Good gameplay, good units and a good idea. What more can u ask for? Maybe challenge?
Not horrible of bad, horrible of HORRIBLE. It´s the worst AI i have ever saw in a RTS. The difficulty changes a few the AI actions. They don´t have any strategy, always send a few units per attack. Where is the magic of LOTR? It should have lots of soldiers fighting like some of the pictures behind the box. But instead u have a copy of warcraft population and fighting style. Except in warcraft the difficult is better and the stages are not repetitive.
The tech tree is solid, but why does it need to be so small? And some of those units have no use in any strategy. Back to warcraft 3, you had certain units per race. Each of them has its own strategy or use in another strategy. No unit was left off, even the peons had an use. But here some of them are a complete waist. Like the goblin spearman. He is a waist, there is no situation in the whole game you will need that goblin.
Well, despite those minor problems, the game is solid, playable and it´s kinda funny to see a dwarf discussing with an elf. In the end, it´s a game marketed for LOTR fans and RTS starters.