, not with the ability to totally depend on the birds was irritating. Regardless of the sport clearly not wanting you to be continuously 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 finally discovered myself not significantly enthusiastic about leaving my little hobbit-hole. Nonetheless, 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 along with your neighbors. Partly since you’d be laborious pressed to truly fill your complete day doing all of the really enjoyable issues, even for those who do resolve to spend a piece of time giving your house a enjoyable little makeover.
This then relegates you to doing quests that aren’t significantly unengaging for neighbors who usually are not significantly participating. It is also value stating that, at the least within the preview, there was no calendar crammed with birthdays, festivals, or some other occasions. This gave me pause, as with out one thing to interrupt up the mundane facets of the sport, I’m not positive that I might be compelled to maintain enjoying. In the end, that’s the largest 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 12 months) would not really feel pulled in by this sport. Although it has some nice options, beautiful music, an artwork fashion that, whereas a bit clunky, feels suiting and provides quite a lot of allure, and an unbelievable IP behind it, the entire bundle provided would not fairly work. Happily, the sport was delayed out of 2024 and can as a substitute be launched in early 2025, hopefully giving the crew a little bit of time to shine the sport into one thing Gollum would covet.
