I kind of disagree with the premise that the game missed the point, if only because I feel pretty strongly that the game was meant as a complement to the movies/books, not to stand alone.

Like, the takeaway from playing the game cannot be that these are a bunch of dudes slaying hordes in the name of upgrading their gear. It’s clearly allowing us to play through the action sequences that we know happened from when we watched the movies. This is simply an interactive medium acting as a way to experience parts of the story that don’t translate as well to passive viewing like a movie.

As for the mechanics of upgrading gear or abilities being against the idea of LotR, I guess that’s true but I hope if we’re playing a video game we can suspend our disbelief long enough not to begrudge the addition of mechanics that make games fun.

With all that said I totally agree with the author that this is the pinnacle of movie tie in games. Played through it with my brother in co-op mode when we were kids and just had a total blast.