I've got my first impression at the Gamescom 2010, and it was horrible. So I'm very skeptical about that game. The graphics there where so ugly, I couldn't believe it. This turned out to be problem with the PC there. It looks much better on mine.
But still the graphic is not up to the latest standards. The textures are blurry and not their edges are often too hard. So it doesn't fit when textures are changing in the game world, like on the ground e.g. Snow is cut in like a razor blade.
I haven't verified the story, but it seems to fit into the universe of the books. All main races and classes are available. No Ents :).
You have loads of possible things to improve, and a massive amount of equipment. This is a good thing for long-term gaming. But it's kind of frustrating if you just play for fun.
What's new now? Why do I write about it? It an old game.
Well, now it's free. No monthly costs. However, you can pay monthly for a VIP-account. And here we go. It will be a 2 class game. The one who are paying and the freebies. I already see threads in the forum, where people asking other players about problems, and they just play the stupid, because they don't pay. I'll have to see how that effects in-game play. What can you do more with a VIP-account, do you need to buy things like in Runes Of Magic? That's what I don't like about free2play MMOs. They pretend to be free, but in everyday use, you're prey without buying stuff. I don't know if this is the case with Lord Of The Rings, I need more time to play to a higher level, where normally the problem begins.
If you like the "Lord", you definitely should try it. It's a hefty ~10GB download. Beware, it installs "Pando Media Booster" to download. Another problem with free2play games. I don't like p2p clients getting installed to download and play the game. Those tools can cause problems with your internet speed in some special cases. You can uninstall "Pando Media Booster" after the installation, but I couldn't check if this is needed for downloading updates when starting the game-client. So be careful or reinstall "Pando Media Booster".
Now I'm playing a little more. I'll let you know about it. Just check my lifestream here from time to time and you might find more updated than you want :)
