Graphically, I'm going to have to revert back to my earlier stance of being a Tolkein fan. Technically, the game is sound. Units look better than they did in Battle Realms (this game runs on an updated version of that engine) and environments are done well (especially all of the wildlife running around the maps), but it doesn't capture the Tolkein feel to me. I suppose that's pretty subjective, but that's how I feel. While Middle-Earth is a fantasy world, there was always a very real cast to it thanks to the incredibly detailed writing style of the author. That realism is missing here. The look is just too cartoony and disproportionate. Even the old cartoons of The Hobbit and Return of the King weren't this cartoony. It needed more flair of some kind. I can't exactly put my finger on what it was missing, but there's definitely a hole there as far as the art and majesty of Middle-Earth goes. But at the same time, there were certainly a couple of things done right. The Balrog is wonderful as is the giant Ent. They're very detailed and look fantastic. It's almost like they're different styles of art entirely and they definitely fit with the fiction better. Unfortunately, the game did stutter a bit at 1024x768 resolution, even on the 3GHz, 1gig of RAM, and GeForceFX Ultra at work.