The good stuff: Graphics are nice. Not awesome (because we've seen those Age of Conan screenshots, and Gothic 3, and Oblivion...), but the grass is really nice, and the world doesn't look empty like it does in EQ2. Facial expressions are great. Different starting storylines, and storylines that have a real effect on the world (like when Bree burns down, transporting you into a different instance after completing the quest), very awesome. I also loved how Sauron's Eye was damaging you when a Nazgul looks at you. Also good: interesting character concepts with Loremaster and Captain.
The bad stuff: I don't even know where to start. The game seems to be a ripoff of EQ2 gameplay, DDO animations/models (sadly this isn't true for combat animations) and a model artist who has watched too much Wallace&Gromit. Previously I wouldn't have believed it is possible to watch too much Wallace&Gromit, but looking at the male elfs' faces.... oh my. The loot system sucks, and this is one of the reasons I left Everquest II: Everyone loots the same. Quest rewards are always the same. There is exactly one sort of "best" equipment for a class at a given level, and everyone is using that. Every guardian starts with a hatchet and a shield, every minstrel wears this silly hat, every Loremaster starts with the same staff. Since the questrewards are predetermined, I doubt that'll ever change in high levels.
Speaking of everyone looking the same, that's not the worst. Everyone also has the same stats, there is little to no choice to influence the various awesome sounding stats. The only possible way to "influence" them is to get quest rewards - in form of virtues, traits and loot. Since there is no random factor at all, there is no choice here either. Everyone gets the same equipment in the end.
The combat system sucks. This one is really bad. I sit there stupidly mashing buttons - the only challenge is that sometimes, I can unlock special buttons by mashing other buttons first. Wow. Since in-combat-regeneration is a joke, so is "morale" or whatever the blue bar was - My wife got to level 9 really fast, and still couldn't get a downtime for morale regeneration, despite trying really hard.
Crafting is a joke. You pay a silly amount of money and material, click a button, and get a result. No risk/reward, just a very uncleverly disguised way to draw money out of the game in an early stage. I assume if you're doing it often enough, you gain some sort of skills or whatnot. Really exciting.
Storylines: The beginnings of the Halfling and the Dwarf storylines were cool, the Human was okay. The Elves didn't touch me at all - following the character running around in panic from locked gate to locked gate wasn't very exciting. The final confrontation between the big enemy and a signature Middle Earth character was extremely disappointing. Yeah, I get it, the Developers want to show us "hey, look, this is middle-earth, so we have to rescue this poor level 1 character from the evil Nazgul by sending a whole company of elven rangers in". The Elf storyline is downright silly in that regard.
This short review is based on a night's playtime where I got a few characters to level 3 while my wife got one to 10 - since max level is 60, I think, a sixth of the game is a good indication how it'll turn out in the high end game.
Drawing comparisons:
Open World/Closed World: This is of course very different from DDO where everything interesting happens in small predefined areas. However, it has the same problems as EQ2, Ryzom, DaoC - it takes an eternity to get from one point to the next. Yes, there's horses later, and stables which instateleport you around, but these are few, and horses only speed up even greater distances. EQ 2 was so big that it took a group of friends up to 20 minutes to gather somewhere - despite there being teleportation and quick travel abilities.
The only onlinegame that has managed to solve this to some satisfaction is City of Heroes, where every character gets one out of four travel powers at early midlevel - Flight, Superspeed, Jump and Teleportation. The maps are also medium sized and very alive, so travelling is only a chore in the beginning of the game, after that, it remains highly enjoyable.
Unfortunately, with huge areas also come huge loading times. Imagine you want to RP with someone, but he says he's near Mordor while you are in Bree - after half an hour, you're both probably somewhere in the middle.
Combat system: The combat system is a cheap copy of EQ 2, where the different icons actually do something. It's exactly the same, only more clear - they even stole the Heroic Opportunity system from EQ 2. The Heroic Opportunity system allows a character to start a Heroic Opportunity, which has to be completed by several other classes executnig specific attacks and skills to gain a helpful bonus effect. I won't get into more details why I don't like it, I only played EQ 2 for half a year, and the combat system was one of the reasons.
A good point-click-and-wait system is the one of City of Heroes. It's basically the same targetting, mash buttons, win, but there is a lot of dynamic - enemies flying around, and you'll rarely stand still. Ryzom has an excellent combat system where you can design your own attacks.
Character Individuality: EQ2, WoW and LotR have the same problem: There is none. Every human minstrel will look the same at a given level in LotR, same as every Paladin in EQ2 wore the same armor, used the same weapon and had the same skills. There is no individuality like in NeverwinterNights or DDO. CoH doesn't have this problem, because your powers are set at character creation - the individuality comes from the appearance (CoH's character/avatar creation system is the best I have ever seen, and I have seen a lot). Ryzom faces a similar problem, because in Ryzom, you can gain skills infinitely by practicing them - meaning in the end game, everyone is a master magician/fighter/crafter/harvester, but the way to there is pretty individual.
Quests/Instances: The instances in LotR are nicely done, but DDO wins here big time. EQ2, Ryzom and WoW have much more cookie cutter quests which consists of killing x amount of species y more than two thirds of the time, sometimes with story attached. CoH has interesting instances - every quest happens inside an instanced building/cave, which is usually randomly generated, and full of monsters and enemies at your leisure, who usually just stand around until they're beaten up though. The storylines in CoH are cool, the quests themselves lack a lot of depth.
Crafting: There is only one serious contender for a good crafting system, and that's Ryzom. EQ2 requires you to fight an imaginary battle against the product, using skills to boost quality and avoid faults. LotR is a buy-and-click-feast. Ryzom has a system where you buy a recipe, and the materials you use determine the quality and stats of the item. If "Leather Sandals" require three pieces of leather and one piece of twine, you are free to mix and match too - one bristling boar skin gives a bit resistance against fire, while two elephant hides add durability to the shoes. This is how crafting should be - interesting, rewarding and interactive.
Roleplaying Abilities:
EQ2: Very few. Open world, no real interesting quests, no character individuality - after level 20 or 30, a dark elf paladin plays exactly the same as a human, halfling or ogre paladin. RP Server only in english.
WoW: Even less. Open cartoonish world, cookie-cutter quests, no individuality at all. RP Server.
Ryzom: Open world you can hide in, unique characters. Various visible equipment due to highly interesting crafting system. Gamemasters regularly run RP Events. Very few players. Nonclassic, unique world makes it difficult to integrate yourself in.
CoH: Superheroes at their best. Myriads of possibilities to design costume give a lot of individual appearance (which is, for a chance, visibile from far away - CoH is the only game where you can easily identify people without having names toggled on). RP server. Limited to RP because we're all Heroes (or Villains).
Lots of Emotes.
LotR: Lots of Emotes. No character individuality. Open world, very pretty locations. Very nice naming advice at character creation. Possibility for RP Server.
DDO: Very individual characters, very different builds, different equipment. Ugly base models unless they're female. Hectic quests don't allow for much time. No RP Server. Quests require teamplay.
Seriously, LotR is not the game for you. Check out http://www.everquest2.com (we might have one trial key left), Ryzom (http://www.ryzom.com) - which is free by now and sadly underpopulated, City of Heroes (http://www.coh.com) which currently offers a free trial.
For pure online roleplaying, I'd personally stick to IRC channels or PBeMs. Also worth to check out is Armageddon MUD, which I don't know if it is still active.
But LotR? This one is, quite honestly, crap.
but serously, its a nice RP tool. At least, its annoying clearing the RP site all 5 minutes. Yes you can go in extrem lowlevel zones, to the beautiful waterfall with a unicorn passing by from time to time.... like 20 others too, not counted the newbs doing their quests there.
