Does a lot of things well, but none of them as well as the best games in this genre
The backdrop visuals are excellent and there is quite a bit of environmental diversity (e.g., Barrow Downs vs. Rivendell). However, unlike open (sandbox) games, you can't go to those places. In fact, it is often difficult to tell which paths are navigable and which are not. This is probably my biggest gripe with this game. It hampers one's immersion into the game when the game (probably unintentionally) forces you to repeatedly run up against virtual "walls" in order to find the few that aren't there and are paths to secrets and treasure.
I've enjoyed combat. The combat mechanism is nothing revolutionary, but it works well; and there is quite a bit of variety in the combat. You must be able and willing to quickly switch between ranged, melee and use of powers. Targeting works well and controls are responsive. They hit the mark on the number of enemies per fight and the different kinds of enemies -- though this is somewhat constrained by the Tolkien mythology.
Variety of weapons and customizations is good (but doesn't approach the level of the Bethesda-based games).
Conversations with NPC is a mixed bag. Some of the voice acting is average at best. Most is good, but not great. There are a lot of friendly or neutral NPCs in the game, which makes the towns and camps seem artificial. On the other hand, you don't waste your time talking to people who have no impact on the game or on the parallel LotR story. Also, I don't get the impression that your choices are impacting anything later in the game. Altogether, this is another area that the game does well, but not as well as the best in class (Mass Effect, Fable, etc.) in this aspect of RPG games.
One of the surprises in the dialog that I've enjoyed quite a bit is that if you explore the "Investigate" responses, you can learn quite a lot of background about the characters from Tolkien's novel(s). Some of this information is well known if you've read the books or watched the movies, but there's quite a bit about which I was unaware.
To sum it up, I'm enjoying this game. When compared to the value built in to the RPG industry leading games, however, you may want to rent it or wait until the first price drop to get a copy.