Although standard in most cases, really does right what matters most.
The controls and interface are fairly well done. The units are squad based, meaning that you don't control every single soldier individually but a set of several are commanded as one (with the exception of heroes, siege weapons and some very powerful units).
The single player part of the game is divided in a fairly classic Skirmish mode and the campaign mode which includes the campaign of Good and the campaign of Evil. I found the structure of the campaigns to be quite interesting, both campaigns mix Plot battles (Including but not limited to Moria, Lothlorien, Amon Hen, Helm's Deep, Isengard, Ithilien, Osgiliath, Cirith Ungol, Minas Tirith, Black Gate and so on), these battles have specific objectives and you can expect scripted events, but in between these missions you are given the choice to attack different regions (each gives a different bonus when conquered such as bonus multiplier to resources, power points or increased population cap) when you attack a region, the gameplay is basically a Skirmish map with occasional bonus objectives. What makes this compelling is that the troops recruited in a mission carry over to the campaign map, in that way you're given a considerable insensitive to upgrade your troops and keep them alive.
The game includes 2 sides (Good and Evil) divided into 4 factions, Gondor, Rohan, Isengard and Mordor, each with its own unique set of units and heroes. Every faction plays differently (for instance Mordor can recruit Orcs for free) and overall the balance isn't badly done (not perfect, but good enough). Regarding balance however, the main problem are the heroes, some of them are ridiculously overpowered such as Gandalf or Legolas, when the heroes reach level 10 they can take on ludicrous amounts of enemies single handed. The same problem exists with powers of the Evenstar or the One Ring (powers you can activate at will and within the limits of the cooldown timers provided you acquire them first, you do so by killing). The main issue in this is that eventually soldiers become secondary, and the greater part of the fighting relies on heroes and powers. However even then micromanagement is limited, the strategy is always basically just rush forward with enough troops (and you don't even really need to have several types on units, you can very well play while just spamming a single unit).
The soundtrack predictably makes use of the Music Composed by Howard Shore for the Movie Trilogy and is in that regard suitably epic for the setting, so there'll be no complaints there. Voice acting is good but not outstanding, though it doesn't stand out, it gets the job done fairly well.
The base building in BFME is however strange, in the sense that you can only build around specific points, once you bring troops near those posts, you can build outposts, base or fortresses depending on the point you're close to. Depending on that, and the faction you're playing, you'll get a wall around the post and a certain number of construction slots. You can only build on those slots, and each building takes one regardless of its type. You also have a few places around the map where you can build resource creating buildings, but they're pretty vulnerable, since you can't even build defenses around those.
Buildings, just like the units, also have experience levels, which they acquire through creating units and / or researching upgrades, once a building reaches a higher level, you get access to more units and / or researches, as well as decreasing build time for any other unit created. It does get pretty annoying though when you want a specific unit type, but can't get it (for instance I rely a lot on Rangers when playing Gondor, but before I can recruit them, I have to recruit 4-5 archer groups, which are inferior by far), this forces you to create weaker units, and sending them to get killed so they don't waste population capacity.
All in all, this is a fairly standard RTS, which a couple of interesting concepts, and which makes a really good use of the LotR franchise.