Enlisted review: huge free WW2 battles, held back by dim squadmates and a long grind

Enlisted is a free-to-play World War II shooter developed by Darkflow Software and published by Gaijin Network Ltd, the company behind War Thunder. It first launched in April 2021 on PC and consoles, then arrived on Steam on July 16, 2024. Today it runs on PC (Windows and Linux via Steam), PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S, with crossplay.

Its hook is unusual for a shooter: you don't control one soldier, you lead a whole squad of AI troops. Five years in, the question is simple. Is that idea strong enough to carry a game with obvious rough edges?

A shooter where death doesn't stop you

Before each spawn you pick a squad: riflemen, assaulters, engineers, machine gunners, snipers, tank crews or pilots. Squads hold roughly three to nine soldiers. You control one, and the rest follow your orders. When your soldier dies, you jump straight into the next one.

That single change reshapes the pace. There is almost no time on a respawn screen. A failed push becomes a chain of short, tense lives instead of one death and a long run back. Engineers can build rally points and machine-gun nests, so a squad can also shape the front line.

Battles are dense. Even mid-sized matches feel crowded because every player brings a squad.

Scale and spectacle

Battles mix infantry, armor and aircraft on maps drawn from real campaigns: Moscow, Normandy, Stalingrad, Berlin, the Pacific and more. Vehicle damage borrows War Thunder's module system, so a tank loses crew and parts rather than a health bar. Planes dive-bomb objectives while infantry fight room to room underneath.

The game also keeps its historical flavour. Since the December 2023 "Merge" update, each nation has a single army and research tree, but battles still happen in historical campaign settings. The Omaha location, added with the Operation Neptune update, shows Darkflow still invests in big set pieces.

Planes, tanks and infantry share the same maps. Screenshot: Darkflow Software / Gaijin Network Ltd via Steam

The weak link: your squadmates

The AI is the system's biggest problem, and almost every source agrees. Squadmates bunch up in the open, get stuck on window frames and struggle with ladders. In attack, they can follow you single file straight into enemy fire. Older reviews made the same point, so this is not a new complaint.

Orders help. Spreading the squad out, holding a building or moving it behind cover makes the bots more useful, and they defend better than they attack. Still, you often feel like a lone player dragging extra lives behind you, not a commander leading a team.

Progression, silver and Battle Rating

Each nation has a research tree of squads, weapons and vehicles, sorted into Battle Ratings from I to V. Your line-up's rating is set by its highest item. One late-war gun can pull a beginner into matches against much stronger gear. Gaijin admitted the issue in its August 2026 SITREP and promised a warning prompt when you queue into a different rating.

Research moves at a fair pace early on. Silver is the real bottleneck. You spend it on soldiers, weapon upgrades and perks, and players and press regularly describe earning it as slow. Expanding several squads to full strength takes a long time without paying.

Monetization

The game is free, but the store is never far away. There are premium squads with unique weapons or vehicles, a monthly Battle Pass, starter packs and limited-time chests. The September 2026 "Off-road Patrol" update alone added four new premium squads, including an armored Willys with twin bazookas.

To be fair, regular events give a lot back. The current "Reinforcements received: Hit & Run" event hands out driver squads just for playing, and you can skip several tasks and still earn the main rewards. Premium squads tend to be sidegrades rather than flat upgrades, but their unique gear feeds a constant pay-to-win debate on the forums.

Performance and updates

Enlisted is one of the best-looking free shooters. The latest update brought path-traced global illumination on PC, which requires DLSS Ray Reconstruction, plus a ray tracing preset on PS5 and Xbox Series X. Requirements stay modest: a GTX 660 and 8 GB of RAM at minimum, a GTX 1080 recommended.

The technical side is not spotless. Gaijin has acknowledged stutters after major updates, caused by shader caching on PC, and promised a pre-caching fix. Recent patches also fixed issues such as a crash with HDR and FSR Frame Generation, and server problems wiped battle rewards one weekend in September. Update cadence, on the other hand, is strong, with new weapons, events and fixes nearly every week.

Player reception

On Steam, Enlisted holds a "Very Positive" rating: 39,255 of 48,878 reviews are positive, about 80%. Players praise the scale, the squad system and the free content. Their recurring complaints match the press: the AI, the silver economy and the monetization.

Who it's for

Enlisted suits players who love Battlefield-style chaos and history, and who enjoy managing a squad as much as aiming. It is also a great pick for anyone who wants large WW2 battles without paying upfront. It suits patient players best, because building a strong army takes weeks.

It is a poor fit for competitive players who want precise gunplay and results that depend only on their own skill. Anyone allergic to grind or in-game stores should also think twice.

Verdict

Enlisted earns a 7.5/10. No other free shooter delivers WW2 battles this dense, this cinematic and this well supported. The squad system is a genuinely smart idea. But the AI often undercuts it, and the silver grind and busy store wear down the goodwill.

Play it if you want huge combined-arms battles, enjoy squad tactics and don't mind a long progression curve. Skip it if you want a tight competitive shooter or hate free-to-play economies.

More on Enlisted

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• PC setup and settings
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