This game is honestly fantastic.
I loved the game even before this last update, but trust me here I am going to explain why I think it was always good first.
So, yeah, there was microtransactions in the game, but they were not invasive. A lot of people said that the game forced you to use the loot crate system to finish the game, but that's not true at all. I have played through the whole game three times, and never once did I use the system to get anything, and I did not have to grind at all either. Just playing the game and ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ around honestly unlocked you enough stuff to do the entire game and still have quite a lot left over.
BUT
This last update was huge.
FIRST: ALL of the microtransactions are GONE
The whole game was reworked in the background so that you could never tell that the microtransactions even used to be there. They made legendary orcs (which aren't and have never been necessary) much more common than they were before, and they also allow you to spend the currency you recieve from killing captains and completing missions to upgrade a follower you already have to legendary status, including the epic perks.
SECOND: The game has MUCH less grind at the end.
If you end up being anything like how I played the game, you probably want to get all the legendary gear just to try them all out. Well, the problem with the system is that you can only get legendary gear by completing missions and killing legendary orcs, however, the majority of the armor can only be attained using the second option. Since legendary orcs used to be so rare, it was unlikely you would ever find the specific piece of gear you were looking for. Now there is a huge change to the game in this respect, because not only are legendary orcs more common, AND you can make any orc legendary, but you also recieve gear for captains you kill online. This last fact alone changed the pace you unlock gear so vastly, that it originally took me 100 hours to get most of the gear on my first runthrough. I reset the game and replayed it, and that was only about 20 hours in the game before I had all the gear back and more.
The game has changed so much in a sense that playing the game never feels like you are doing something you don't want to do because you have to. Now you almost always feel like you are messing around in this huge sandbox world that Monolith made for you to act in as you please, free of interruption. Not to mention the fact that the Shadow Wars went from having something like 20 sieges, to 5, and you unlock new items for every stage you finish, good items too.

THIS is the game that Monolith should have released on launch day, but instead of getting all upset and angry at them for destroying a game you loved, I urge you to give this game a shot now, because it is now the game that the trailers made it seem to be.

This game is honestly fantastic. I loved the game even before this last update, but trust me here I am going to explain why I think it was always good first. So, yeah, there was microtransactions in the game, but they were not invasive. A lot of people said that the game forced you to use the loot crate system to finish the game, but that's not true at all. I have played through the whole game three times, and never once did I use the system to get anything, and I did not have to grind at all either. Just playing the game and fucking around honestly unlocked you enough stuff to do the entire game and still have quite a lot left over. BUT This last update was huge. FIRST: ALL of the microtransactions are GONE The whole game was reworked in the background so that you could never tell that the microtransactions even used to be there. They made legendary orcs (which aren't and have never been necessary) much more common than they were before, and they also allow you to spend the currency you recieve from killing captains and completing missions to upgrade a follower you already have to legendary status, including the epic perks. SECOND: The game has MUCH less grind at the end. If you end up being anything like how I played the game, you probably want to get all the legendary gear just to try them all out. Well, the problem with the system is that you can only get legendary gear by completing missions and killing legendary orcs, however, the majority of the armor can only be attained using the second option. Since legendary orcs used to be so rare, it was unlikely you would ever find the specific piece of gear you were looking for. Now there is a huge change to the game in this respect, because not only are legendary orcs more common, AND you can make any orc legendary, but you also recieve gear for captains you kill online. This last fact alone changed the pace you unlock gear so vastly, that it originally took me 100 hours to get most of the gear on my first runthrough. I reset the game and replayed it, and that was only about 20 hours in the game before I had all the gear back and more. The game has changed so much in a sense that playing the game never feels like you are doing something you don't want to do because you have to. Now you almost always feel like you are messing around in this huge sandbox world that Monolith made for you to act in as you please, free of interruption. Not to mention the fact that the Shadow Wars went from having something like 20 sieges, to 5, and you unlock new items for every stage you finish, good items too. THIS is the game that Monolith should have released on launch day, but instead of getting all upset and angry at them for destroying a game you loved, I urge you to give this game a shot now, because it is now the game that the trailers made it seem to be.