Enlisted Review: WWII Warfare With Squads, Steel, and Just Enough Chaos

The first time I played Enlisted, I accidentally tossed a grenade at my own squad and got promoted anyway. That’s the kind of battlefield we’re working with here. This is not a twitch shooter. It’s a layered, chaotic war sim where you command an entire squad and jump between soldiers like a battlefield conductor. One minute you're holding a church tower with a sniper, the next you're charging a trench with a flamethrower. If you’ve ever wanted to feel the scale of World War II without enlisting in a spreadsheet simulator, you might want to gear up. Here's what it's like to actually play.

I Survived Normandy With a Flamethrower, a Bolt-Action Rifle, and No Idea What I Was Doing

My first ten minutes in Enlisted were loud, messy, and deeply confusing. I spawned into a squad of five AI-controlled soldiers, immediately took a bullet to the face, and then the screen jumped to another guy in my squad like nothing happened. That’s the moment I realized this game wasn’t your standard run-and-gun.

Enlisted lets you control a full squad in real time. You pick one soldier to play while the rest follow and fight alongside you. When you die, you switch to another member of your team. You’re not just a soldier. You’re the whole platoon.

At first, it’s disorienting. Then it’s brilliant.

One second, you’re in the trench as a rifleman. Next second, you’re now your own machine gunner laying suppressive fire. That guy dies. Now you’re your sniper who was camping the ridge nearby. You become your own reinforcements. It’s not just fun. It’s smart, flexible gameplay.

The First Assault: Learning by Fire

I picked the Normandy campaign to start. The map? A bombed-out French village littered with craters, hedgerows, and the occasional chicken coop. My mission? Capture a control point in the middle of a collapsing farmhouse. My tools? A bolt-action rifle, a wrench, and four brave AI buddies who mostly ran in circles.

The chaos is immediate. Machine gun fire from a window. A tank clanking down the road. Smoke grenades blooming like angry flowers. I ducked into a trench, took aim, and managed to drop an enemy trying to cross the street.

That tiny moment felt earned. Weapons in Enlisted are deliberately clunky. You need to aim carefully, account for recoil, and make every shot count. There’s no spray and pray here. Just pray and maybe reload.

I fumbled with ammo. Missed shots. Got dropped repeatedly. But little by little, I got smarter. I watched how veterans played. I set rally points. I figured out how to peek corners without exposing my whole squad. Enlisted’s learning curve is real, but when it clicks, it feels incredible.

The Joy of Squad-Swapping

What makes Enlisted shine is its squad mechanic. You don’t play as one guy. You play as a role-swapping, battlefield-chess-playing war machine. Every soldier in your squad matters. Lose them early, and your options vanish fast.

In one match, I breached a building with my flamethrower guy. He died instantly. I flipped to my engineer, built a sandbag barrier in the hallway, switched to my SMG soldier, and held the position for two minutes until reinforcements arrived. That sequence felt organic, tense, and satisfying.

The best part? No loading screens. No waiting for a respawn. Just tap a button, and boom, you’re back in the fight.

Later in the match, my radio operator called in an artillery strike. I ran my squad behind a building just before the shells hit. The sound shook my speakers. The smoke rolled through the street. Half the enemy squad evaporated. It was one of the most satisfying moments I’ve had in a shooter.

Vehicles, Planes, and Accidental Self-Destruction

Tanks and planes in Enlisted are entire playstyles. Hop in a tank, and suddenly you’re navigating narrow city streets with limited visibility and a big target on your back. Planes offer speed and splash damage, but require finesse and map knowledge.

My first tank run was a disaster. I got stuck between a trench and a barn and couldn’t reverse fast enough to dodge a satchel charge. Boom. Back to infantry. Lesson learned.

Flying was even worse. My first bomber run ended in a crash when I forgot how to throttle down. But after a few practice rounds, I pulled off a perfect dive and dropped a payload onto an enemy spawn. Ten kills. One cheer from chat. Totally worth it.

Vehicles in Enlisted aren’t just set pieces. They’re vital tools for shifting the tide of battle. And when used with smart infantry support, they can dominate. But go in solo, and you’ll become scrap metal fast.

Campaign Progression and the Grind

Each of Enlisted’s campaigns functions like a self-contained game. Normandy, Stalingrad, Tunisia, Berlin, and others all have unique weapons, uniforms, and unit trees. Progress in one campaign doesn’t carry to another. That can feel daunting at first. But it also keeps each front feeling authentic.

You’ll level up squads, unlock gear, and specialize your soldiers. Some become medics. Others tank operators. Some carry heavy machine guns. Each one levels individually. Each one can be customized. You’ll spend a lot of time fine-tuning your roster.

Yes, it’s a grind. Especially without premium. Some gear takes a while to unlock. Some squads are clearly better than others. But the unlocks come steadily enough that you always feel like you’re getting somewhere.

And unlike many shooters, skill matters as much as gear. A smart bolt-action rifle user can outplay a poorly positioned flamethrower squad any day.

Matches That Stick With You

Enlisted isn’t just a stats game. It’s full of cinematic moments. My squad once held a bridge for an entire round, fending off charges while artillery rained down. We built a forward spawn point behind a wall, held the angle, and somehow survived.

Another time, I ran solo into a control point, switched between four soldiers, and wiped a full enemy squad by rotating perfectly. It felt less like a shooter and more like a single-player action scene where I controlled every actor.

Then there are the moments of chaos. Charging across an open field with bayonets. Getting obliterated by a tank you didn’t see. Watching your last squadmate pick up a dropped gun and win the round.

No two matches feel the same, and that’s the magic. Enlisted thrives on unpredictability, which is what makes its massive scale so compelling.

Bugs, UI, and Real-World Annoyances

Not everything is gold. The interface is clunky. Finding the right squad to edit takes too many clicks. Load times between menus feel slow. And the tutorial barely explains how to place rally points, build structures, or manage your soldiers.

There are occasional performance hiccups. Frame drops during big explosions. Visual bugs when swapping soldiers. Sometimes your AI gets stuck in walls or runs in circles.

And yes, some players will just go lone-wolf and ignore the team entirely. But when it works, when squads play together, when rally points are placed well and artillery calls are smart, Enlisted becomes one of the most immersive team shooters out there.

Free-to-Play with Strategy, Not Spam

Enlisted is free to play, but it doesn’t shove cash grabs in your face. You can pay to speed up progress or buy cool cosmetics. But at no point did I feel blocked from enjoying the game without spending.

That said, premium speeds things up. You’ll unlock squads faster. You’ll level quicker. You’ll avoid some of the clunk. But the core gameplay remains strong even if you never spend a dime.

What’s refreshing is how performance still depends on decisions, not just upgrades. A player with starter gear can hold an objective better than someone with a gold-tier SMG, if they know what they’re doing.

Final Thoughts: The Fog of War Has Never Felt This Alive

Enlisted is messy, moody, and filled with rough edges. But it’s also one of the most ambitious, rewarding squad shooters on the market. It captures the scale of World War II without turning into a strategy spreadsheet or a chaotic frag fest.

You control the chaos. You build the squad. You choose when to flank, when to dig in, and when to rush the point with nothing but a shovel and raw panic.

It won’t be for everyone. If you want clean UI, tight TTK, and laser focus, look elsewhere. But if you want to feel like part of a real war machine; shifting roles, surviving waves, and making clutch plays with five soldiers under your command. Enlisted is absolutely worth your time.

Just don’t forget to build that rally point. Your squad will thank you later.