- Publisher: Private Division
- Release Date: Jul 29, 2025
- Also On: Nintendo Switch 2, PlayStation 5, Switch, Xbox Series X
- Summary: Your cosy Hobbit life awaits in Tales of the Shire, a heart-warming, new, The Lord of the Rings game due out in 2024 on console and PC.
- Developer: Weta Workshop
- Genre(s): Simulation, Virtual, Virtual Life
- # of players: No Online Multiplayer
- Cheats: On GameFAQs
- More Details and Credits »
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Score distribution:
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Positive: 4 out of 28
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Mixed: 19 out of 28
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Negative: 5 out of 28
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Jul 29, 2025While fans of Tolkien’s works might find the gameplay to be interesting, there isn’t much to chew on when it comes to the story.
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Jul 28, 2025I don't think it's worth starting Tales of the Shire for the plot alone, or to tick off another item from the Lord of the Rings universe, but it's worth experiencing for its well-constructed atmosphere. It's a great cozy game that makes good use of its source material.
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Jul 29, 2025There is something magical in Tales of the Shire: A The Lord of The Rings Game, but it’s sometimes hard to find it… Still, I keep thinking that while a Hobbit hole means comfort, Tolkien’s favorite characters also deserve a bit more depth than just resting on genre fundamentals.
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Jul 28, 2025Tales of the Shire offers a cute cozy adventure that perfects its fishing and cooking, but fails to succeed in any other area synonymous with the genre.
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Jul 29, 2025Not all cosy games need to evoke hard emotions. However, it does feel like a disservice to the emotionally complex source material not to explore the richness of the world at large – especially when dry humour, tragedy and finely drawn social structures are what make Tolkien’s writing so powerful. Without any challenging quandaries to pull at your heartstrings, the promising atmosphere in Tales of the Shire is overwhelmed by endless fetch quests. Diehard Tolkienites and Stardew Valley lifers may be better off looking elsewhere for their cosy thrills.
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Jul 28, 2025Tales of the Shire is close to everything a fan of The Shire would desire. So close. But it ultimately falls on some major technical issues and an overall lifeless town, the complete opposite of what you would expect to find in a game based on the merriest and calmest population of Middle Earth, hosts of the biggest feasts from this side of the Brandywine. There is potential, though. Let's hope Weta Workshops will sharpen this really precious but uncut gem.
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Jul 28, 2025Tales 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.
