Very good: there is more of everything at or above the level of execution we have seen in Shadows of Angmar. The graphical prowess of this game never ceases to amaze me, particularly when I think of the older rigs many people are using to play… if you were able to run The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (a March '06 release) well, you can run LOTRO with pretty solid settings. A Core 2 or Phenom system with an upper-mid-range ($200-300) graphics card and 2GB of RAM gets you all the bells and whistles.
The art style is stunning; Eregion isn’t jaw-dropping, but the Tolkien books are clear that it isn't supposed to be. The approach to Moria is incredibly accurate, with backed up lake, staircase, the famous glowing door, and so on, all where they should be. Moria itself is appropriately gargantuan; massive sculpted faces of stone peer out across chasms where you can’t see the bottom; looking up shows arches disappearing into the darkness, presumably holding up a ceiling somewhere above. The scale of the place dwarfs everything, not just dwarves (sorry I had to).
Music is grandiose and orchestral, and there are a bunch of new NPC and mob sound bites. Most importantly, along with the graphics and writing, the sound contributes to making you feel like you have a hand in the events of the most widely loved piece of fantasy literature on earth. Turbine again has succeeded here, making players feel included without offending fans of the books who wouldn’t take kindly to any inaccuracy or modification in the story.
Yes, you get to help Poor Old Bill the Pony get back to Rivendell.
