The Non Disclosure Agreement for Lord of the Rings Online has been lifted and previews and first impressions of the game starts to appear on the net.
Most of the opinions seems to be positive, sometimes enthusiastic.

One example is Tobold , who thinks that:
"Overall the Lord of the Rings Online is an excellent game. It is hard to describe the feel of the game, but in essence it just constantly made me very happy. There were so many things to explore, things to do and to see. And there was so little frustration involved. I didn't get to report a single bug, for the simple reason that I didn't encounter any."

MMORPG.com is also happy about the game:
"Overall, for me, Lord of the Rings Online is a big step up from Dungeons & Dragons Online for Turbine. It is a much more polished game and has a better open world for players to explore. If you are a fan of Tolkien, there is plenty in the game that remains true to the stories and really makes the player feel like a part of them. I was very impressed with the content, especially the dramatic sequences that you become a part of. My only issue with LOTRO is that it falls prey to many of the standard MMO practices we have become used to over the last few years. Despite suffering from some of the standard MMO traits, I do look forward to the launch of Lord of the Rings Online and believe that it will have a solid fan base with the role-player type community. In the end, Lord of the Rings was a great story, and the game responds to that element very well."

Last but not least, we strongly suggest you to read the Warcry preview , in particular this part about the Monster Play:
"This one feature pretty much sealed the deal for me on LOTRO. At first, I was angsty about not getting to roll a character in an "evil" race and play the game for the side of Sauron. Then I found the Monster Play portal, and I was instantly hooked. Sure, you don't get much in the way of customizing your look or gear, but you can still do a lot to tailor your chosen monster class to your playstyle. As a minion of Sauron, you will be able to undertake quests just like on your normal character, but rather than get experience, you will get Destiny Points. These can be used to enhance your MP character with extra damage, extra defense or new attacks. The best part of all of this is that you will get to choose a name and if you play long enough, and well enough against other players, you will eventually be able to rise to the level of an Elite monster. This means that instead of players gathering together to take on a PvE boss, they will have to group up to take on you. As cool as the good guys are, I will be spending most of my time playing as a monster, because nothing feels better than smacking Hobbits around."