Ignore the steam hours. I played the crap out of this game 10 years ago.
Pros
- You heal fast out of combat. Potions have long cooldowns and are for combat scenarios only. Combat it tactical.
- Based on the books, not the movies (yes Tom Bombadil is also here with the rest of the gang).
- Big MMO. Almost all of Middle Earth can be explored FOR FREE (quest content is sometimes sub dependent but you can go wherever you want if you can survive the journey).
- Limited quick travel, so you are going to be exploring a lot, giving you more respect for the size of the world. You can pay in-game currency to travel, but it is mostly real time (sort of like WOW). I like this. People used to newer MMOs will probably hate it.
- A lot of the content and classes that used to be behind massive paywalls is now free. This game can largely be played without paying a dime (with some severe handicaps though. This is definitely a "create problem, sell solution" type of game, but with the shop currency being able to be farmed through "deeds" it is not as bad as it seems).
- Long single player storyline which can be shared with other players, so you always have something to guide you through the areas if you get lost.
- You are not the chosen one, you are just some dude helping out in the war effort.
Cons
- Slow and janky combat system (play as a warden, because that one is most fun and engaging).
- Old MMO. Lots of go fetch x or go kill x. And low amount, and spread out, enemies, which are shared, so be prepared to look for the enemy type you need for a long time if there are other players in the area.
- Set dressing does not become translucent dependent on camera movement, and there is a lot of foliage, so be prepared to only be looking at floating numbers a lot of the time.
- Microtransactions... and the shop is EXPENSIVE. It is not pay to win, but definitely pay for massive advantage.
- You need to buy the riding skill from the shop, and the game DOES NOT tell you that you can just earn the currency in-game through "deeds". That is a nasty quit moment. FIX THIS. This is why you are bleeding players. But! I actually made a new account and character for this playthrough, and I already had enough LOTRO points and silver to buy the riding skill and a horse when I naturally got to the point where you can buy one. It is not a problem, it just looks like one because the devs are idiots.
- The map is ♥♥♥♥, making exploring tedious at times. You basically have to memorize every area by heart. The map is often no help whatsoever. This becomes very problematic in maze-like areas like forests or old ruins. It often takes far longer than it should to find what you need simply because of the extremely bad map design.
- Traveling fast in a straight line for a long time can crash the game, since the game cannot keep up, and you end up in a slightly un-rendered area. FIX IT, dumbasses. No this is not my PC or connection.
- Classes are not balanced perfectly. If you want to play alone, choose warden or guardian so you can tank any accidental mob-pulls... and enemies have a long leash, so running away from enemies usually means running into other enemies and ending up pulling a caravan of 10-15 enemies after you, continually replacing the first ones with new ones until you die. It is super easy to get swarmed, so being tanky is the way to go if you are alone. Enemies are also usually placed so pulling them individually is difficult.
- All races start in different locations, so if you want to play with a friend, you MUST pick the same race (you will eventually reach the same locations, but for the first 5-10 hours, you will be in a race specific area). It is nice that the tutorials and starting areas are different, but this info should definitely be available up front, which it is not. Although if you purchase the Before the Shadow expansion, you can both choose to start in Swanfleet (but don't do this. The individual intro story beats are very nice. Pick one of those).
- Enemy placement is too dense. Sometimes quests will annoyingly teleport you somewhere else, breaking immersion. If you do not have some fast travel means to get back, you can soft-lock yourself in a way too difficult area, because you cannot manually travel back when enemies are too strong and fast travel points have not been unlocked. I got stuck in Rivendell because I accidentally talked to Gandalf and got transported there. I then spent a long time trying to make it through the way too strong enemies in the Ettenmoors trying to return to Bree. This is bad game design on several levels. I only made it back because I managed to run so far that when I died, I was closer to the next resurrection spot, so I daisy-chained my way from res spot to res spot, smashing all my gear in the process, until I was in an area where I could safely travel. As such, make sure you read quest descriptions before accepting. Don't just click accept on everything.
- Ironically, the dense enemy placement makes mounts borderline useless, as enemies will always be attacking you and dismounting you, so it is often faster to just run through enemies rather than trying to stop and re-mount all the time. So buying the riding skill is actually not really that important. You will not be using it much.
- All standard gear in shops sucks. Why? Why even have shops? The only gear you really need to buy is from skirmish camps. All gear shops in the game are pointless. Weird choice.
Honestly, I would say that just playing this game to be a tourist in Middle Earth is worth it. That is why I play it. The story is the same as the books and we all already know that one, the quests are generally pretty similar and repetitive, but the scenery makes all of it worth it. Riding around and seeing The Prancing Pony, Weathertop, Carn Dum, Fornost, Minas Tirith etc is definitely reason enough to play this game. Just take the combat and the quests as bumps on the road on your sightseeing trip, if nothing else.
NB: Play this on a PC with awesome specs so you can crank render distance to the max. The areas are HUGE and being able to enjoy the scenery and seeing enemies from afar is very beneficial.
