His name is Hogg. Hugo, Double G, Hogg.
Tales of the Shire, the upcoming cozy farming life sim set in the world of the Hobbits, has been delayed to March 25, 2025, but I had the chance to go hands-on with a preview build recently to see how it was coming along.
It’s a pretty open demo, where we get kind of a curated chunk of the game, around 90 minutes give or take. Essentially, a Hobbit passes away and it’s up to us to take over their home. The developers nailed the vibe down for the Shire, where the home is located, and it’s really pretty. Here we’re naturally introduced to the Hobbit lifestyle, and we have to pick up almost immediately from the person who used to live here.
This starts with food. Cooking is an important social aspect of Hobbit life, so we’re always cooking for someone else, not just ourselves. The only major gameplay during my preview time is the pretty active cooking mechanic. In it we have to time our hits and our chops, and even the order we add ingredients. The way we approach the food will increase the flavor, which is something we learn and improve on over time. And then we plate the food and serve it, leading us to conversations about what’s happening around town, what our next tasks are, and what might be interesting to check out.
We can also decorate and improve our home, manage our garden, etc. There is a lot of detail that goes into these, but what I find to be really interesting isn’t all of that. It functions well, it’s cool, but the applied mix of Hobbit life is what I find really interesting.
Hobbits are known to be pretty lazy and stubborn. They don’t like to go out. They don’t like to do anything different. They just kind of go to the pub, eat food, sleep. That’s kind of their whole thing. Just live. That’s why Sauron would never expect a Hobbit because they don’t leave their Hobbit holes. They’re kind of this lazy, stereotypical people; their personalities are pretty selfish people, not in a bad way, where it’s detrimental to society, but in their natural inclinations. So it makes it really fun to talk to and try to become friends with them. That becomes kind of the core mechanic of the game is like: I want to become friends with these people, however possible. That means finding out what they like to eat, what their daily routines are, who they talk to. At a baseline that’s a really fun and engaging, especially for a series fan.
That extends to how we navigate around the town, like following birds and butterflies to destinations (there’s no HUD or mini-map) and keeping track of the way the environment is interacting with us. It’s all very natural, which is true to the world. There’s no HUG in the Lord of the Rings. No magic arrow pointing a direction. It even works with the naming system. The game uses pre-picked first and last names that are Hobbit specific, because a character named “Greg Jones” probably wouldn’t work well in Middle Earth. My character’s name is Hugo Hogg, which is awesome. He’s the sassy character type, so he’s walking around waving his hips. It’s joyous.
My only concern is the longevity of this experience. What’s the end game? Is there one? Everything is fun and enjoyable and cozy, but I want to see what happens after the first couple of hours and as the game extends into hours 15, 20, 30.
Tales of the Shire: A The Lord of the Rings Game arrives for platforms on March 25, 2025. This preview is based on a Steam code sent to SideQuesting by the publisher. It first appeared on The SideQuest Live for September 27, 2024.
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