Breathtaking. Just give it a chance. Download the trial.
I really dont understand the occasional bad reviews you see said about this game. Ive been into RPGs for years, as for MMOs, i was a WoW fanboy since its release, I loved Guildwars and dabbled in WAR. I went back to WoW recently to play the expansion and thought it was ok but i just felt that id been there, done that. Every place you go theres some ogres that all live in the same rehashed caves, theres scorpions that you need to kill 20 of etc etc. Its sad really because i remember how much i used to love playing it. I also have a lot of respect for Guildwars which i play every now and again but thats a different game.
Like a lot of people, id never even though about LoTR online but recently, after playing WAR for a bit and quitting it was my last hope for a new decent MMO to play. Now yes, ive not been playing that long but i can honestly say that it has blown me away. And i mean that. Every good idea i have seen in other games is in LoTR and usually executed a lot better. For the first time im actually botherd with what the quest givers are saying. There a proper story arc thats progresses through a mixture of quests and instanced events. It is also very atmospheric and the graphics are stunning. One thing worth noting is that the starter areas and very quite. Saying that, i never had any problem completing anything because the community is very helpful and (i think) more mature than on other games. But still, the early areas can feel a bit quite. As for endgame, no theres not as much as WoW (which seems to cater entirely for endgame now) but there is still a fair bit. Much more to do than other games
There no point me going on or debating about it anymore as you can get a trial for free and see for yourself. You might not think its that good, you might prefere WoW for a variety of reasons (which there are some) but like me, you might feel like slapping youself in the face for not playing it sooner.
