Tales of the Shire was an anticipated cozy life simulation game set in The Lord of the Rings universe. Sadly, early reviews are tearing into the game, with both fans and critics disappointed by what developer Weta Workshop cooked up.
If Weta Workshop sounds familiar, yes, they are the legendary VFX studio that helped director Peter Jackson bring The Lord of the Rings. Their gaming output can't even come close to comparing to their VFX expertise, as Tales of the Shire is the first game they've developed outside an augmented reality title called Dr. Grordbort's Invaders for the Magic Leap.
Tales of The Shire Reviews Are Looking Dire
Tales of the Shire currently sits at a 59 on Metacritic and a 62 on OpenCritic. Right out of the gate, things are looking dire in the shire (had to do it, sorry).
Some of the biggest outlets, like IGN and GameSpot, gave the life sim a 4/10. IGN's Travis Northup called it a promising idea that ended up being "dreadfully boring and extremely buggy." GameSpot's Jessica Cogswell shares that sentiment, stating that while Tales of the Shire looks like a charming life sim, it fails to deliver a satisfying experience with "dull gameplay, heaps of bugs, and a general sense of emptiness"
Tales of the Shire is not only called a generally lackluster experience, with barebones system mechanics. It's also pretty bad performance-wise on perhaps the platform many players were hoping to experience it: the Nintendo Switch.
As we've reported, fans have been panning the Switch port. It was always intended for the original console, so playing it on the Switch 2 won't make a difference. It's considerably worse graphically, and in some extreme cases, it can cause severe motion sickness due to its framerate.
Overall, it's sad to say that Tales of the Shire might be a complete skip for Lord of the Rings fans. If that wasn't clear enough from previews and trailers, the hands-on experience from reviewers and early adopters should be your final warning in case you want to pick it up.
That's it. For more, stick with us at Gfinityesports.com: the best site for Lord of the Rings news.