There are literally thousands of other reviews, so I'll keep mine concise.

+ An excellent storyline. The story follows Talion, a Gondorian ranger who is stationed at Black Gate. He is later possessed by a very important and very powerful figure in Middle Earth's history. The story's pace is quite good, though it feels a bit disconnected towards the end.

+ The lore is greatly enhanced by the artifacts you find. Collect all the artifacts if nothing else. I especially loved the ones where they delve into lore of Blue Wizards.

+ You get to see lots of important characters from the Middle Earth's history, and also many characters from the movie trilogy. I'm an avid fan of LOTR mythology, so this game was a very good opportunity to refresh my memory.

+ The voice-acting and sound effects are incredible. It really feels like you are watching a movie during cutscenes.

+ For those achievement hunters, the game is choke-full of collectibles and challenges, though none of them unlock anything in the game (This may be a negative point for some).

+ Towards the end of the game you become something like a demigod. If you unlock all abilities and find all the epic runes for your weapons, there is nothing that can stand in your way, be it Graugs or hordes of orcs (This may be a negative point for some).

+ The nemesis system really makes you want to go take your revenge.

+ I loved the bit about Ratbag. I think all the quests related to him were hilarious.

+/- The graphics are not ground-breaking. They are nice, for sure, but not mind-blowing.

+/- The combat is nothing special. It uses the same system as Arkham games. It is less fluid than Arkham, but more lethal. You need to be more careful. With a little reflex, you can beat 20+ men easily as Batman, but you will die a lot if you try to take on 20+ orcs here (until you unlock epic runes and abilities at least).

- Throughout the game I had frequent sound glitches. It may be my system (I'm using a Sound Blaster Z and I play with heaphones. I chose "headphones" in the audio options menu). The problem is, after a while all speech sounds come from the left speaker, some speech sounds are very muffled, and some sound effects are completely muted. Restarting the game fixes the issue.

- There are tons of challenges and collectibles but none of them unlock anything.

- If you don't rush thorugh the game and do all the quests and everything, you become nigh-invincible towards the end and the game loses all challenge (This was not a negative for me but it may disappoint many people).

- There are some rare bugs in some missions which forces you to restart them.

- The unskippable little cutscenes you have to watch every time you face an Orc captain or Warchief start getting boring after a while.

Verdict: I think this game is a must-play for everyone, even if you are not really interested in the LOTR. There are some negative points to be sure, but the positives far, far outweigh them. Definitely recommended.

There are literally thousands of other reviews, so I'll keep mine concise. + An excellent storyline. The story follows Talion, a Gondorian ranger who is stationed at Black Gate. He is later possessed by a very important and very powerful figure in Middle Earth's history. The story's pace is quite good, though it feels a bit disconnected towards the end. + The lore is greatly enhanced by the artifacts you find. Collect all the artifacts if nothing else. I especially loved the ones where they delve into lore of Blue Wizards. + You get to see lots of important characters from the Middle Earth's history, and also many characters from the movie trilogy. I'm an avid fan of LOTR mythology, so this game was a very good opportunity to refresh my memory. + The voice-acting and sound effects are incredible. It really feels like you are watching a movie during cutscenes. + For those achievement hunters, the game is choke-full of collectibles and challenges, though none of them unlock anything in the game (This may be a negative point for some). + Towards the end of the game you become something like a demigod. If you unlock all abilities and find all the epic runes for your weapons, there is nothing that can stand in your way, be it Graugs or hordes of orcs (This may be a negative point for some). + The nemesis system really makes you want to go take your revenge. + I loved the bit about Ratbag. I think all the quests related to him were hilarious. +/- The graphics are not ground-breaking. They are nice, for sure, but not mind-blowing. +/- The combat is nothing special. It uses the same system as Arkham games. It is less fluid than Arkham, but more lethal. You need to be more careful. With a little reflex, you can beat 20+ men easily as Batman, but you will die a lot if you try to take on 20+ orcs here (until you unlock epic runes and abilities at least). - Throughout the game I had frequent sound glitches. It may be my system (I'm using a Sound Blaster Z and I play with heaphones. I chose "headphones" in the audio options menu). The problem is, after a while all speech sounds come from the left speaker, some speech sounds are very muffled, and some sound effects are completely muted. Restarting the game fixes the issue. - There are tons of challenges and collectibles but none of them unlock anything. - If you don't rush thorugh the game and do all the quests and everything, you become nigh-invincible towards the end and the game loses all challenge (This was not a negative for me but it may disappoint many people). - There are some rare bugs in some missions which forces you to restart them. - The unskippable little cutscenes you have to watch every time you face an Orc captain or Warchief start getting boring after a while. Verdict: I think this game is a must-play for everyone, even if you are not really interested in the LOTR. There are some negative points to be sure, but the positives far, far outweigh them. Definitely recommended.