Tales of the Shire review: "As a long-time Tolkien fan, I'm both pleasantly surprised and slightly frustrated at what should've been my dream Lord of the Rings game"

There is perhaps no setting more perfect for a cozy game than that of the Shire. Out of all the fictional universes and characters out there, Hobbits understand the appeal of growing crops and living an idyllic life as much as any Stardew Valley player. In fact, read the prologue of J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings and you'll see the halflings described perfectly: "For they love peace and quiet and good tilled earth. A well-ordered and farmed countryside was their favorite haunt." So on paper, the new cozy life-sim Tales of the Shire should be a home run; however, after completing its main story, like the Tooks and other Hobbits who suffer from wanderlust, I was left wanting something more.

Taking cues from the typical formula of "moving from the big city to the rural countryside" seen in most farming games (but with a Middle-earth twist), you're immediately thrown into the cartoony depiction of Tolkien's world as a Hobbit from the big-folk town of Bree. After staying (and presumably working) at the Prancing Pony inn, you discover that your customized hobbit has moved to the quiet community of Bywater to start a new life, one focused on foraging, dinner parties, and collecting recipes from your neighbours.

There are no big sprawling quests in Tales of the Shire, and it's easy to get used to the slow-paced rhythm that comes with gathering resources throughout a very peaceful and safe world. The game has placed itself firmly in the ideal period in The Lord of the Rings timeline, back when Sauron's forces and rise to power, which the rest of Middle-earth is facing, can't yet be felt by the Shire folk. So if you were expecting to see any hint of the Battle of Bywater or go on an adventure like Bilbo did during the events of The Hobbit, you're out of luck. Tales of the Shire instead has you equipping your cooking apron over a sword as you complete a variety of fetch quests in order to help Bywater get officially recognized as a village.

Good Shire-Folk

You'll find all the cozy game hallmarks in Tales of the Shire as you cook, forage, discover residents' preferences, and farm your way towards fancy upgrades that'll improve your daily chore completing. It's a meditative yet repetitive routine that the game tries to enhance by introducing in-depth cooking mechanics and various goals to work towards, with the inclusion of various clubs to level up and rewards to unlock. One of the unique features that I personally loved was how Tales of the Shire doesn't unlock upgrades with gold coins. Instead, you'll have to raise your friendship level with residents in order to flourish in Bywater, inviting hobbits over for meals and making sure that you take their cravings and favorite meals into account.

There's something beautiful and inherently Tolkien about doing away with any mass-producing money farming techniques and instead focusing on the community to succeed in your virtual life. Being hospitable will get you ahead, and you'll be rewarded with home and tool upgrades, decorations, and seasonal recipes. Too often, I've been obsessed with money when trying to relax in cozy games, be that worrying about tanuki landlords or rushing to gather resources to build a barn in Pelican Town. Worrying about what dishes I should cook for my daily dinner parties in the Shire, and trying to raise their ranking with perfect cooking techniques and taste combos, was a refreshing change of pace and felt inherently less stressful and more wholesome in comparison.

However, with such an emphasis on community and heart-raising activities, it's a shame how lonely Tales of the Shire can feel outside of the food of it all. While each resident has a small story, there are no rewards for daily chats, and it's easy to forget about them until the resident's postman, Orlo Proudfoot, reminds you that they are getting cranky that you haven't invited them over. Tales of the Shire doesn't have recurring festivals (at least not any that I've seen after completing the main story and playing through all the seasons), and at the end of the day Bywater feels stagnant after a good few hours, making it hard to immerse yourself in the community and feel as if you're genuinely a resident.

Trouble in paradise

Tales of the Shire's gameplay loop can stagnate as a result, making it hard to feel motivated to juggle plowing through the main story with unlocking everything. Even with my quest book filled to the brim with things to do and requests to complete, my time as the hobbit Belladonna Boffin in Bywater still felt aimless, and the world a bit too lifeless to keep me coming back, especially after I completed the main quest after 13 hours.

Getting Bywater recognized as a village was surprisingly easy. I was prepared to have to host a ton of hobbit meals in order to unlock new foragable areas, or complete a ton of tasks for all the foraging, cooking, gardening, and fishing clubs that I had to establish earlier in the game. However, completing the main story never required club levels, unlocks, special ingredients, or anything similar. All you need to do is a series of easy fetch quests and have high enough level ingredients to make a three-star meal.

In fact, you could find yourself in the epilogue section of the game without raising friendship levels at all, and largely ignoring the leveling up of the clubs as well. I'd only had a single house expansion and one backpack upgrade before I saw the final cutscene, and then I was told to work towards 100% everything. Yes, there are plenty of meals still left to cook, recipes to unlock, and there are even clubs to level up. But, without a main goal really to work towards, my efforts felt a tad hollow; there was really nothing enticing enough like the One Ring to hold my attention.

Tales of the Shire's story quest feels like an oversight, something that wasn't fully thought through, and thrown together, with how it doesn't have any targets that move you towards playing the rest of the mechanics or progressing in the game. Taking your own pace in the game is all well and good, but with a lackluster, small map that is very stylized, it asks a lot of players to stay invested. Pair this with some irritating hiccups, such as some occasional bugs around hosting meals in the morning, a blue bird quest marker that isn't super intuitive, and not being able to end the day whenever you want, and Bywater goes from charming to chore in the blink of an eye.

Tales of the Shire is extremely laid back, sometimes to its own detriment. However, that may appeal to some cozy gamers still, especially those who are looking for a new addition that doesn't have any restrictions, such as time-intensive quests or pesky stamina bars dictating what you do in a day. I also have to praise the work, as a Tolkien fan, for the tidbits of lore and Easter eggs that we see throughout the slow-paced days.

Tales of the Shire wastes no time in showing off its love and J.R.R. Tolkien knowledge, and I often found myself giggling with delight as I talked to townsfolk during their story events, or chose how much hair appeared on my hobbit's feet. The game makes references to the Fell winter, how the Dúnedain are still patrolling the Shire's borders, as well as the Hobbit family tree history. On top of that, you meet Rosie Cotton (aka Sam's future wife), Gandalf, and hear chatter around Bilbo. Hosting a hobbit meal in the famous Green Dragon Inn was also a nerdy pleasure of mine, and once I unlocked that location, it became my go-to dinner party spot.

One of my main fears was that Tales of the Shire would feel like an empty shell, using The Lord of the Rings as a selling hook and nothing more. But I can thankfully say that, for all its faults, the cozy title does the lore justice and honours the work that we all love. Will I return to Bywater? Probably not. But am I glad I visited the hairy-footed residents? Undoubtedly so.

For more picks, check out our lists of the best Lord of the Rings games ever made and the best farming games to play today.