Not too difficult, not too easy. perfectly balanced in everything. Easily The best game I have played in years.
-The graphics: 10/10
LotRO has very amazing graphics, even in the lowest mode they remain astonishing, the best graphics I have seen in any MMO I have played.
-The gameplay: 8/10
The gameplay of LotRo is very good, not too easy, but neither is it too difficult, a perfect balance. You don't just run around and kill monsters, no, you have specific objectives each time.
-The story: 10/10
I really like the storyline of LotRO, it is clear, it is fun, and it's good. Many fo you might think you will just follow the events of the books and movies, nothing is less true, LotRO has 3 Volumes (the story is played as books, quests are chapters, e.g. vol. 2 book 5 chapter 8), one in wich you have to save Eriador, the second takes place in Moria, and the third you travel with the grey company. And although you run into the fellowship sometimes, it is a unique story.
The LotRO store: 10/10
A unique aspect of LotRO is the store, in wich you can purchase buffs, goodies, items, mounts, outfits, character slots, and a lot more. It doesn't use the in-game currency (gold, silver, and copper) but Turbine Points (TP), wich can be earned in-game, or monthly awarded to subscribers.
-Free to play: 9,5/10
Since september 2010, LotRO has released free to play, wich obviously means you can play the game for free. This has drawn many people to create an account and start playing the game. But of course, not everything is free. what free to play players get:
-2 character slots.
-4 region quest packs (Ered Luin, the Shire, Bree-Land, and the Lone-Lands) to level to lv 30..
-3 inventory bags (15 slots/bag)
-They can level to lv 75, and do the full storyline.
-A currency cap (They can get up to 2 gold)
-All free classes (not Rune-Keeper and Warden)
-The Orc Reaver class for Monster play
All they don't get can be purchases in the store, like region quest packs, character slots, inventory bags, the currency cap remover, the Rune-Keeper and Warden classes, and the other monster play classes.
-The deed system: 10/10
This unique feature of LotRO is in one word: excellent. Every region has a set of slayer (kill an amount of a certain monster), explorer (find certain places) and quest (Finish a certain amount or set of quests) deeds, but there ar also class (Use a skill a certain amount of times), race, epic (finish a certain storyline), raid, and reputation (get a certain standing with a certain faction) deeds. Different deeds give different rewards, every deed awards TP to use in the store, and some award traits, some titles, some, and some mounts. Free to play players can do the deeds of the quest packs they have.
-Raiding: 9,5/10
The raiding system in LotRO is divided into 3 kinds:
-Skirmish: Defend a certain point (defensive) Or capture certain places (offensive). Allows you to scale to the level you want, the difficulty (tier 1, 2, or challenge), and the amount of players in your fellowship (2, 3, or 6) or raid (12 or 24), you can also solo them.
-Scaling instance: You have to fight your way to the mid-bosses and the end-boss. Allows you to scale the level of the instance, the difficulty, but not to the amount of players.
-Non-scaling instance: same as the scaling instance, but you can't scale the lv, here you can only choose a tier.
i think the raids are very well organized, and they give good rewards, only problem is that raids can often be very laggy, especially 12 or 24 man raids.
Crafting: 6/10
I consider the crafting in LotRO mediocre, mainly because it takes so long to craft something, for example, you need to craft 200 copper and tin ores into 100 copper and tin ingots, then those into 100 bronze ingots, then these into
100 components, and these components into 50 pieces of armor, and to make 1 thing, it takes 6 seconds, well, start calculating, 6x100x4+6x50= a lot of time, and this was a realistic example.
The issues:
Of course, LotRO has, like every other game, bugs. Some of them are: laggy raids, impossible quests, travel route breaking, ....
But overall, the Lord of the Rings Online is avery good game from my point of view. You can pay ($14.99/month, $29.98/3 months, or $99.99/year), you're VIP then, you get alot of things, like 500 TP each months, and all quest packs, except expansions, and a lot more, but you can perfectly play the game without paying a penny, it only takes longer. I rate the game 9,5/10