The game uses an overhead view similar to Ultima VI, with a mouse-driven interface and graphics that are colourful but lack in variety. The soundtrack, however, is memorable and features tunes that feel both adventurous and peaceful.

The player controls a large party of up to ten adventurers at once, but there's actually many more characters available to be recruited. There's no character creation and levelling up is pratically meaningless, so customisation comes from selecting who will join your Fellowship and equipping them.

The game world, fully fleshed out from the Shire to Lothlorien, is lengthily described on-screen (or in the game's manual, if you were playing the floppy disk version) – a similarity it shares with Wasteland, another Interplay game. And not the only one: skills are to be used often outside of combat. Your characters can climb a hill, jump over pits, pick locks, or even use their knowledge to display additional text that gives important clues or just interesting lore.

The reader of Lord of the Rings often wished she could explore Middle-Earth at her own pace, and this is a game that pretty much allows this; walking off tracks, entering every house, talking to everyone and inspecting every cranny is the most rewarding aspect of this game. And it is quite a big game.

Combat, on the other hand, is the game's main weakness. It's turn-based but allows for very few strategies, with the large party being more of a burden than a tactical advantage – the walk order of your party, for example, is of utmost importance to avoid getting strong characters stuck behind weaker ones. Overall, it boils down to having the highest strength and being lucky. Magic is scarce and used mostly for puzzle-solving, but it's disappointing that not even enemy spellcasters will use magic against you.