Extremely Fun!
I always wondered, "Man it would be cool to put myself in there!" The create a hero feature is innovative, no you can't customize it completley but lets face it, it's the first of it's kind, even the Wrestling games genre which offers the best customaztion of any games started out pretty weak in this area.
The Graphics are beatiful to anyone who stops and looks at them, the designs of everything in the Dwarven and Elven worlds is also something I think both Peter Jackson AND J.R.R Tolkien would like.
The sound is a wonderful mix of original and tracks from the Trilogy giving the epic feel to each mission. Voice acting is not anything special but it doesn't irritate you either (Unless your a sad little man who expected the A-Listers of the Trilogy to return for every game then you just have bigger problems) Hugo Weaving's masterful Elrond voice grabs you and plunks you down right in the center of the action as he explains the missions.
Overall yes this game has some kinks, Walls are overly expensive and have as much of a chance of surviving a couple blows from a Ram or attack troll as a Bounty paper towel. And the A.I is not as intelligent as one would expect.
War of the ring is something very interesting, basically it took the entire concept of 'Star Wars Empire at War' and made it a FEATURE! You control your region from a world map with heroes and build spots on each province and move to conquer the whole map. Something I'm looking forward to exploring deeper.
So in my humble opinion, RTS fans and of course LOTR fans will get their money's worth from this title.