First off, you should know that my husband and I are casual video gamers so we are VERY selective about the games we purchase and play. In general, we like games that do not take themselves too seriously, have clear goals or steps to follow, include puzzles that require some thought but are not overly-challenging, can be played in front of children without worry of the content, and are more enjoyable than stressful to play. We also prefer games with the multi-player option so my husband and I can play together and work on teamwork/communication. The LEGO video games fit this description/desire better than any other video games we have purchased.How we play the LEGO games: My husband and I like to play a level to get a 100% money bar, go back through in free play to find any treasures and solve puzzles, and then interact with the world-hub to explore and solve anything that we can. Then we move onto the next level. If we earn a new ability, we immediately go back through levels and to areas on the map where we know we need to use that ability.To date, the LEGO games my husband and I have played together are - Star Wars I & II, Indianan Jones I, Batman I, and Lord of the Rings. There are some significant differences between the previous games and LOTR, so I will explain some of those differences below and go over the pros and cons.1. HUB: In older LEGo games, you are dropped off at a central hub between levels. From this central hub you could select levels to replay, choose new levels, buy items, collect money, review your progress, get hints, etc. In LOTR there is no central hub; instead there is the LOTR world: Middle Earth. You literally walk around through places like Hobbiton and Mordor as your "hub." So the hub is enormous and as you complete levels, the more areas you can access in the world. Essentially you get to walk in the footsteps of the characters in the story.2. MAP: Since there is such a huge hub, a map is provided to show you where you are and where things can be found. To access the map, select start, view map, and then move your stick around to see the map. Press square to zoom out and circle to zoom in. Hover the magnifying glass over statues and select in order to be directly transported to that area (instead of having to walk there through the world). You can also select levels to replay and enter them directly from the map. One of the best features is selecting destinations on the map and blue ghost pieces appear in the world for you to follow to that destination.PROS/CONS Regarding the HUB and MAP: Getting to walk through the entire world is very fun and enables the game to include a greater number of puzzles, explorations, etc. I also loved the quick teleportation if you did not have the time or desire to walk all the way back to a particular area. However, you and your teammate cannot transport together, so you get separated on opposite sides of the map and have to do double-transporting to stay together. Plus, when you select a destination, the guide pieces only show up to that destination for one player (the other player will still have guide pieces to the previous location.) We overcame this issue by having one player follow the player who had the correct guide pieces. In our opinion, instead of just solving some puzzles or finding objects throughout the world, it would have been a lot of fun to actually build of Middle Earth like buildings or special locations and by doing so opened up the level to play or enabled us to buy characters. The more interactive a game is the more fun it is. Also, we were disappointed that some things were not included in the map like the Gray Havens or the inability to enter and walk through buildings.3. SPLIT SCREEN: In the past, two players shared the same screen which at times got annoying... Some examples are when a team mate traveled too far to the left and pulled you off a cliff into an abyss and you kept falling into the abyss over and over until your team mate walked back to you... AND when areas were too far away in the distance to see clearly so you died often when exploring that area. My husband and I dealt with the screen issue in the older games by improving our communication of plans and expectations so this really was not a big issue to us... But, the programmers addressed the issue by giving gamers a split screen. This means each team mate sees their own perspective on either the left or right side of the screen. This means players can move independently of each other and no longer drags each other around or limits mobility. The split screen can also rotate from vertical to horizontal in the attempt to give the best view for each player.PROS/CONS Regarding the SPLIT SCREEN: Getting to see your own perspective and walking independently is great. However, the feature is WAY overused in the game and to the point it actually gets in the way of game play. Many times I could not throw an object or clearly see a level, and would have to log out of the game just so we could see the whole level properly or be able to complete a task. The rotating split screen from vertical to horizontal, became the most annoying feature in the game to us. It really blocked the view of whatever we we doing in the level and usually appeared when it was not necessary. More time needed to be taken by programmers in choosing which portions of a level really needed a split screen and which did not. Also, on many occasions the split screen caused an overload to the game so it froze. This occurred by enabling two players to do too much at once in two different areas. This would not have happened if the split screen was turned off in the hub-world.4. QUESTS & ETC.: In the past, levels were all there was to do. In LOTR however, there are also side quests, building items at the blacksmith shop, some activities are night dependent, and puzzles in the enormous hub-world.PROS/CONS Regarding the EXTRA QUESTS ETC.: The addition of side-quests sounded really cool at first, but then we found out you just replay the levels yet again and found hidden items in each level... we were underwhelmed. Thus made the game a bit too repetitive. We would have preferred the quests to be IN the world (hub) and have puzzle solving connected to earning the treasures or opening new portions of the world etc. We also wish the treasures were of some importance to the actual story like Gandolf's staff or Bilbo's sword sting... and have that somehow connected to further game play or placed in a museum or open up a new ability for characters, etc. Instead these treasure are random objects like popsicles or keys or hats that have nothing to do with the original story of LOTR. The nighttime dependent quests was a fun idea, but night time was only activated twice during regular play of the levels: from Bree to Weathertop and while playing Pellanor fields in front of Minus Tirith. At no other time could the night quests/puzzles be completed which was left a lot undone until the very end of the game which made those things more after-thoughts and not really usable during the game.5. ACCESSORIES and PERSONALIZED characters: In the past, characters has set talents abilities, etc. Sometimes you could build your own character and mix the right traits together. In LOTRs abilities can be added to characters through accessories. So a delicate Elf can put on calcium armor and then become a strong man who moves heavy objects.PROS/CONS Regarding the ACCESSORIES and PERSONALIZED CHARACTERS.: We thought the accessories were a great idea until we found out characters do not remember the accessories so you have to put them on over and over and over again. Which got frustrating and we stopped using those accessories except when needed to complete level or puzzle (and you do not have a character that naturally has that ability so you use the accessory instead to make any character have that ability). Also in LOTR, the build your own character option is pretty lame compared to previously.... because there are so few option and what is absent is pretty outstanding ike elf ears and certain weapons. The number of personalized characters you can make and what abilities they can have is so extremely limited, plus you cannot put accessories on them and have them memorized, that we made only one personalized character each, then never used them. Overall, this was the weakest part of the game and needs to be greatly improved.6. THEY TALK: In past LEGO games, the characters didn't talk they signaled, mumbled, and gestured their way through cut scenes. This gave a lot of freedom and creativity to the games and enabled them to be pretty funny. For LOTR, the characters talk and the voices come straight out of the movies.PROS/CONS Regarding TALKING: Having the characters talk can be rather funny at times especially when you are playing a level and clearly have gone around in a complete circle... and Sam states "Frodo, we have been here before. We are just going around in circles." The sudden quote during the level makes you laugh out loud and I wish they had done more of that. In the cut scenes however, the talking restricted the creativity of the game and gave it more of a rigid feeling. It felt more like you were watching the film over again instead of viewing humorous recaps. Plus, since so much focus was on getting all those lines in, the humor was second fiddle and added on the side or backdrop and consisted mostly of boring slap stick humor. We wish they spent more time on this aspect of the game since its the humor players remember and what makes the games so replayable.Overall, we enjoyed the game, earned a 100%, and give it a 4/5. We definitely will replay it. The best new feature was the enlarged hub-world. The worst new feature was the split screen since it got in the way of game play. The number of glitches we experienced was very small and since there was frequent saving locations glitches never set us back by much. Lastly, we updated our game before starting it and therefore the worst glitches were patched which is why my husband and I always wait to be games until after all those patches are released.