For somebody like me who’s determined to get caught into any whimsical life sim, Tales of the Shire feels like an ideal match. On paper, it guarantees a comfy life in Center-earth, stuffed with farming, adorning, cooking, and fishing. However the demo displays a determined try and make a comfy recreation whereas the subgenre is so well-liked relatively than specializing in constructing a recreation that welcomes new Lord of the Rings followers whereas letting long-time ones reside out the dream of dwelling as a hobbit. Consequently you are at present met with one thing that lacks an identification and is frankly simply disappointing.
To begin, a number of it’s boring. There isn’t any higher strategy to put it. And that is coming from somebody who has put 1000’s of hours into loads of life and farming simulators which revolve round a quite simple job. Farming feels fairly pointless, except for getting elements to cook dinner, and there is a lot you possibly can cook dinner with out having to farm, which rapidly stripped my willingness to do it within the first place. Within the demo, you are restricted to solely having 5 planters as properly, relatively than with the ability to customise and streamline your personal farming area.
However, you’ve gotten the choice to exit and forage for elements, which I rapidly opted for as soon as I realised farming was giving me the identical satisfaction as stubbing my toe. Foraging is likely one of the most detailed and interesting components of Tales of the Shire, which got here as an enormous shock provided that it is hardly spoken about by any NPCs within the few hours I spent within the demo. Relatively than issues like mushrooms being labelled with umbrella phrases like “crimson toadstool” and even higher—simply mushroom—they’re modelled and named after real-life edible mushrooms. I discovered a number of pleasure in choosing Puffballs and Chanterelles, or plucking Wild Beef off tree trunks and scurrying residence like an excited raccoon to retailer my findings within the pantry earlier than I needed to gingerly pluck them out to cook dinner with.
With regards to cooking, a bit extra effort has been put in in comparison with farming. I imply, with the quantity hobbits eat and discuss meals, you’d anticipate the fervour to shine by way of within the exercise of making ready meals. However, though it seems like cooking has extra substance, it is actually simply a number of clicking and hoping for the very best. You chop elements like greens to be both chunky or easy relying on what you are cooking, and have the choice to fry them to change the feel too. When you match the feel to what a small grid in the suitable hand nook suggests, your meal will probably be higher high quality and enhance your friendship with whoever you invite over for dinner. It is a complete guessing recreation, however it’s extra entertaining than watching taters develop in planters.
As for the story missions, a number of the quests I used to be informed to finish concerned me going from one character to a different to ask them about one thing, after which being informed to go and discover another person to speak to. It felt like a unending chase for info with no actual reward, and I ended up simply being extra pissed off on the recreation after I was prompted to maneuver onto the following sufferer. However, I’ve to offer Tales of the Shire the advantage of the doubt right here because the demo solely gives the primary few hours of the sport, and I perceive that this was a simple strategy to make me acquainted with the map and meet the opposite hobbits within the shire. However nonetheless, I can not assist feeling prefer it may’ve been executed in a extra entertaining means than “go and ask them a few e book”.
Plus, characters in Tales of the Shire are quite simple and don’t have any defining options to set them aside, which makes issues difficult if you’re attempting to familiarise your self with everybody, otherwise you’re requested to talk to somebody particular. It is like the identical character mannequin has been copy and pasted all through all the map, and even the character you create has nothing particular to set it other than the remaining. A degree of similarity is anticipated, given we’re all hobbits within the Shire, however the fashions really feel so disappointingly lifeless. One of many solely defining options of characters within the recreation is the addition of thick black eyelashes that make everybody seem like they’ve simply began listening to My Chemical Romance and visited the pharmacy for the most affordable eyeliner. Even Gandalf has fallen sufferer to this vogue development, and I frankly suppose he’d be extra of a smokey eye fan.
The Shire itself has extra going for it fortunately. Though it mirrors the identical cutesy, chibi-esque model of the characters, areas like your property have a good bit of element. It does seem like the sort of place I might need to reside in, with hobbit holes overflowing with flowers and vegetation, so it is enjoyable to discover to begin. The map manages to supply fairly a bit to see comparable to a market, a tavern, and loads of different hobbit holes, with out feeling too overwhelming, and I preferred {that a} path of birds leads you to your vacation spot relatively than you having to aimlessly run or skip round hoping you find yourself in the suitable place.
After spending 4 hours within the demo of Tales of the Shire, I am assured in saying that it at present seems like a slipshod, half-baked try and resolve the previous couple of years of Lord of the Rings video games. There’s an excessive lack of substance to mechanics, characters, and even dialogue. So relatively than being a turning level, it seems like one other nail within the coffin. However now its launch date has been pushed again to 2025, I discover it onerous to consider I am the one individual conscious of its faults. I desperately need to stay hopeful that will probably be the following recreation I unintentionally pour a whole lot of hours into, discovering a brand new life for myself in some of the whimsical worlds possible. For that to occur, although, much more work goes to must be performed between now and its launch subsequent yr.
