Tales of the Shire review: Whimsical charm lacks substance and seasoning

It’s hard to shy away from the fact that Tales of the Shire: A Lord of the Rings game lacks wow factor. In fact, its first impressions aren’t particularly positive despite its several delays. Graphically, it looks like something that might’ve launched 20 years ago, and I don’t think polygonal nostalgia is exactly what developers were aiming for. Once you grow accustomed, however, to Tales of the Shire’s haphazard presentation, there is both fun and an element of charm to be found within its tried and tested cosy gameplay loop even if everything does feel a tad half-baked.

Tales of the Shire’s premise is simple. The player assumes the role of a hobbit who has recently arrived in the Shire locale of Bywater. Alongside restoring and customising a comfortable homestead, players will befriend and assist locals as they seek to boost Bywater’s fortunes, securing it the official ‘village’ status its citizens so desperately crave.

I’ll be honest, Tales of the Shire has an uphill battle ahead. The cosy gaming space is about as overcrowded and competitive as it’s ever been, with new entries finding it difficult to topple the titans of the genre. Does Tales of the Shire pack enough of a punch to stand a chance? I’m doubtful. The vast majority of your standard cosy fare is present. Players will spend much of their time gardening, cooking, fishing, and trading, but within Tales of the Shire’s streamlined gameplay loop, you won’t find anything in the way of raising livestock nor mining for materials. The activities you can partake in are, well, just fine really. While no one particular activity blew me away, I did find them enjoyable enough with a few glimmers of originality surfacing here and there.

Whilst gardening, for example, Tales of the Shire boasts a companion planting system which means pairing two complementary plants together within the same bed will offer you unique benefits. Within cooking, players can determine the quality of a meal by using a chopping board, frying pan, or mixing bowl to prepare the ingredients to determine their tenderness and texture, vying to match an indicated sweet spot. These small features are easy to overlook, but it would be a disservice not to appreciate the fact that Tales of the Shire is attempting to put its stamp on a formula that’s become so overused in recent years.

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In fact, cooking is perhaps where the game shines - and that’s informed by this being a Lord of the Rings project. You don’t need to know a ton about Tolkien’s Middle-Earth to hop into Tales of the Shire. There are some fun verbal Easter eggs for those in the know and players are dropped off in Bywater by a cameoing Gandalf, but it’s very easy to settle into life as a hobbit. Almost immediately, Tales of the Shire informs you of one very important thing: hobbits are led by their stomachs.

The lore experts amongst you will know that hobbits supposedly like to enjoy six meals a day, and Wētā Workshop certainly kept that in mind during Tales of the Shire’s development. While you won’t have to toil away cooking six meals each and every day, your progression within Bywater does centre around cooking. In order to bolster your relationships, you’ll need to invite your new friends and companions to meals, whether that be at your humble abode or in certain discoverable locations around Bywater.

After the invites are sent, your guests will inform you of their preferences, namely whether they enjoy sweet, salty, bitter or spicy meals. It’s then up to you to identify a couple of recipes that fit the bill, source the ingredients (whether that’s via fishing, foraging, or trading), and cook the meals to perfection. Hosting a perfect meal will vastly improve your relationships while failing to host the dinner will see you tasked with restoring ties with vexed acquaintances.

And trust me, the latter is surprisingly easy to do. Very early in-game, I decided to host a meal for three villagers, not quite realising what a short window I had to acquire enough ingredients for a four-person feast. I have to say though, I most definitely appreciated what the meal system brought to the game, adding an appreciated sense of urgency and challenge, albeit in the mildest of senses, but such sensations can oftentimes be overlooked in a genre that is typically slow and languid.

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Outside of this though, it’s difficult really to pinpoint much that falls into a category of anything other than fine. Foraging will see you pick up various items whilst simply on your travels throughout Bywater (and yes, you will need to manage your backpack inventory, offloading things into your pantry back home). Fishing tasks you with reeling your catch in while pulling in the opposite direction to which the fish itself is pulling, being careful not to place too much tension on the line. Decorating your home is gridless, allowing for optimal customisation in terms of placement, but the range of items on offer felt limiting.

With many hours under my belt in Tales of the Shire, I’ve yet to encounter any kind of livestock system beyond raising a couple of chickens. While there are pigs, cows, and more in and around the village, I’m not able to keep any myself; that’s something that, for me at least, feels like a core part of the cosy formula. Whether this is totally absent or locked behind a late game quest, I do not know but given the hours one can spend enjoying a cosy life sim, I’m imagining a more complex system most certainly would have been introduced to me by now if one existed.

It’s not the only qualm I have. Traversal is sluggish and most definitely off-putting in the game’s early chapters where you’ll likely be following story quests in a bid to get acquainted with your new life in Bywater. The game’s map isn’t huge, but you will be traversing it by foot with quests being little more than fetch errands. It’s pretty frustrating to venture into the heart of Bywater, only to be told to return back past your home to go speak to someone at Cotton Farm only to then have to travel back into town. If you set a waypoint on the map, birds will direct you towards your location, landing on a wall or fence some distance ahead to show you where to go next. I found the birds to be a tad slow and unclear though, and more often than not would refer to the map.

As I’ve already alluded to, the story quests themselves struggle to shine. I might’ve been more forgiving had cutscenes been voiced but in some instances, the on-text dialogue wasn’t even accompanied by a score. I did somewhat attach to the citizens of Bywater and their plight, but I can’t help but feel that this is just yet another area that held only a fraction of the attention to detail that it perhaps should have.

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For many, it’s Tales of the Shire’s graphics that’ll be hard to look past. While I didn’t actually experience anything in the way of bugs or glitches during my playthrough on the Nintendo Switch, the game’s low textures are difficult to grow accustomed to with many loading in as I continued to walk through the village and surrounding areas. I was encouraged to play Tales of the Shire on the original Nintendo Switch as that’s what it was built for, so I did. I’ll admit though, my curiosity did eventually lead me to trying it out on the Nintendo Switch 2 as well and, at least for me, it ran to the same quality.

Tales of the Shire: A Lord of the Rings game doesn’t reinvent the cosy formula, despite several promising glimmers of originality. Any sign of promise is, unfortunately, cancelled out by mediocrity and an experience that is dominated by untapped potential. The game, despite these issues, has undeniable charm but it’s difficult to claim that it’ll resonate and land with the masses.

Pros: Fun Lord of the Rings Easter eggs, well-considered meal system, has the charm and relaxing qualities of a good cosy title

Cons: Weak graphics, repetitive gameplay, underdeveloped ideas limit longevity

For fans of: Animal Crossing: New Horizons, Lord of the Rings, Stardew Valley

5/10: Average

Tales of the Shire: A Lord of the Rings game is set to release on 29 July on Nintendo Switch (version tested), PC, PlayStation 4 and 5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S. A review code was provided by the publisher. Read a guide to our review scores here.