Tales of the Shire: A Lord of the Rings Game review – too cosy for comfort

PC, PS5, Switch, Xbox; Weta Workshop/Private DivisionThis high-fantasy life simulator is brimming with Hobbit-holes but lacks the Tolkienian depth to maintain your interestAfter several hours toiling in the pastoral fields of Hobbiton, it finally started to sink in why two generations of Bagginses felt compelled to leave in search of dangerous adventure. Sure, the Shire has a hazy comfort to it, and there’s plenty of unique food to gorge on and friendly faces to meet. But once the saccharine novelty begins to wear off, this bucolic wonderland is actually a fairly dull place to live.Tales of the Shire is set in the Third Age of Middle-earth, years before the events of The Lord of the Rings. As such, there are no Nazgûls or Uruk-hai – instead the “action” centres on the quaint town of Bywater, whose most pressing issue is its municipal status. Here, you play as a recent transplant from the nearby hamlet of Bree, who gets swept up in the process of turning the town into an official village by building infrastructure and befriending locals one odd job and home-cooked meal at a time. Continue reading...

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