The first time I watched Lord of the Rings, I wanted nothing more than to be a gorgeous, willowy, and effortlessly cool elf who was, as nearly all eight year-old girls desired, married to Orlando Bloom’s Legolas. In my late teens, I grew content with remaining human so long as I got the chance to swoon over Aragon. But now, at the wise age of almost-31, I know the truth: The greatest being that you could ever hope to be in Middle-earth is a hobbit. Fortunately, Tales of the Shire lets you do just that.
Wētā Workshop’s Tales of Shire is a cozy life-simulation game that revolves around Tolkien’s coziest creatures, hobbits. Considering the high-demand for wholesome titles and the enduring love for the Lord of the Rings series, I always felt it was simply a matter of time until a game celebrating these jovial and endlessly hungry creatures was developed. After all, what do hobbits do but tend to their land, drink, dance, be merry, and, occasionally, set off on an epic quest to save the world? I recently had the chance to do almost all these things while playing a two hour preview build of Tales of the Shire, but unfortunately, I didn’t walk away from the experience as content as a Gamgee snug in their hobbit-hole. While Tales of the Shire is charming and has some good fundamentals, Wētā Workshop will need to embark on a journey filled with several quality-of-life improvements and a few major overhauls if it wants to make this game something special.
The preview follows your created character leaving their hometown of Bree to start a life of their own in one of The Shire’s quaintest villages, Bywater. When you get there, however, your first series of quests involves proving that Bywater actually is a village, as a local curmudgeon implies the village is more “Backwater” than Bywater.