Tales of the Shire’s first two hours fall short of a high bar

The farming and life sim genre is extraordinarily crowded as many developers try to chase the success of Stardew Valley and Animal Crossing: New Horizons. Some are more successful than others. For example, August’s Fields of Mistria impressed in early access by sticking to the genre’s core conceit and creating a town full of villagers that you want to get to know better. Now, Weta Workshop is attempting to capitalize on this trend with a video game based on The Lord of the Rings.

In Tales of the Shire: A The Lord of the Rings Game, players control a Hobbit who Gandalf brings to the Hobbiton town of Bywater. From there, it’s up to players to familiarize themselves with and cook for the townsfolks, farm and forage for food, and raise the standing of the village. After playing its opening two hours, I’m finding some creative ideas in Tales of the Shire, but a lot of work will need to be done if it’s going to rise to the top of a crowded genre.

A mixed stew

If you’ve played a life sim game before, the basics of Tales of the Shire won’t be that shocking. I found its opening hours to be more similar to a game like Fae Farm rather than Stardew Valley or Fields of Mistria. Most of the time is spent on meeting the villagers of Bywater rather than getting into the farming routine. While players have control over customizing how they farm, Tales of the Shire seems more interested in having players explore Bywater and cook for its residents.

Navigating Bywater immediately felt intuitive, and I loved unique navigational touches like bluebirds guiding the player to main objectives or butterflies guiding players toward plants to forage. This early build’s frame rate was inconsistent across performance and quality-focused modes, although I enjoyed how vibrant the world was. Tales of the Shire will be a full-on cozy game, a far cry from the fantasy action of most The Lord of the Rings games.

Cooking also features more depth here than is typical in the genre, as I needed to pay much more attention to what food I made, how I cooked it, and who I served it to. The sweet spot for each dish is in a different place between smooth, chunky, crisp, and tender, and I had to cook it accordingly. Sometimes, I needed to only chop up food a little bit, rather than button-mash as soon as the cooking minigame prompt popped up. I appreciate that Tales of the Shire makes cooking and serving food a more involved process. Most life sims relegate these systems to boring menus, but they’re the crux of Tales of the Shire.

When Tales of the Shire is experimenting with new ideas like that, it’s at its best. It’s great that the game has those creative ideas, as it’s lackluster in other places so far. Most of its missions to this point have been fetch quests, and Bywater’s inhabitants aren’t yet interesting enough to make up for that. Lesser life sims tend to forget that the virtual people living in your town need to be memorable characters that are compelling enough to get players to stick around, and Tales of the Shire walks into that trap in its opening hours.

Yes, this game has the benefit of being set in a known universe, but characters like Gandalf and Frodo aren’t living in your town (at least in the early game). It’s essentially an original fantasy life sim like many of its competitors, with humans swapped out for hobbits. I don’t expect I’ll fondly remember these townsfolk in the same way I do the villagers from Stardew Valley, Animal Crossing: New Horizons, or even Fields of Mistria.

Although cooking has a lot of depth, gameplay systems like farming and fishing seem basic by comparison. Once I’ve fully explored every nook and cranny of Bywater, I’m not sure how Tales of the Shire will keep me returning, especially if it continues to rely on fetch quest-based mission design. Tales of the Shire’s camera also can be finicky, which is frustrating considering how small and cramped buildings built by hobbits are.

If the idea of a The Lord of the Rings cozy life sim game excites you, you’ll probably like Tales from the Shire. It’s first two hours don’t put it’s best, furry feet forward though, with only a few clever design choices keeping me intrigued. I hope it improves between now and its release next year, as the game’s performance and the camera problems are certainly fixable. Fixing the fundamentals in time might be a harder task, though.

Tales of the Shire: A The Lord of the Rings Game launches for PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, Nintendo Switch, and iOS and Android via Netflix on March 25, 2025.