War of the Ring seems to imitate Warcraft III, all the way down to the menu screens for each campaign. It also features the same 3/4ths perspective, same limited camera options, same cartoonish 3D graphics, and the characters even run with the same hoppy-skippy gait (though it's toned down a bit). The larger creatures have the same blockiness (particularly the horse hooves), and this weakens Tolkien's somewhat humorless tone. It worked for Warcraft III because there were dark, foreboding (and gorgeous) cutscenes telling the story. War of the Ring lacks this and instead relies on clunky in-game cutscenes.