I heard the SNES one sucked.
I have the PC version which was the original and sort of what they based the SNES one off of. I guess when they did the SNES one tho, they messed up a lot of stuff and generally made it much crappier than the PC one.
Anyways, the PC version is very good. Combat is ackward, as it's turn based but almost melee.. I think AD&D used a similar method for some of them but I'm not sure. I think the SNES game uses the same thing too. Your characters can move a certain distance a turn and can choose to attack, run, or whatever.. it was kinda ackward as it controlled more with "arrows" than point and click (like "move left arrows" rather than just pointing somewhere and saying "move here"😉, so it was hard to get your guys exactly where you wanted them, plus the whole control scheme was just clumsy.
The rest of the game was awesome though. It was HARD for one thing, but not frustratingly hard (except maybe a couple places). It was not combat based, and in fact, you characters were generally weak (which is realistic) and often times you were encouraged to flee from combat instead of fighting (if you are attacked by a Black Rider for example, you better run or you are friggin' screwed!!), which is unique and works since the game is not revolving around combat. Combat didn't offer experience (as far as I could tell there wasn't any), but it gave you gold and items, so it's not like you wanted to run everytime. There were a LOT of puzzles and secrets in the game.. I have only made it a little bit past Bree.. I think I died and it pissed me off so I didn't play it anymore 😃 hehe.. havn't really gone back to it after that.. I used to have the CD-Rom version which had special clips from the animated LotR movie (the really crappy one), which was cool, but I lost it somehow.. grr..
Anyways, the bad thing was that there was only one FAQ ever written for the game, and it is a fairly incomplete one.. it will get you through the game, but the guy obviously misses secrets and stuff.. not that I could find them. I mean, sometimes they are OBVIOUSLY there, but you can't figure out how the hell to get them.. (for example, there are Barrows in the Barrow Downs which are sealed and I have not been able to figure out how to get in them).. also I think the FAQ has some mistakes in it as well, but not too many. It's a shame tho, it was a great game, and a better FAQ would be nice for all the secrets.. apparently there is a way to get Tom Bombadil in your party.. for good! I don't know how to do it tho. I can get him in my party for awhile if I fall down the Old Man Willow (I think - it might have been a Barrow) and call for him, he will rescue me and join me until I take him home.. Unfortunately I can't get him to leave past the Barrow Downs.. I dunno how the one guy did it (he has a screenshot at this one site).. prob. some kind of glitch..
Anyways, it was a coo' game 😃 It also expanded on the story a lot and added extra quests and stuff.. for example, you could infultrate Sharky's Shipping sometime after the Barrow Downs I believe.. (if you remember, that was Saruman's secret shipping company thing from RotK when he took over the Shire).. there is other cool stuff like that too.. There is one part really early where there is this steal mill by one of the bridges, and I guess you can disable it.. although it appearently has no effect whatsoever 😃 The FAQ guy says something like "At least you can feel happy that you put a halt to the Industrial Revolution in the Shire" 😃 haha..