A great sequel
The campaign of this game is another bunch of scenarios from the movies (expected but still disappointing...) and is much too easy on any of the difficulty settings. The most interesting addition is the 'War of the Ring' mode in which you seek to conquer Middle Earth. This works much like Empire at War and conquering your enemies' city of origin results in instant defeat of that enemy. This mode is engaging and will easily occupy you for an hour per game assuming you decide to solve all conflict in real-time. This mode gets tedious after a while and you'll be tempted just to scrap it.
As with all RTS games, the AI gets predictable after a length of time. The Brutal enemies can be expected to rush in the first 5-10 minutes of the game only to have their attack power wane after this so long as you counterattack. Of course, this makes it impossible to defeat 7 Brutals teamed up against you. The skill of the AI doesn't contribute as much as the upkeep that a team contributes. Excepting an Easy, any AI teamed with a brutal will make a significant difference. Some of the pathfinding mechanics also have some issues and you'll wind up taking a slight detour sometimes. This always seems to kick in with a cavalry charge and it does get somewhat annoying.
Heroes and powers remain similar to the first game with the Power Points system. This unfortunately means that wizards are still terribly effective against swarms and will reduce Goblin-players to tears if implemented correctly. All of the offensive Ring Powers are acutally area based so amassing a huge horde becomes hard and it's necessary to send small waves to get anywhere. To add to this problem certain units also have lesser versions of the 1-shot Ring Powers such as Dunian Rangers having Longshot which is strikingly similar to Arrow Bombard, both sending a rain of arrows down on an area killing everything there.
The 'Create-a-Hero' feature gives control over a custom hero's appearance, attributes and most importantly powers. This gives you an opportunity to play around with Gandalf and Aragorn's powers and suit them to your own style of play making it a great addition.
This game shines in the multiplayer department. If nothing else, the environments provide a multitude of entry paths unused by the AI. Playing against a real foe creates a whole new challenge. The AI will never use Arrow Bombard and usually just uses support powers and summons. This leaves you space to amass a huge army and just storm in to pillage their city. Against a real player, a simple 10 point power will devastate your army.
This is a stunning sequel but the astonishment won't last and after a mere 10 hours gameplay, you'll feel you've experienced everything the game has to offer.