Don't get this if you're actually an LotR buff, and want it for just the lore.
For example, trolls in the sun? First mention of it on the books was at the gates of Mordor. Not one person was surprised to see these trolls that shouldn't even exist yet.
Strider in Bree before the hobbits showed up? That goes against the lore too because he was actually southwest of the Shire, holding off a few Ringwraiths. He only got to Bree like a day or something before the Hobbits.
There's other stuff, if course.
It's also fun with couch co-op. Didn't play single player.
I paid like $30 for it (Kmart coupons, do the math however you want), and had actually canceled my $60+$20 credit preorder from Amazon. I didn't feel like it was a waste of my money, until...
I literally couldn't play it for over a month, because of a game breaking bug. We were stuck at reciting someone in Mirkwood
, and would only let us repeat that mission for no rewards. We literally beat two co-op games, took a break, started another game, before they finally patches it. We haven't gone back to it.
The AI is stupid, btw. The dwarf is on AI for us, and just dies and dies.
If you're doing couch co-op, I think it's worth about $30 for the vanilla, so add what you think the map is worth.