Tales of the Shire Review: Why This LOTR Life Sim Misses the Mark
If you were hoping for a cozy, charming life sim set in the Shire, Tales of the Shire: A The Lord of The Rings Game might leave you a bit underwhelmed. Developed by Weta Workshop and published by Private Division, this game promised a delightful mix of Hobbit life and village-building but struggles to capture the magic of Tolkien’s world or the addictive charm of classics like Animal Crossing or Stardew Valley.
- Explore the Shire as a Hobbit in Bywater
- Customize your Hobbit and decorate your home
- Complete quests, cook meals, farm, fish, and befriend locals
- Disappointing visuals and shallow gameplay loop
- Lack of meaningful character interactions and limited customization
Hobbit Life in Bywater: The Premise
The game puts you in the shoes (or hairy feet) of a Hobbit who has moved from Bree to Bywater, a small settlement in the Shire. Your goal is to make Bywater a proper village by completing quests called Tales, which mainly involve building relationships with locals, cooking meals, and improving the area. You start by creating your Hobbit, but the character creator is quite limited, with only a decent range of skin tones standing out.
Unfortunately, the charming, quirky look we expect from Hobbits is missing here. Instead, they come off as creepy, resembling a mix of ‘80s troll dolls rather than lovable Middle-earth residents. The environments don’t help either, feeling more like a bland, pixelated MMO than the lush, inviting Shire.
Gameplay: Cooking, Farming, and Fetch Quests
Tales of the Shire delivers the usual cozy life sim activities: cooking with foraged or farmed ingredients, fishing, farming, and chatting with NPCs. But the gameplay is pretty shallow. Farming and fishing lack variety or upgrades, and weather effects are minimal. NPCs, including an early appearance by Gandalf, are mostly forgettable and don’t offer much in terms of engaging dialogue or romance options.
The quests can be frustrating, often consisting of repetitive fetch tasks with little humor or charm to break the monotony. For example, one quest has you repeatedly running between two NPCs, which is less amusing in practice and more annoying. The game also doesn’t allow much freedom — when you forage ingredients before a tutorial, the dialogue forces you to lie about where you got them.
Some mechanics lack clarity, like equipping tools or understanding the fishing minigame controls, which aren’t properly explained in the help section. This leads to a lot of guesswork and trial-and-error, which can be off-putting for players looking for a smooth, relaxing experience.
Decorating: The Bright Spot
On the positive side, decorating your Hobbit hole is where the game shines a bit. You can customize walls, floors, and ceilings, and place furniture and decorations almost anywhere without being forced into a grid. Objects can be rotated freely, giving you more creative control than in many life sims. However, the selection of decor items is limited, and there aren’t multiple color options, which dampens the potential fun.
Final Thoughts: A Missed Opportunity
Tales of the Shire feels like an unpolished attempt to blend the beloved world of The Lord of the Rings with the relaxing gameplay of farming and life sims. It neither captures the warmth and whimsy of the Shire nor offers the depth and variety that fans of the genre expect. The drab visuals, one-dimensional characters, and repetitive quests make it hard to recommend, especially when the promise was a Stardew Valley-like experience in Middle-earth.
If you’re a Lord of the Rings fan hoping for a cozy adventure or a life sim player looking for a fresh world to explore, you might want to look elsewhere.
