Summary
Little is known aboutTales of the Shireaside from its currently scheduled release next year from a development team at Weta Workshop via its publisher Private Division. Weta Workshop may not have much game development experience, but is one of Hollywood’s premiere design houses and has worked as a support studio in games before.Lord of the Rings: Return to Moriawas released recently and showed the crafting and survival games are a strong fit for Tolkien’s universe. IfTales of the Shirecan takeLord of the Rings: Return to Moria’s formula and make it cozy, the game should be primed for success.
Middle-earthis typically depicted as war-torn in other media for the beloved franchise, but this makes sense given that its most notable entries are books and their film adaptations. The three-act structure common across Western storytelling is built on conflict and resolution. Despite this, the Shire and many other parts of the world are depicted as idyllic when conflict is not happening. The gaming medium has a much larger capacity for open-ended storytelling, especially cozy games that don’t need a traditional plot. Because of this,Tales of the Shirehas the unique ability to depict the world ofMiddle-earth in a way that it has not typically been seen.
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Return to Moria Gets Lore Right
A lot of the discourse aroundLotRgames this year has centered aroundThe Lord of the Rings: Gollum. WhileGollum’s poor reception has overshadowed it,Return to Moriahas delivered a rock-solid survival game to fans of Tolkien’s universe.Return to Moriaplaces players in the shoes of a dwarf as the race sets out to recover its ancestral homeland. The player finds themselves trapped with a small group on the way to Moria and must survive while pushing through the ruins. Not only does the game make strong use of Tolkien’s lore, it combines it with a robust crafting system, RPG elements, and optional co-op gameplay.
WhileReturn to Moriafeatures plenty of combat and high-stakes encounters, one of the coolest parts of the game is that it doesn’t center around established characters.Gimli is featured inReturn to Moriabut he is not central, and the events of the game aren’t directly tied to the narrative of the books.Return to Moriasets itself apart from other games by exploring Middle-earth through the eyes of less-than-legendary figures in a narrative that is less grand than that of the books, andTales of the Shireis positioned to do just the same. For as significant of a location as the Shire is, it is still relatively unexplored in games.
Tales of the Shire’s cozy premise is perfect for exploring the lore of The Shire, and it also allows players to see Middle-earth in a new way. Rather than exploring a world in conflict,Tales of the Shirebeckons players to simply live in its world and make it their own. While few details have been shared about the game, the cozy genre is defined by crafting, crop cultivation, and home building. This means thatTales of the Shirecould hopefully explore what day-to-day life is like in the most leisurely corner of Middle-earth and allow its developers to explore some of the more mundane elements of the world that a grand narrative couldn’t while exploringThe Shire’s various regions.
Weta Workshop is a legendary design studiothat worked on theLord of the Ringsfilms, so in a game where the world and the objects that inhabit it will be central, it has huge potential as a developer. Eschewing the action and the battle of ‘good versus evil’ for something even more quaint thanReturn to Moriawill allow the developer to explore what it is like to live in Middle-earth rather than what it’s like to save it.Return to Moriamoved away from the grand narrative of the original books, letting it explore lore in new ways, andTales of the Shirecould take another step back to do it entirely peacefully.
The Lord of the Rings: Return to Moria
WHERE TO PLAY
Reclaim the Dwarven homeland of MoriaSummoned to the Misty Mountains by Lord Gimli Lockbearer, players take control of a company of Dwarves tasked to reclaim the lost spoils from the Dwarven homeland of Moria—known as Khazad-dûm or Dwarrowdelf—in the depths below their very feet. Their quest will require fortitude, delving deep into the Mines of Moria to recover its treasures. Set in a procedurally generated Dwarven realm of Moria, no two adventures will be alike, and every expedition is traversable either solo or online with companions. Players can mine to craft greater gear and resources, but beware mining makes noise, and noise created in the quiet deep threatens to awaken the dangers below: where there’s clatter, there’s combat. Excavate the mysteries of three legendary mountains, extract precious metals, scrape to survive, and battle unspeakable forces to learn the secret of the Shadow that lurks within.
