As you may have heard, Shadow of War features microtransactions and Loot Boxes. If you are upset or angry about their inclusion, we completely understand: no-one wants to spend more money than they have to. The good news, though, is that you won’t need to spend anything to get the most out of Shadow of War. Those loot boxes are unnecessary and easily avoided.  

Is the game any good? Find out in our Shadow of War review. 

Shadow of War offers two types of loot boxes in its marketplace: war chests and loot chests. The former contains orcs for your army while the latter spits out weapons and armour for Talion. First things first: you do not need to buy these chests to play Shadow of War’s campaign. You can finish the entire story without so much as even opening the store page, and you will have so many orcs and weapons thrown your way that you will never even consider paying for more.