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 almost 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 prospect to swoon over Aragon. However now, on the smart 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. Fortuitously, Tales of the Shire enables you to do exactly that.
Wētā Workshop’s Tales of Shire is a comfortable life-simulation recreation 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 all the time felt it was merely a matter of time till a recreation 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 not too long ago had the prospect to do each one 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 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 recreation 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 collection of quests includes proving that Bywater truly is a village, as a neighborhood curmudgeon implies the village is extra “Backwater” than Bywater.
This storyline serves as a type 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 desirous to spend a major period of time in my kitchen. Relatively than simply hitting just a few buttons to make a meal, you might be 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 total taste. I adored mindlessly wandering by means of the woods, selecting 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 stored in several beds, lest their high quality decline. After harvesting, amassing, and fishing up components, it was straightforward to throw ’em all into my large pantry you could seamlessly pull from whereas cooking. Briefly, the extra “free-form” parts of Tales of the Shire work collectively splendidly.
Nevertheless, the “nurturing relationships” side is a distinct story. Although one of many methods you possibly can 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 appreciated the sport’s writing total, most 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 backwards and forwards between a choose few hobbits, with a very egregious quest seeing me going backwards and forwards between the identical two hobbits upwards of 4 occasions.
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 utterly. 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 may perch themselves atop fence posts and indicators sometimes. Whereas cute in principle, it might typically get a bit irritating once I was going sooner than the birds would seem, or once I was traversing by means 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 concerning the map, not with the ability to absolutely depend on the birds was irritating. Regardless of the sport clearly not wanting you to be consistently pulling up your map and dropping 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 significantly desirous about leaving my little hobbit-hole. Nevertheless, not like a recreation like Stardew Valley wherein 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 arduous pressed to truly fill your complete day doing all of the really enjoyable issues, even for those who do determine to spend a bit of time giving your private home a enjoyable little makeover.
This then relegates you to doing quests that aren’t significantly unengaging for neighbors who aren’t significantly participating. It is also value declaring that, no less than 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 enjoying. In the end, that’s the greatest problem 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 recreation. Although it has some nice options, beautiful music, an artwork fashion that, whereas a bit clunky, feels suiting and provides quite a lot of attraction, and an unbelievable IP behind it, the entire bundle provided does not fairly work. Fortuitously, the sport was delayed out of 2024 and can as an alternative be launched in early 2025, hopefully giving the group a little bit of time to shine the sport into one thing Gollum would covet.
