Disclaimer: I play Enlisted on the Gaijin Launcher so my Steam hours listed won't reflect actual time played.

Enlisted is a first person shooter where you can quickly swap between members of your squad to meet any situation you find yourself in. There are many soldier classes, weapons, vehicles, and squads in the game that you gain access to through the research tree in each faction. You'll begin at Battle Rating (BR) I with squads mostly filled with Rifleman wielding bolt action rifles. An item's Battle Rating gives the player an idea of how it balances against other similar items. This is in place to avoid unfair matchups between players like BR I bolt actions not having to fight BR V assault rifles. As you progress through the research trees, you'll unlock higher BR items and equipping them to your squad will shift your matchmaking to match that BR. Squads mode, the main gamemode of Enlisted, features mainly territory control objectives with attacking or defending a common focus.

While the game features arcade elements like health to heal with bandages and limited sprint stamina, the battle damage model is unforgiving. While limb hits will do less damage to soldiers, rifle rounds often either one shot or instantly down on impact. Explosions from tank rounds and aircraft bombs are even more lethal, easily wiping out whole squads in the realistic damage radius those weapons would have in reality. This places a huge emphasis on thoughtful squad positioning to allow your computer-controlled squadmates to contribute to fighting while not placing them at a disadvantage. You can issue commands to your squad no matter which member you're controlling, allowing you to tell them to hold position where you mark provided you don't stray too far from them as they will resume following you if you do.

This game also features vehicle combat and in stark contrast to War Thunder's approach with third person control, Enlisted offers a more realistic, through the optics point of view. This goes for aircraft as well so you will rely much more on spotting from your team to quickly pick up targets from the air. Enlisted also features War Thunder's vehicle damage model systems, including the shot camera, with the arcade twist of showing green and red reticles for whether you're able to penetrate the spot on the target vehicle you're currently aiming at. Experienced War Thunder tankers can easily pick up the tank gameplay on offer and I'd argue you get a much better Tiger experience in Enlisted over War Thunder. The brutal, positioning-based play affects vehicles, too, because practically any infantry soldier class can equip some manner of anti-armor weapon. This means you'll have to learn the map routes well and keep infantry out of arm's reach in order to use your tank. Luckily, the tank crew isn't locked into the vehicle so they can get out if they need to and the commander seat often allows you to fire your small arms as you need to defend yourself.

While there are many historical squad offerings in Enlisted, the four common faction trees are: Soviet Union, USA (with British forces included), Germany (with Italian forces included), and Imperial Japan. These trees feature weapons and vehicles, many of which include new squads which allow you to specialize into roles for your team. Unlike War Thunder, your gained experience from whatever you may be doing in regular Squads matches go towards your selected research item. You don't have to use tanks to unlock tanks or fly planes to unlock planes, which I find a lot more freeing and allows the player to contribute to the victory AND get the most out of each match for research.

Enlisted, at time of writing, also has battlepasses and events to unlock special items. In comparison to War Thunder, it is far more enjoyable to engage with these bonus mechanics in Enlisted. Complete basic challenges that you can easily do without thinking about it. No special tasks, tokens, annoying nonsense like it is in War Thunder. I'd argue Enlisted respects your time a lot more as despite not actively grinding out these things, I've been given actual items to enjoy. I know the bar is pretty low but it's something.

Lastly, if you're a fan of ForgottenWeapons.com, I think you'll genuinely enjoy this one if not only on the sheer amount of historical and developmental firearms featured from end to end in Enlisted. I just think it's neat.

I really enjoy this game and the moderate pacing of gameplay reminds me of multiplayer gaming long lost today.