Enlisted Reviews

So, Enlisted, another cross-platform shooter right? Well, although technically right, this game is quite something of its own.
Before sharing my experience and giving some opinions about the game, I first want to explain goal of the game, because it is more than simply leveling up and unlocking camo's or skins because of it.

Goal of the game, beside of winning the objective based matches
In this game it is not about yóúr character and getting some customization, it is all about campaigns, armees, squads and their soldiers. In that order to be precise.
In the theoretical case you want to play this game and have everything unlocked from the beginning, you first select a campaign. A campaign is a preset of maps and modes which are true to a time/place. Moscow and Normandy are two campaign-examples. After having selected a campaign you'd have to pick a side, Allies or Axis. Which country/army you then represent depends on the campaign you have chosen.

The army you play as can level up, which gives new squads as a reward. This brings us to the squads. Squads are specialized groups of soldiers (with still some normal soldiers in it). These soldiers can be switched as you unlock more, so its not the same squad for everyone in the world. There are twelve types of squads, from engineers and snipers to flamethrowers and radio operators. When you play with these squads, they level up too but separately from the army. The squad leveling allows you to, for example, slowly put more specialized soldiers than basic soldiers, or allow some more experienced soldiers in the team.

Regarding the soldiers, you should see them as individuals and not necessarily as a part of a squad. You can switch the soldiers between squads, but it must comply with the squad its configuration-range, so no 5 assaulters in a radio squad. They, just like the squads represent one of the twelve types and level up. While the squad its type determines what kind of soldiers may be in the team, the type for a soldier means what weapons and equipment they can bring to the battlefield. Leveling soldiers up gives them better/more skills like building sandbaggs slightly faster.

This different focus (yóúr character VS armees, squads, soldiers) is also noticeable in-game, because while it is a FirstPersonShooter, your always on the battlefield with a squad / multiple soldiers. While you select one member of the squad to spawn with, all squad member spawn in. If you die before your AI controlled squad mates, you will take one of them over. When all your squadmates died, you are able to select your next squad to spawn in. The previous squad goes on a cooldown (so your soldiers are not really gone), and you will be able to select them again after two more spawns in the same match.

Personal experience
Gameplay
In the previous section I roughly explained how the gameplay of its main mode works, but how does it feel? It feels unique, good, its own, fun! Having unique gameplay is hard to come by since everyone copies each others successes a bit too much and to fast (battle royale and battle pass), but this game found the right balance. Something I also love about this game is the authenticity and touch of realism, which both add to the top tier immersion experience. From the slow movement of the gun turret of a tank to the reload animations of the soldiers' guns, it all feels like a very dramatised documentary experience. I say dramatised because the game is still fast paced and the battle cries maybe a bit too often at the wrong times for it to be realistic. Something I think I must address is the uniforms of the axis has some censorship. This is a bit of a shame for me as a war relics owner, but of course not a game breaker. The experiencing of the gameplay is something you really shouldn't miss!

Controls
The default controls are simply put terrible. The aim acceleration is put to over 9000 and has bug causing it to also slowly decelerate when the rotating should in fact stop, which I have never experienced before; The deadzone is put to TWENTY percent in some vehicles; The difference in aiming rotation between hipfire and aiming-down-sights is almost none existence and there are a few others which could be better set. LUCKILY for me and everyone else, almost every setting you can imagine regarding controls is configurable, and so are the worst three I just mentioned. To give my personal preference: deadzone 9%, aim-accelaration 0 and aim-down-sight-multiplier below 0.5 (and inverted y-axis, but I understand not everyone likes this)

Graphics
This can be a relative short one, its very good!
While maybe the peoples faces are just frostbite 3 good, so I'd say on par with todays standard, everything else is phenomenal. The foliage, the water, the drawing distance, no pop-ins, the gas renders like smoke and fire, it all just looks really good and make me fully understand why this is next gen only.

Micro transactions
Because its a free to play game, there undoubtfully would be microtransactions. The way they handle it is slightly more aggressive than others, but it doesn't come close to a Warface. In most games you pay for skins, here you more or less pay for indirect faster progress, which doesnt makes it pay to win in the long run. You can buy a preset squad which isnt overpowered but levels your army faster, buy a battlepass which gives you more soldiers, you can buy a level booster, etc, but you cant really buy something others can't get.

Final verdict
Where most blockbuster shooters have become more and more arcade-style to attract a wider audience, this game perfectly fills the arisen gap between arcade and hardcore, while delivering the AAA gameplay you'd expect from one of the blockbusters. It has some microtransactions and maybe a beginners learning curve, but that shouldnt keep you away from this awesome, unique, authentic and fun game!