Goodbye, Battlefield! Opinion on Enlisted after 30 hours

How did it happen that an early version of the online shooter from Gaijin Entertainment plays and feels better than Battlefield 2042? Does Latvian developer Darkflow Software really have more experience and skill than the veterans at DICE? In fact, they simply wanted to make a fun and interesting tactical shooter. Spoiler: they succeeded.

Editor’s note: It might seem like sponsored content. It is not. The author genuinely enjoyed this pay-to-win dumpster fire. Shocking.

Enlisted is a multiplayer first-person shooter set in World War II. It features both Allied campaigns and operations in Moscow, and Stalingrad was added just recently. Up to 32 players battle on the maps, and despite the monstrous size of the locations, it is plenty enough to have a great time!

Not the most user-friendly interface

Enlisted greets new players with a rather clunky menu. Elements are scattered across different corners, and the main page has several tabs whose purpose is not entirely clear at first. 

The “Soldiers” tab is the main page where matches are launched, modes and factions are selected, and lobbies are created. Here you can configure and upgrade your own squads — to do this, you have to click on each individual unit in the squad tab. Very inconvenient given how many there will be later, but you can get used to it. And be sure to complete the tutorial before heading into real battle! This is needed to unlock the ability to play for a specific side, rather than constantly jumping between Allies and Axis, earning campaign experience all over the place.

Each soldier must be leveled up manually, and on top of that, their weaponry needs upgrading — each one individually! And while soldier perk selection is free as the squad levels up, weapons must be upgraded using bronze orders. At first there are plenty of them, but don’t get your hopes up — over time there will be fewer and fewer, as the temptation to level up yet another squad in the campaign is high. It’s better to save them until you decide for sure which maps and faction you’ll be playing.

The “Campaigns” tab allows you to choose the current operation. Each campaign has its own squads, its own soldiers, and weapon types — yes, you will have to level up not just different factions within a single operation. Right now this can be confusing, but when this system was introduced, there were only two campaigns. My advice: just play a couple of matches in each and choose the maps you like. My favorites: “Battle of Normandy” and “Battle of Moscow”. That’s where I spent the most time.

“Upgrades” is another type of progression, but this time for the entire squad. Here you can unlock a slot for a secondary weapon, make the squad earn more battle experience, or configure it to include diverse specialists rather than just a single assaulter and regular infantry. Unlike the rest of the menu, it is designed very clearly and conveniently.

And the last tab, “Logistics”, is the in-game store itself. Whether deliberately or due to inexperience, it is made awkwardly on purpose: you constantly click on tabs with paid weapons and curse as you realize you’ve ended up in the wrong section again by mistake. Here you can acquire both free weapons and squads, as well as paid ones. Free content is bought with silver orders earned by completing achievements, daily tasks, finishing the battle pass, and so on.

In-game purchases and premium players

And since we’ve started talking about the store, let’s wrap up this topic right away. Yes, the game features powerful weapons and squads for real money — Gaijin Entertainment uses this exact monetization model in War Thunder. I’ll never forget a match where two squads of grenadiers and a squad of machine gunners wiped out all our capture points in 10 minutes — 16 players could do nothing against such firepower.

This is why I’ve disliked free-to-play games for a long time. Seeing the word “free”, you immediately realize: they will squeeze money out of you by any means possible. 

Yes, Enlisted has an intrusive monetization system, premium squads with top-tier gear, as well as a battle pass and XP boosters — denying this is foolish. But all of this pales in comparison to the fact that over 30 hours, the game was genuinely enjoyable and fun to play. 

Modes

Now, onto the gameplay itself. Several squads are available for spawning on the map. They always include vehicles, a sniper, regular infantry, and some specialized squad. Selecting one and spawning at a point, the player sees their soldiers around them and can issue orders to them. If you don’t do this, the not-so-clever bots are unlikely to survive long.

However, if you try applying at least some basic tactics, interesting situations can emerge. For example, I loved the sniper class so much that the first thing I did was add a second sniper to my squad and kept him by my side at all times — in case the primary soldier fell. Then you can take control of the bot, pick up ammo from the fallen soldier, relocate, and continue picking off enemies.

Once, while holding a point inside a church in the “Battle of Normandy” campaign, I was so terrified of peeking out of cover that I sent the last surviving soldier from my squad to “check the situation” — simply walking him into the line of fire and watching where the bullets came from. A brutal yet effective tactic if you want to hold out longer, pinpoint enemy positions, and rack up more kills.

I also liked the weapon handling. The single-shot Kar98 or the Mosin rifle hit enemies with such punch and drop them with a single shot that you want to keep cutting down advancing enemy forces without stopping. There are also submachine guns, assault rifles, and full-size machine guns, and most often they leave no chance for a soldier with a bolt-action rifle, which is only logical. 

Vehicle handling requires separate practice. At first, your tanks will be blown up by more experienced and upgraded enemies. The view from inside the tank is usually gun-sight-based, restricted from almost all sides, so you need to survey the terrain and assess the situation in advance. A plane dropping bombs onto infantry only looks like an invincible angel of death from the ground — piloting it, and especially landing payloads precisely on target, is quite a challenge. 

Over 30 hours, I only managed to see two game modes — Invasion and Conquest. In the former, you must sequentially capture five positions before the attackers run out of points, and in the latter — hold three capture points until the enemy loses. 

All main modes can only be played in squads, meaning with bots. Previously, there was a Lone Fighters mode without squads — where each soldier was controlled by a human player. Now this can only be found in Custom Games, where team distribution is complete chaos. The game constantly shuffles and balances sides, and I only managed to play together with a friend once.

Technical performance

I was extremely surprised to learn that Enlisted is still in open beta. The frame rate is smooth, and I didn’t notice any drops even during fierce battles. Only occasionally did I encounter a bug where, at the start of a match, several soldiers from my squad would run off somewhere on their own, freeze in place, and refuse to obey commands — this is fixed by simply cycling through the squad members a few times. After the atrocious Battlefield 2042, Enlisted feels like a shining example of optimization and bug fixing.

Analysis

Enlisted seems to have found a permanent home on my computer. I haven’t spent a single penny on the game, yet I’ve had more fun and enjoyment than the Battlefield series has provided since Battlefield 3. Every point capture is an event, and every multikill is a point of pride. When playing with a buddy, the amount of fun triples.

This doesn’t excuse the game’s pay-to-win monetization model, where premium squads can end a match in 10 minutes. But if you play games like this for fun rather than progression, Enlisted can easily be recommended.

Editor’s note: Folks, don’t listen to him, give Enlisted a pass. Pay-to-win systems have no place in competitive shooters. Supporting this isn’t worth your money, or even your time.