The environments are aesthetically beautiful, the textures and lighting effects are great, but the level-design itself is pretty straightforward, strategically speaking. Enemy designs are great, but there's only one model for each type--allowing that a heavy-armor orc is a different enemy-type than a basic grunt. The character models look a little dated, and suffers from the same problems that face any game trying to render screen-actors as game-friendly character models.

Despite this, most of the in-game animations are smooth and appealing, if repetitive, and the slow-motion critical strikes are pretty badass. There are some nice set-pieces sprinkled in--like watching a great eagle eat the eyes out of a stone-giant--and these go a long way toward reminding you that you're just a small part of the massive war against Mordor.

Overall, the entertainment is there, but usability is lacking. I just kept thinking, "This game could have been so great." To conclude, I will describe the very specific people and scenario that would make this game an absolutely fantastic experience: A group of three LOTR fans that are all equally enamored with the lore and want to hear every single piece of dialog in the game, they each want to purchase their own copy and they want to play through the whole game together. For that hypothetical group of people, go ahead and pretend I gave this game a B+ instead.

Connor Cleary is a contributor to GameShark , Gamasutra , and GameCareerGuide . His video game writing archive is called The Blue Key , and he runs a freelance web and graphic design business.