A new “Lord of the Rings” game called Tales of the Shire will be released in 2024 for Steam, PS5, Xbox, and Nintendo Switch. MeinMMO editor Benedict Grothaus is a die-hard fan of the franchise and knows nearly all the games – and although Tales of the Shire offers no action, it will probably make it into his top 3.
If you ask me about the Lord of the Rings games from the last 20 years, I can probably say something about each of them. Because I’ve played them all – at least almost. Even the relatively unknown MOBA “Guardians of Middle-earth,” which, in my opinion, didn’t get enough attention. The exceptions:
- the mobile and browser games, of which there are far too many and which are largely just bad
- Gollum, which I wanted to play, but that was so bad that the studio no longer makes games
- a few very niche titles that were released for platforms I don’t own – like Tactics for the PSP
- all the games from before 2000 – and there are surprisingly many
What I mean is: I love Lord of the Rings, and Middle-earth is one of the best worlds ever created. Unfortunately, there are too few (good) games to fully immerse in the story.
Unlike Star Wars, where some game is released every year – most recently the actually promising Outlaws – things are a bit quiet regarding Lord of the Rings.
Then Tales of the Shire was announced and immediately caught my attention. Since the latest trailer, I’ve been absolutely in love because an old and rather secret dream is coming true.
Tales of the Shire is what I have wished for since “The Fellowship”
The new game is a so-called “life simulation.” You play as a hobbit and grow flowers, vegetables, and carrots for first and second breakfast, the 11 o’clock snack, afternoon tea, dinner, and supper somewhere in the Shire. And of course, these meals will also be prepared.
Actually, I play competitive games or those with a lot of action or really good story. So, I’m not exactly the target audience for classic “cozy games.” Actually… but Tales of the Shire strikes exactly a chord.
Since I saw the first “Lord of the Rings” movie, I’ve been wishing for a game where you can extensively explore the home of the hobbits. Yes, in the MMO Lord of the Rings Online and also in some of the games based on the films, it is possible, but rather limited.
The Shire is a beautiful area that has been portrayed like few others. With Tales of the Shire, it promises to depict exactly this area as an accessible and buildable region. For everyone who isn’t already raving about green meadows and hobbit holes, the game also offers:
- fishing
- relationships with NPCs
- famous characters and hobbit families from the films and books
- farming – of course
- housing
- Hobbit clothing!
The goal is to develop the place Waterau enough that it is recognized as its own community by Hobbiton. This happens through community missions, i.e., “quests” – basically a small storyline like in Stardew Valley and company.
The release for Tales of the Shire is currently only set for 2024.
Looks good – But not the best LotR game in recent years
For me, it is already clear that I will play Tales of the Shire. Only one thing bothers me: it will be a pure singleplayer according to the current information. That’s a shame because building the Shire together with others would be the absolute hit. Sun Haven has already shown that cooperative life simulations work wonderfully.
Although I’m excited about the new game, I don’t think it will replace my highlight of recent years: Return to Moria. The survival game in the mines of Moria fascinated me even before release and holds a special place in my heart.
Exploring the depths, the constant threat of noises and darkness when you dig too deep, and the mission from Gimli himself are hard to top. Unfortunately, I haven’t finished the game yet because my partner eventually lost interest.
If you read this, Maik: Move your dwarf beard to Moria, but quickly!
Tales of the Shire will be great, but probably no one will be angry with me if I still prefer Return to Moria. Especially since dwarves are just a bit cooler than cozy hobbits. They even have their own game category on Steam now: Dwarves defeat Steam: Leading dwarf games finally get their way
