I've played MMo's for years now. Starting off with Asheron's call, and eventually going into Dark Age of Camelot. Then playing Asheron's Call 2, Shaiya, and finally LOTRO. I can easily say that this is by far the best MMO I've ever played. The game is fun, the graphics are absolutely amazing. Trust me, this is not WOW. If you expect wow, then your in the wrong game. You don't have to download anything.
It has built in voice chat for fellowships and raids and dungeons, so there's no need to download any additional software. The quest's are interesting, sure, it does have alot of fetch quests, but you still get a great amount of xp and items from doing those, so they are well worth your time.
The character class's are all great. There is not one single character type that is totally worthless in game. The Archer's are amazing, whereas in other games such as DAoC, they were a total waist of time in most groups. Allot of characters have cross class abilities. Take for example my Champion, which is your dual wield berzerker. Once you reach level 20, you gain the ability to use a bow. How is that important, well, basically if your used to playing a tank class in an MMO, your used to the fact that in order to attack anything, you have to actually run up to it. That's all good, until you have to run into a large group just to be able to attack something. Being able to use a bow allows for you to pull the mob to you, without having to run into the middle of the entire group and getting the attention of every monster in range of aggro. As you would expect, the Champion starts out with the ability to use light and medium armor, but eventually gets to use Heavy armor, so he really does become a fun character class. Sure, you might not take as much damage as a "True" tank, since you lack a shield, but if you should chose to use one, you can. Although you lose the use of allot of your skills do to not equipping a second offhand weapon. Switching between weapons is a simple thing. As I mentioned above, your able to actually use a bow at 20, but you don't have to go into any menu to do so. You just click the bow skill, or right click on a mob at range, and you automatically switch to your bow and fire. Once the mob comes into range, and if your not performing your one power shot, you automatically switch back to both of your melee weapons, and then continue to attack.
The Warden class is very similar to the Champion. It's also a Semi Tank, but the Warden is designed for one handed fighting, and the use of a wardens shield. But that doesn't mean that he isn't able to use ranged. Instead of using a bow, the Warden class uses a Javelin. It doesn't have quit as far a range as the bow, but at the same time, the Javelin does a really nice amount of damage. In most cases, with either the Champion or Warden, if your fighting a level appropriate mob, you will have anywhere from one quarter of their health gone, to three quarters by the time the mob actually reaches you. This means that you usually don't have to sit as you would in Wow to regenerate your power. The warden though isn't able to use heavy armor, medium is the highest you will go, but that doesn't mean you can't find armor with high points, because you will definitely find great items both in quests, and in the auction house. The Wardens's specialty though is his Gambit system. At first, the gambit system will seem difficult, but in the end, it's a very easy system to use in combat. What the gambit system does is keeps tracks of what types of skills you've used, and if you do a proper sequence of attacks, you will get to use a powerful "Gambit Attack". These range from stun moves, to super damage dealing attacks.
The true tank in the game is your Guardian. The guardian is a damage soaking machine. He gets the most health in game, and also get's the heavy gear. There really isn't anything bad about the class though, since you can actually still do a weak ranged attack with your throwing axes, so your still able to pull mobs, but the bread and butter for the Guardian is his main weapon and his shield. A guardian is able to do taunts that are extremely important for his role in any group/raid. Without the taunts, your basically just worthless, since most other character class's are able to do much more damage, which will constantly have you chasing after the mob in an attempt to keep him from killing your healer, or nuke class. With the taunt though, your able to keep the monsters attention, and save the lives of your fellow players. You have limited AOE, area of effect, but you can usually fight two, three, four or five different monsters at a time without having to worry about dying. You do eventually get one heal, but it's very weak compared to any other healing types in game, but it will help you stay alive in a tight situation, so it can mean the difference between staying alive, and biting the big one.
Your Hunter class is the main nuker class. You have tremendous power, and are usually able to bring down most mobs in no time. In fact, a majority of the time as a Hunter, your enemies will be dead long before they reach you. In the rare event that they do reach you though, you are able to swiftly switch from your bow to a sword, so you do have limited melee ability. Again, no need to do any manual weapon switching, everything is taken care of as soon as you click on a particular skill. As a ranger, you have the most useful skill in the game, which is to summon your allies. In case you have to get a large group of people to a far away dungeon, as the Ranger, once you get to your desired location, your able to create a campfire. From that campfire, you are able to summon your allies one at a time to your location, so the entire group doesn't have to make the dangerous run to the site. Now, sure, you might be tempted to think, "Why would you want to go alone?", but there are going to be tons of times where you'll be looking for a group outside of a dungeon, and once you find people using the in game chat Channel called LFF, or looking for fellowship, the ability to get them to you without having to wait for them to actually run, or ride their mount to you is a huge time saver.
Now, there are several other character types, all of which are tremendously useful, but I've gone through enough for now, so it's up to you if you'd be interested in playing the game and finding out more. The healer class's, yup, there are more than one type that can heal, are usually just as fun as a regular character. Rune keepers are able to do huge damage, but can also heal allies. Lore Masters are able to heal others, as well as doing light damage, but are also aided by pets, such as a raven, bear, and more. Minstrels play songs which raise your party's moral, which heals your character. They are also able to fight, although not doing a tremendous amount of damage. Burglers are your debuff class, capable of stuns and other useful spells to disorient your foes. The captain is a semi tank, that's always aided by a pet of sorts which always carries your banner. Captains are able to raise fallen party members from the dead, and have party buffs.
In all, the game is very fun to play, and not one single character type is worthless. All work well in group, and the ability of most class's to do cross style attacks is the best part of the game. Being able to go from ranged to melee, or from damage to healing is interesting, and extremely vital for successful game-play.
Of course, if your just after eye candy, look no further. Playing the game at 1920x1080 with the settings on Ultra, your going to play an MMO that absolutely destroys everything else currently out there as far as visuals are concerned. Your first trip into any of the forests in game, with the shadows of every tree moving around as the wind blows through the branches will blow your mind. The fog is amazing, but what truly has to be seen to be believed is the look of the area in the Lone Lands where you fight the first type of Trolls. The mix of shade, plus the water effects are just breathtaking. And don't forget the excitement that comes when the troll actual swats you back a good twenty or thirty feet. This game has to be played, and I'm not talking about a ten day trial, You would have to spend at least one good month playing to be able to really appreciate what your getting. The area that you play at the very beginning isn't able to convey the vast amount of detail spent in creating this alternate universe. Some of the most beautiful settings aren't open to lower level characters, but not due to some strange invisible wall, but because the mobs will tear you apart if you aren't careful. Trust me, give this game one month, and I'll bet you will be hooked.