There is no question the whole concept of Lidless Eye was ambitious. To be quite honest, I didn't think ICE could do it and keep the format of The Wizards. The bad guys are too ephemeral in the books; we really don't get much information about them. This makes it hard for a game to suck people in ... after all, it was bad enough in Dark Minions, with all the agents basically nobody had ever heard of. And there are the inherent difficulties with making a system that worked well for companies adventuring around Middle Earth work for a bunch of mindless Ringwraiths without any significant changes, since they couldn't make too many old cards obsolete.
That having been said, doing Tolkien from the Dark perspective is a truly fascinating gaming proposition. Did ICE succeed with Lidless Eye? Well, at least for the format I explored today, unquestionably yes. There are still some kinks to be worked in the Wizard vs. Nazgul game, but Against the Shadow is still coming. MELE, as a stand-alone product, is nothing short of first rate.
Firstly, before talking about some of the specifics of the set, I'd just like to mention the "sealed deck" we played today. One of the things about MELE that I am enyoying immensely is playing it from a starter. Back when METW first came out, I collected the cards, but it was a while before I found opponents; by the time I played my first real game, I had maybe one and a half boxes worth of cards - a pretty substantial collection.
Now, I am discovering that MELE plays very well just from a single starter.
It's really cool to start with just a small portion of the MELE world, and start playing knowing there is a vast world out there to be discovered - Tolkien himself would certainly appove! Heck, I got a box of starters and two boxes of boosters on Friday, and so far I've opened a starter and three boosters. The game really does play very will with a limited card set (the new, non-unique characters help a lot in this respect, since you can fill out your companies without fear of duplication). It's a very different game when you have so few cards; in some ways much better. On the down side, I don't think you can play dozens of games and retain interest from the same small card set - you'll pretty soon demand more cards to give you a very wide range of options - but if any of you out there are like me and ordered a large chunk of cards, may I heartily encourage you to stop ripping off the packaging, slow down, and play some games from your first starter. It's a whole different game, with a different set of strategies, and is very enjoyable. My faith in METW as a "real" game, not just a CCG, was strongly reaffirmed by the strength of the starter-only game. It's not perfect, but it works quite well.
Just for the record, IMO the key is strength of the common cards. Most other games do not sport the same overall strength of common cards, and instead decks draw their strengths from a few key rares. This is not to say that METW/MELE doesn't have powerful rares, or that constructed decks don't lean on key rares, just that ICE has managed to attain a very good balance which works well for games with a single starter. This is also not to say that time may not reveal broken or overly-powerful rares - but I doubt it will.
Anyway, here is a brief overview of the new rules. Not too much has changed in terms of specific game machanics. Your Ringwraith takes the place of your Wizard. While your Ringwraith can be incredibly powerful, he is also not at your complete disposal, having had his brains sucked out by Sauron. Basically, he just sits around at Darkhavens keeping the boys in line, until you draw one of the three types of mode cards - Fell Rider, Black Rider, or Heralded Lord. Fell Rider allows him to wreak havoc and destruction, Heralded Lord gives him influence bonuses, and Black Rider is neutral. Once you play one of these modes on him or her, you have one mission to run; as soon as you get back to a haven, you lose the mode card.
Since Ringwraiths are restricted to using starter movement, he has to return home as soon as you are finished at the given site and wait for another mode card. As an added drawback, Ringwraiths will leave havens only in the company of other Ringwraith followers. Using Ringwraith followers is even more difficult, since you have to play them the turn you use the mode card, and then they are discarded when the company returns to its haven of origin. So, while your Ringwraith is quite powerful, I would argue they are less directly useful than Wizards, in general.
The other major rules update is in the realm of hazard play. While the full compliment of hazards are useable, there are a few problems.
Firstly, you only actually get MPs for defeating a relatively small number of hazards - only those that represent actual Free People forces. This is definately going to result in a very different approach into building hazard decks for fighting minions. Second is the concept of a detainment attack. Basically, if the attack is for detainment, a wound check translates only to being tapped. All attacks against a minion company in a dark-domain are detainment attacks. Additionally, all attacks by Orcs, Trolls, Men, and Undead in Shadow-Lands or Shadow-Holds are also for detainment. This renders most undead strategies pretty toothless. Needless to say, Orcs aren't real winners either. You can use Saruman's roving orcs to beat up on your opponent a bit, but I sure wouldn't base a strategy on them. However, if you stick to the hazard mix provided in Lidless Eye, you'll do OK. There are plenty of new hazards that will be effective.
However, in this one regard, ICE may have tried to go too far. Expecting to be able to create a hazards mix to work equally well against Heros or Minions is a little optimistic. I'm guessing that for tournaments, they will eventually require some sort of pre-game swap of 10 or so hazard cards based on whether your opponent is a Wizard or Ringwraith.
The final really major change is corruption. Since most Dark Servents either a) have had their brains sucked out by Rings or b) live in perpetual fear of their dark masters, when a Hero would be discarded due to a failed corruption check, a Minion is simply tapped. On the other hand, untested Gold Rings carry nasty, nasty corruption - 4 points and a corruption check each and every turn (the lure of the One, you know). Ringwraiths are immune to corruption, having
selection option a, but on the other hand, they can't benefit from any items either, so it's kind of a wash. Also, since Sauron is bent on finding the One Ring, testing rings is much easier - Nazgul can do it for free with a -2 modifier, and Sauron has a drive-in window where he will test your ring, but at a -3 modifier. Rings and the quest for them is a much more integral part of Lidless Eye, and it seems to work quite well (just be careful of the Gold Ring items that must be played at Bag End or a Ruins and Lairs - I got one such card, but did not get such a site in my intial starter).
Most of the other rules addenda are relatively minor, and they have nice bullets in the margins so I won't go into any further minutiae. However, the bottom line is that the feel of Tolkien's work has been well preserved, even if very few of the actual names are recognizeable. You can play this game quite happily and the very real feeling of trekking around Middle Earth is very much still there. The etherial nature of Sauron and his Ringwraiths is well represented, and there is no doubt that you are playing the role of a minion of Sauron. Your perspecitve may take a jolt to re-orient, but that's about all the pain you are going to have to go through, other than amount of money you will probably end up spending.
Just three more small points. First, the art. While there were flashes of brilliance in The Wizards, in my personal opinion much of the art was weak to bad (I need only mention the Ents, Smaug, Cave-Drake, many of the Orcs, etc). Some of the art in Lidless Eye is truly spectacular, and almost all of it is good to very good. There are still a few real losers, though. Sadly, orc-liquor, a particularly useful starting item, has a particularly painful illustration. Overall, though, I have to say the quality of the illustration handily beats every other CCG I've seen.
Secondly, the distributions. It is a shame that ICE could not go to the 2:4:6 distribution for this set. Once again, there is a One Ring to track down, and the set is very, very large. It will be expensive to collect. And it looks like there are many cool non-unique rares. It's too bad it won't be easier to track down the many interesting cards.
Thirdly, the reprints. There is no denying the substantial number of cards reprinted in this set, either as hazards or as items/resources with different names but the same abilities. However, they all have new art, and given the quality of what I have seen so far, I have no problem with them. For me, it's a matter of atmosphere. Atmosphere is a good part of what I'm paying for anyway, so having nice new illustrations with Orcs and Trolls is part of the price of admission as far as I'm concerned.
What's the bottom line? If you enjoy CCGs, go get a couple MELE starters Now. Only time will tell whether the full game, fought between players with large numbers of cards, will pan out as well as METW has. However, from playing the starter game, I have nothing but good things to say.
I also occasionally play Magic, and I got a few Weatherlight cards at the same time my MELE came in. I must say it was a real eye-opener, since my Magic and Middle Earth friends are completely disjoint and I rarely compare the two directly. MELE is a well-done, thoroghly-designed, well-playtested, and mostly beautiful game. Weatherlight is a bunch of new broken rares and largely useless commons, a lot of which have borderline art. And due to the 5-color scam ... err, game system ... you need a much larger number of cards to do somthing interesting. It reminded me why I play Magic - because there are people who don't play Middle Earth.