Tales of the Shire: A The Lord of the Rings Game

 PC
Metascore
58

Mixed or average reviews - based on 28 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 4 out of 28
  2. Mixed: 19 out of 28
  3. Negative: 5 out of 28
  1. Siliconera
    Aug 4, 2025
    40
    Tales of the Shire sounds like an interesting take on a Middle-Earth game, with its priority on the mundane rather than the grittier aspects of the world’s history. However, it’s just kind of boring, which is a shame since a cozy Hobbit game sounds like it should’ve been a home run. Maybe the game would have gotten more interesting as I unlocked more areas and befriended more characters, but since my progression has stalled thanks to some bizarre bug, I guess there won’t be a Shire for me anymore.
  2. Eurogamer
    Aug 3, 2025
    40
    A great idea lost under the weight of tiresome game mechanics.
  3. GameSpot
    Jul 29, 2025
    40
    As someone who loves Lord of the Rings, life-sims, and cozy games, Tales of the Shire is heartbreakingly disappointing--so much so that I find myself genuinely wondering what went wrong. With such a strong premise, a solid team working on it, and what seemed like a concentrated effort being made to let this game fully cook before it was shipped, I’m ultimately confused by the finished product and concerned for what happened during production. Although Tales of the Shire has some charming ideas, dull gameplay, heaps of bugs, and a general sense of emptiness ultimately drag this once-promising life sim down to the pits of Moria.
  5. Restart.run
    Jul 28, 2025
    40
    Bywater looks like the kind of Hobbit town I’d want to live in. Its rolling hills are gorgeous in all seasons, with well thought-out sightlines letting you see far into the distance at the settlement’s variety. It’s full of lush plant life and chirping birds, with scattered structures accenting rather than disrupting the natural landscape. But it doesn’t feel like the Shire as we know it from The Lord of the Rings books and films, seeming more like a pale imitation rather than a faithful recreation. There’s some cozy joy to be had in the slow-paced daily life of a Hobbit here, but Tales of the Shire ultimately fails to capture the magic of The Lord of the Rings or invent much of its own.
  6. IGN
    Jul 28, 2025
    40
    Tales of the Shire: A The Lord of the Rings Game is the Grima Wormtongue of games: it whispered many wonderful promises into my ear, but by the end I was left a wretched shadow of my former self. I had a lot of hope that this could be the perfect mix of a genre I love and the Tolkien world I’ve spent much of my life nerding out about, but those hopes were cast into the fires from whence they came. With life sim mechanics that are shallow as they come, terrible technical performance, and almost nothing original to say, Tales of the Shire disappoints every step of the way. There’s hints of a better game to be found in its slightly more robust cooking mechanics, as well as the occasionally amusing writing and dialogue that prove this setting was indeed ripe for a life sim if executed better – but like a Silmaril, those dreams have vanished deep in the depths of Angband.
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  1. Polygon
    Jul 28, 2025
    The Shire is known to be a warm, inviting, beautiful place that’s teeming with life. With its drab environments, one-dimensional characters, and repetitive gameplay, Tales of the Shire never quite manages to capture that Tolkien-esque whimsy. The game promises a Stardew Valley-like experience set in the rich The Lord of The Rings universe, but ultimately, it fails to deliver on both fronts.