It's not a bad game, but damn does the budget show.

Hollow sound design, somewhat confusing combat, imbalanced classes, uninspired missions... Battlefront 2 (2005) this is not. The melee-focus hurts the game quite a bit, and even heroes seem underwhelming.

For my LOTR game fix, I'll stick with Two Towrs, RotK, Third Age, and LOTRO.

Not even the charming LEGO setting and relaxing gameplay can wash away the taint of these movies.

Once I saw Bofur in his dumbass hat, I immediately remembered how much I hate these movies and how little I want to spend in this version of The Hobbit.

Also the game is incomplete and only has the first 2 movies. Play the far superior LEGO LOTR game, instead, which is both charming and feature complete.

Whoever made the bright idea to make this a mandatory completion to finish the epilogue (aka, a 30 second cutscene that fades to a "The End" screen), go fuck yourself. Awful decision.

You get nothing for your completion, are required to do hours of side tracked DLC and/or be forced to use the tedious alchemy system, and you barely even get to hang out with Hans, a great character.

Wish I never had this installed. Avoid at all costs, you get nothing for it.

A really great game made by a talented, small, and ambitious team that completely nailed the fantasy they were aiming for. You really feel like a shit-stained-peasant-turned-knight and that feeling never quite goes away—for better and worse.

I don’t have any nuance to add to this conversation, so I’ll summarize it below in a Pros, Cons, and Everything Else list:

Pros:
+ The RPG elements. From learning to read, to keeping up your appearance, to what Henry likes to sleep on best, you always feel firmly planted in Henry’s boots.
+ The progression. Not only does it do hardcore RPG progression well, but you honestly see and feel it. Henry grows with your stats, and over the course of the story when you find out who Henry truly is, it shows. His speech and mannerisms are reflected well in the ongoing narrative, but you also feel it as you learn combos, wear heavier armor, swing a sword better, and read bigger and longer books.
+ The narrative. It slogged a bit in the middle third with some boring quests, but it started strong and ended stronger.
+ The characters. Game of Thrones taught me to be wary of any nobility, but this game, thankfully, bucks that recent trend. Your comrades are true comrades, full of honor (and wine). Oddly refreshing.
+ The world. While I, personally, prefer a little more magic in my fantasy, just a touch, this was once again a breath of fresh air in the current video game landscape. No magic, no goblins, just you, a sword, and other people with swords.
+ Fast travel. What a genius little gimmick.

Cons:
- The world. While beautifully crafted and easy to traverse, there is almost quite literally nothing to see or do. There are some treasure, of course, but you’ll not find any secret, special armor or weapons, no hidden grottos with mysterious creatures, nothing. Witcher 3 this is not.
- The quests. I enjoyed a handful and the latter end of the main story was exciting and brisk, but there’s nothing to latch onto elsewhere. A few characters are fine, some endings are fun, but most of these quests are boring. Some are downright awful.
- The RPG elements. Ahhhhhhh, I said this was a pro earlier; clever, no?? Most of what Warhorse accomplished sticks the landing, but others definitely don’t and often get in the way. The cleanliness and equipment upkeep is brutal and too frequent; persuasion and intimidation are far too easy; equipment is largely lackluster and there’s not much to look forward to. These aren’t deal breaker, but splinters in the woodwork.
- The combat. Fucking hated it for all 70 hours, and I gave it an honest try: master strokes, combos, feints, parrys. When an enemy died in one swing I was in heaven, otherwise I was getting swamped by messy AI or locked into a 1-on-1 for what felt like ages. Hated it, hated it, hated it, and I love old CRPGs.

Everything else:
? The bugs. This is a given for any large, open-world RPG but certain bugs were a pain. That said, I’m surprised at how well this ran! No crashes, and really the only bugs I ran into consistently were enemy AI. Anything else was minor.
? The pacing. It was never awful, but certain missions need to have been thrown in the bin. The monastery? Awful. The coin forging investigation? Way too long. Forcing a (pretty good) DLC quest at the end of the epilogue? C’mon now.
? The DLC. Never fantastic, sometimes bad. Never earth-shatteringly awful.
? The engine. Between this and Hunt: Showdown, I’m not so sure I love the Crytek engine anymore. But! It’s not all bad! The game can really be a looker in sunny fields, the light shining on plates of armor and glistening blood on swords. Other times you’re watching 720p compressed videos and the horizon is filled with 2D sprites of green trees.
? The “realism”. Much like Red Dead 2, the realism seems to ebb and flow with what the designers felt was appropriate. You pick up each individual item, but can transfer to your horse anywhere at any time; alcohol slowly affects Henry instead of all at once like most games, but you can’t drink water or bread to mitigate the effects; clothes affect how people react to you, but you can change on the fly right before their eyes and get better deals. None of this is a deal breaker—the what it does do well only enhances the experience—but this thought wouldn’t leave my mind for the dozen or so hours.