There’s no denying that the Tales of the Shire launch has been a hot topic in the community these past few days. For me, this has been a game that’s interested me since the first reveal and one that I’ve been looking forward to playing.
I wouldn’t describe myself as a huge Lord of the Rings fan but having read the initial Trilogy of books and the Hobbit as well as seeing the movies, multiple times, I think I have a good basic knowledge of the Lord of the Rings universe. Regardless, I don’t feel you need to know much about Lord of the Rings to fully understand or play Tales of the Shire.
Now that the game is out, I wanted to take the time to share some of my initial thoughts and opinions based on what I have played so far. This is not a full review or a deep dive into the game, but more of a reflection, I guess you could say.
A Quick Recap
If you don’t know what Tales of the Shire is all about, let me give you a quick run down.
Tales of the Shire: A Lord of the Rings Game is a recently released cosy life simulation game set in the Lord of the Rings universe. The game created by the team behind the movies, Weta Workshop, has teamed up with publishers, Private Division to bring gamers a stress-free and wholesome Hobbit experience.
Customise your Hobbit Hole with a variety of building options to truly make it the dream Hobbit Home. Discover hidden Lord of the Rings Easter Eggs scattered throughout the game. Get to know the local Hobbits. Explore Bywater and remember, cooking and sharing meals will play a part in your day-to-day life in Bywater. Be it gardening, fishing or foraging, you’ll easily be able to fill your Hobbit’s pantry with only the best ingredients!
You’ll also be able to trade, build your skills, complete club missions, shape your Hobbit attire and more in this unique cosy Hobbit experience!
Initial Community Response
Shortly before the game launched worldwide, the Press and Creator embargo lifted and started to give the community an insight into the full game. Truthfully, it was an incredibly mixed reception, with many citing the low-score IGN review for these feelings. Naturally, this was met with even more mixed feelings from the community but in a more cautious way.
It’s also probably important to note, a detailed article from The Verge that goes into some behind the scenes’ information about Weta Workshop. It provides another perspective and shares some potential contributing factors to the bigger picture of making the game.
However, this post isn’t to dwell on that but is, more so, something to keep in mind regarding Tales of the Shire as a whole.
Oh, This Isn’t Looking Good, Is It?
After reading the posts on social media, seeing a variety of first look and review videos and written reviews about Tales of the Shire, I will admit I was now feeling unsure myself. However, this is a game that I’ve been looking forward to since it’s reveal last year, through the delays and up until launch day. I took the information I had read and watched with a pinch of salt, knowing that my own experience could be similar to those described but could be completely different. Either way, regardless of what lay ahead, I appreciated the insights but didn’t let it sway my overall thoughts and went ahead and grabbed the game.
Originally I was planning on picking up a physical Nintendo Switch version of Tales of the Shire, however, my local store for picking up games hadn’t been able to source any stock for unknown reasons, so Steam it was. This would also allow me to give the game a go on my Steam Deck too.
I’m going on an Adventure!
With a new adventure awaiting me, it was time to dive into the Hobbit side of life and experience Tales of The Shire for the very first time. As I mentioned at the start of this post, this is by no means any kind of review or anything like that. It’s more of an early reflection on the time I’ve spent with the game so far.
So without further ado, here’s my reflection of my Tales of the Shire journey so far.
Firstly, and most importantly, I needed to create my Hobbit!
Character creation was easy to use, with a variety of different options to customise and bring your Hobbit character to life. You have a handful of starting options when it comes to your Hobbit’s attire, but enough to get started with.
Naming your Hobbit can be done one of two ways. Either by choosing your own name or one from the pre-selected list. I chose to go with a pre-selected name for my Hobbit, although I did find when scrolling through the name lists using a mouse and keyboard set up it did feel a little sluggish at times. However, it’s not anything major, as it’s only a feature you use briefly in the game.
Now was the real adventure, Gandalf had dropped me off in Bywater, and it was now time to get an idea of the new village.
The first couple of hours of playing Tales of the Shire was spent getting used to a variety of features including cooking, fishing, foraging and gardening as well as meeting the locals. I’ve got a handful of quests or more appropriately Tales under my belt.
I quite enjoyed the cooking feature, being able to assemble the meals you are cooking certainly was different and fun to do. Fishing, I found a little tricky to start with, but once it finally clicked it just flowed perfectly. Gardening, well it was gardening really.
It is important to note, that cooking and Sharing Meals with other hobbits is the way to get into and stay in a Hobbit’s good books, too. So don’t be surprised if you end up spending a lot of time doing so.
Before setting off on more Tales in the Shire, I took some time to actually explore the initial areas that I could in game. Harvesting what I could and what I could carry in my backpack along the way. Of course, selling what I needed to earn some money too.
I decided now was probably a good time to figure out how to save the game, as I hadn’t actually done so since starting and was a good few hours in at this point. This was also where I figured, now is also the ideal moment to actually look at the encyclopedia, Townsfolk tracker, Tales log and just some general settings.
Realistically, they all do what it says on the tin. A handy way to keep on top of the quests you are doing along with the objectives, the Townsfolk tracker to see who you’ve met and your relationship with them and finally what you have discovered resource wise around Bywater.
As each new Tale started and ended, I started to get a feeling as to how I felt with the game. How things worked, and getting to know each of the different Hobbit’s around Bywater. While I had been enjoying what I had played so far, I still felt like something was missing.
Maybe this was purely down to still being in the early stages of the game, despite surpassing my first Summer season. Maybe I had missed something I was supposed to have done earlier on. I’m not entirely sure, but my plan is to continue progressing through the story.
As of right now, my overall feelings on Tales of The Shire based on what I’ve played and experienced so far, I’d say I’m in the middle. I’m 50/50 to put it simply. I’m not loving it, but I also don’t hate what I’ve played. There are elements I enjoy, elements not so much, however, I feel that Tales of The Shire has the potential to be a good cosy Lord of the Rings game, be this through future features and additional content or through game patches.
Yes, I’ve run into issues along the way. Be it frames dropping, graphics not loading properly, the game crashing completely upon loading to name a few. As for gameplay features, there are a few things that have made me feel a little frustrated/disheartened initially, but not enough to make me stop playing.
For example, I would have loved for there to be some kind of voice acting. Not for every line or every character but in key points just to help bring the tales and characters alive a little bit more. The other thing that I found frustrating to start with, is a couple of early quests felt a little dragged out at the time, however, looking back on those earlier quests now, I wouldn’t say it’s a terrible thing. These were quests that were more pivotal to starting your Hobbit adventure, getting you to learn a variety of features such as cooking and fishing, as well as getting to know the village and the townsfolk.
The only other frustration I had was with the birds that help guide you to various locations. Sometimes they worked perfectly fine, and other times it was incredibly easy to lose track of them. Ultimately it resulted in a lot of opening the map often to ensure I was going the right way as I was still unfamiliar with my surroundings.
If you’ve made it this far into my post, thank you for taking the time to read. I hope this has been informative in ways but also shares yet another player’s perspective of Tales of the Shire and their experience with the game so far.
I do have hopes that any issues or concerns about the game are addressed in the near future, as I do feel the game has a lot of potential, it’s just currently overshadowed by the negatives. I know there is a lot that as a community and as players, we don’t know, and I don’t want people to think I’m being negative about the work Weta Workshop Team has put into the game. The team has worked hard with the resources they have been given, and they’ve faced a number of challenges, as referenced in the previously linked The Verge article.
Have you played Tales of the Shire or are thinking about doing so? Let me know in the comments below!
Tales of the Shire: A Lord of the Rings Game is out now on Xbox Series X, PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch and Steam.
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