Tales of the Shire: A The Lord of the Rings™ Game (yes, that’s the full title — no, we’re not repeating it) is a warm, gentle wander through Middle-earth, inviting you to live your best Hobbit life in Bywater. Think: gardening, fishing, cooking, foraging — and did we mention cooking?
As a lifelong Lord of the Rings (LOTR) fan and hardcore cosy gamer, I lusted after this game ever since Private Division announced it was publishing Wētā Workshop’s debut game. Yes, that Wētā — the New Zealand effects wizards behind the LOTR and Hobbit trilogies. High hopes were inevitable.
In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit…
You play a fresh-faced Hobbit, new to Bywater from Bree, helping the locals turn their humble town into an official village. (Is a village better than a town? Unclear.) The story is light and silly at times, but there was some good dialogue sprinkled throughout.
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You’ll spend your days digging up leeks, skipping through puddles, and feeding every Hobbit you meet. But after 17 hours in-game, I get why Bilbo went looking for dragons — the pace is sleep-inducing, and the opening hours are especially slow. It’s less “There and Back Again”, and more “There and nap again”.
Graphics: More Mordor than Rivendell
Let’s talk performance. I started on Steam Deck, then switched to PC when the framerate got choppy. FPS dips and janky scenery popped up across both platforms — muddy textures, stuttering movement, and some unfortunate pop-in. It improved over time, though I’m not sure if it was a patch or just the game warming up.
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The game is also available on Nintendo Switch. QD editor Julian tried it on the Switch 2 and said the graphics were even more poe-tay-toe (boil ’em, mash ’em). On Switch there’s still plenty of pop-in but surprisingly no major framerate issues.
One does not simply play this smoothly… But when it works, it’s charming. The seasons shift, the weather changes (yes, there’s rain and snow), and your crops respond accordingly, a lovely touch that rewards lazy farmers like me who can’t be bothered watering.
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There are a lot of in-game pop-ups — XP, quests, prompts — which chug and layer on top of each other awkwardly. Some appear dead centre while you’re walking. It gets in the way. A few bugs popped up too: NPC graphics stuttering, unfindable mushrooms, and cluttered conversations that didn’t quite flow.
Cooking needs more seasoning
I was especially excited for the cooking system — it is Hobbit life, after all — but it left me a little underfed (no second breakfast here). It’s cute, with seasonal ingredients and daily cravings from fellow Hobbits, but the mechanics don’t have the flair of Cooking Mama or Hello Kitty Island Adventure.
You can’t experiment freely with ingredients, and new utensils are unlocked painfully slowly. The flavour balancing mechanic is cool, though, and I appreciated that you don’t need the exact right ingredients to satisfy someone’s cravings. It makes cooking more flexible, just not especially exciting. And can we please get another kitchen? Trekking back to your Hobbit hole every time got real old.
Hobbit Hole goals
One surprise win? Decorating. I don’t normally get sucked into customising interiors, but Tales of the Shire does it well. Furniture is modular, adorable, and satisfying to place. You unlock new rooms later on, so don’t stress about furniture overload.
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You can also change your Hobbit’s clothing, appearance, and name anytime in your wardrobe. I had fun picking seasonal outfits (when I could afford them). My only gripe? I couldn’t change my foot hair colour. Missed opportunity.
You shall not rush!
The first few hours had me yawning. Early quests feel repetitive — fetch this, carry that, run all the way back. It doesn’t help that there’s no fast travel, and you faint if you don’t get to bed before the day ends. You get wheeled back to your home though, so that’s some good Shire taxi service.
But stick with it, and the routine starts to click. There’s a rhythm to the days, and enough activities to fill them: fishing (though not as varied as promised), cooking, foraging, questing. Eventually, I found myself enjoying the serenity of it all.
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The map’s not huge, but there’s enough to poke around in. Sadly, you can’t enter NPC homes, and not all of them are interactable — unless they’re quest-givers or shopkeepers. It makes the world feel a little hollow in places.
Shops shut early too, though you can still offload your goodies to Sandyman at his mill. Night-time doesn’t offer much else. I was told some items were forage-only after dark, but I haven’t noticed much change.
Foraging and gardening are instrumental in advancing. Ingredients cost quite a bit, as does clothing and upgrades. Inflation has also clearly hit the Shire. It became less tedious once I unlocked more room in my backpack though.
Sound of (almost) silence
Given the franchise, I was expecting sweeping musical moments, but Tales of the Shire is oddly quiet. The soundtrack’s there, but barely audible. I had to turn the in-game volume up as well as my speakers. No voice acting either, which is fine, but it could’ve used more sonic warmth. I was expecting a Green Dragon riff a la Merry and Pippin, or even a Misty Mountains hymn from the dwarves.
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Also, you can’t pet the animals. You can wave at them, and they sit. Not a dealbreaker, just a weird omission in a cosy game.
Should you go there and back again?
Tales of the Shire might not be the “One Cosy Game to Rule Them All”, but it’s got just enough charm to keep you pottering along. For a debut title, it does a decent job capturing the gentle spirit of Hobbit life, but it’s not the polished Middle-earth experience some might expect. There are bugs, pacing issues, and a few flat notes, especially for a game with such a lofty price tag.
Still, Wētā’s love for the source material shines through. There’s thoughtful seasonal detail, charming characters (Rosie is a core NPC, and Gandalf pops up here and there), and plenty of subtle fan service. It takes a while to get going, but once it does, it’s like Sam and Frodo’s trek to Mordor — unnecessarily long, but oddly heartwarming.
If you’re a fan of the Shire and happy to take your time, there’s plenty to love. But maybe wait for a sale — or a few patches — before you move in permanently.
Quest Daily scores Tales of the Shire: A The Lord of The Rings Game:
6/10
Tales of the Shire is out now on PC via Steam, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X for $49.95.
A copy of Tales of the Shire was supplied to Quest Daily for this review.
