Enlisted (video game)

Gameplay

In Enlisted, each player commands a squad of infantry or a vehicle crew. A squad contains between three and nine soldiers, each representing a historical military division like the 1st Infantry Division or the 2nd New Zealand Division. Soldiers come in different classes, and their weapons are restricted by class: rifles, submachine guns, machine guns, sniper rifles, mortars, anti-tank weapons, or flamethrowers. Alternatively, a player can control a tank or plane crew, and at least one vehicle must always be equipped in the menu. The player directly controls one soldier at a time, but can issue orders to or switch between the other AI-controlled squad members. Outside of battle, the main menu lets players manage their squads, soldiers, and weapons—equipping and upgrading squads, purchasing soldiers and weapons, switching game modes and factions, and customizing various other aspects.

Battles take place on large maps based on major World War II campaigns: the Eastern Front, Western Front, North African Campaign, and Pacific Theater. Specific battles include the Normandy landings, Invasion of Normandy, Battle of the Bulge, Battle of Moscow, Battles of Rzhev, Battle of Tunisia, Battle of Guadalcanal, New Georgia campaign, Solomon Islands campaign, Burma campaign, Soviet Invasion of Manchuria, and Battle of Berlin. Players are split into two teams: Allies and Axis. Four nations are available: the United States, the Soviet Union, Germany, and Japan. Each faction has five Battle Ratings (BR). Some factions include smaller nations under them: the UK, Free France, Australia, New Zealand, and China are under the US tree; Italy and Romania are under the German tree; Chinese communists are under the Soviet tree. Additionally, a Type 95 Ha-Go light tank for Japan belongs to the Kingdom of Thailand, an M4A2 Sherman for the United States named Bomb belongs to Canada, and a Tiger 1 for Germany belongs to Hungary.

Matchmaking pairs players with Battle Ratings one step above or below. For example, a BR II player can match with BR I and BR III players. A BR III player might end up in low BR matches (BR II) or high BR matches (BR IV). BR V is the highest, and BR V players can only be matched with BR IV players. The standard default matchmaking mode is called Squads, where players spawn with their full squads.

Development

Announced in 2016, Enlisted was a crowdfunded project from Gaijin Entertainment and Darkflow Software, initially featuring two campaigns set during the Battle of Moscow and the Invasion of Normandy. The developers marketed it as a first-person shooter shaped by player feedback, promising direct influence over future campaigns, game modes, and post-PC platform support, with additional campaigns tied to funding milestones. Higher-tier backers could even vote on which campaign was developed next. The first public test on PC took place in April 2020, and by November of that year, ray-traced global illumination and DLSS were implemented. A partial public beta for the Battle of Berlin campaign launched on May 20, 2021, followed by the Tunisia campaign. On December 4, 2023, the game restructured all its campaigns into four playable nations. A major update on December 16, 2025, introduced the Far Eastern Front, letting players fight in the Soviet Invasion of Manchuria. The game continues to receive updates and releases roughly nine to ten Battle Passes annually.

Release

Microsoft announced at E3 2018 that Enlisted would launch on Xbox as part of the Xbox Game Preview program that year. The first public test happened on PC in April 2020, and by October 2020, Microsoft confirmed the game would be a timed console exclusive for the Xbox Series X/S launch lineup. A closed beta for PlayStation 5 started on March 2, 2021, and Nvidia later confirmed the PC release. On April 8, 2021, the game hit PC as an open beta. Enlisted arrived on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One on October 4, 2021, with only the Moscow, Normandy, and Tunisia campaigns; all six campaigns eventually came to every platform. The merge update rolled out to all players in December 2023. A Steam version called Enlisted: Reinforced went on sale for roughly 16 to 18 hours on March 28, 2024, meant to mark the game’s major changes and progress since launch. That early access sale was pulled due to backend issues and numerous bugs. On July 16, 2024, the game returned to Steam for free as simply Enlisted, with fixes that enabled account linking as a temporary feature, intended to last as long as possible. The game remains playable through the developer’s own launcher.

Reception

XboxEra gave Enlisted a 5/10 rating, calling its best elements mediocre and its worst elements truly dreadful, praising the gun handling but criticizing uncomfortable controls, generic soundtrack, poor performance, and a slow player progression system described as pay-to-win. Penny Arcade praised Enlisted as an absolute blast and the best WWII shooter, highlighting Matrix-style encounters where the player might die and come into consciousness in another body. GLN gave Enlisted a 7.8/10 rating, describing the visuals as detailed and realistic and the gameplay as engaging, praising level design but criticizing matchmaking, animations, and bugs and glitches.