The primary time I watched Lord of the Rings, I wished nothing greater than to be a stunning, willowy, and effortlessly cool elf who was, as almost 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 acquired 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 could possibly ever hope to be in Center-earth is a hobbit. Fortuitously, Tales of the Shire helps 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 any case, what do hobbits do however are likely to their land, drink, dance, be merry, and, sometimes, set off on an epic quest to avoid wasting the world? I lately had the prospect to do most 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 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 begin a lifetime of their very own in certainly one of The Shire’s quaintest villages, Bywater. Once you get there, nonetheless, your first sequence of quests includes proving that Bywater truly 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 truly discovered myself eager to spend a major period of time in my kitchen. Slightly than simply hitting a number of buttons to make a meal, you might be 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 general taste. I adored mindlessly wandering by 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, gathering, and fishing up elements, it was straightforward to throw ’em all into my huge pantry that you would be able to seamlessly pull from whereas cooking. Briefly, the extra “free-form” parts of Tales of the Shire work collectively splendidly.
Nonetheless, the “nurturing relationships” facet is a unique 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 concerning the extent of what I loved. Whereas I favored 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 occasions.
And whereas the general setting 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. Nevertheless it rapidly grew irritating once I was attempting 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 occasionally. Whereas cute in concept, it will typically get a bit irritating once I was going quicker than the birds would seem, or once I was traversing by 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 having the ability to totally 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 significantly enthusiastic about leaving my little hobbit-hole. Nonetheless, in contrast to a sport 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 along with your neighbors. Partly since you’d be laborious pressed to truly fill your whole day doing all of the really enjoyable issues, even in the event you do resolve to spend a piece of time giving your own home a enjoyable little makeover.
This then relegates you to doing quests that aren’t significantly unengaging for neighbors who are usually not significantly partaking. It is also value declaring that, not less than within the preview, there was no calendar crammed with birthdays, festivals, or another occasions. This gave me pause, as with out one thing to interrupt up the mundane elements of the sport, I’m not certain that I might be compelled to maintain taking part in. 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) would not really feel pulled in by this sport. Although it has some nice options, pretty music, an artwork fashion that, whereas a bit clunky, feels suiting and provides quite a lot of attraction, and an unimaginable IP behind it, the entire bundle supplied would 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.