Enlisted was developed by Darkflow Software and is published by Gaijin Entertainment, running on the same Dagor engine family as War Thunder. It is a free download for Windows PC, PlayStation 4 and 5, and Xbox One and Series X/S, with no browser or mobile version. It launched in 2021, starting on the newest Xbox before expanding to PC and the other consoles that same year.
We include it on an armour site because its battlefields are full of armour: Gaijin lists more than 150 tanks alongside armoured cars, motorcycles and aircraft. But its heart is infantry. You command a squad of soldiers, controlling one directly while the others follow your orders. When your soldier falls, you take over the next. That single idea changes how the whole game feels.
A squad at your heels
Squads hold between three and nine soldiers depending on their type, and each soldier belongs to a class such as rifleman, engineer, medic or sniper, with weapons and perks to match. You play one, the rest follow, and simple commands let you send them to a position, tell them to hold or have them regroup. Engineers can build fortifications and rally points that give your team new places to respawn.
The result is a battlefield that feels crowded even in a modest match. Every player brings a whole squad, so assaults have real mass and defences feel like a line rather than a few people in a trench. Managing your soldiers is clumsy at first, and the AI sometimes wanders into fire, but once it clicks you start thinking like a small-unit leader instead of a lone gunman.
Fronts from Moscow to the Pacific
The game’s battles cover several historic fronts: Moscow, Normandy, Berlin, Tunisia, Stalingrad and operations in the Pacific. Four nations fight across them, the United States, Germany, the Soviet Union and Japan. Maps are large and densely detailed, with villages, factory districts and coastlines that feel recognizably of their time even when the battles themselves are dramatized.
Modes include Conquest, Invasion, Assault, Destruction and Confrontation, each shaping how attackers and defenders move across the map. Invasion, where one side pushes through successive objectives, is our favourite because it creates the long, swaying fights that make the game memorable. More than 250 weapons have been recreated, and handling them for the first time is a pleasure in itself.
Armour inside an infantry war
Tanks in Enlisted are crewed by a squad, which means a knocked-out tank leaves its crew on foot. You can abandon a damaged vehicle mid-battle and carry on as infantry, which feels fittingly desperate. Tanks are powerful but vulnerable to engineers with explosives and anti-tank weapons, so a lone armoured push rarely survives long without support.
Aircraft add another layer, strafing and bombing objectives, though they are less central than in War Thunder. For armour fans, the appeal is seeing tanks as part of a wider battle rather than the whole of it. Driving a tank into a village while your team clears the houses either side is a different feeling from anything else on this list, and a reason to try it.
Progression has been rebuilt more than once
Enlisted’s progression has changed over its life. Early on, players progressed campaign by campaign; later the game moved to battle-rating tiers grouping equipment by strength, with five tiers and matchmaking that pairs players within neighbouring tiers. A more recent update introduced research trees with multiple branches for nations and soldiers, funded by a single in-game currency called silver.
These changes have generally helped, but they have left the game feeling in flux, and older guides can mislead newcomers. Equipping soldiers individually is still a detailed process that some will love and others will find tedious. Our fairness and progression scores reflect a game that is generous in spirit but asks for a long commitment to field a fully equipped force across several squads.
Your first seven days in Enlisted
- Download the Windows client or install from your console store, then work through the training missions for squad commands.
- Choose one nation and play a single front until you know its maps and which squads unlock first.
- Practise switching soldiers when one falls instead of waiting for the respawn screen; it keeps you in the fight.
- Bring an engineer in every match and build rally points near objectives; your team will thank you.
- Try one tank squad by the weekend, staying close to friendly infantry rather than pushing alone.
Where the armour holds
- Commanding a squad makes every attack feel like a real assault.
- Large, detailed maps across famous Second World War fronts.
- Tanks that belong to a wider battle rather than dominating it.
- Engineers’ rally points and fortifications give defence real meaning.
Where it rattles
- AI soldiers occasionally stroll into fire or get stuck on scenery.
- Repeated progression overhauls have left older guides out of date.
- Equipping several full squads takes a long stretch for free players.
Who should report for duty in Enlisted
Enlisted is for players who enjoy large-scale Second World War battles and like the idea of commanding, not just shooting. Fans of team tactics and history will feel at home. Pure armour fans may want War Thunder first, since tanks are only one part of this infantry-led war.
After-action report on Enlisted
Enlisted is the most cinematic battle on our desk, and squad command is a genuinely fresh idea in a crowded genre. It is less polished than its sibling War Thunder, its progression keeps shifting, and the AI can embarrass you. Still, when an assault surges across a field with your squad behind you, nothing else here comes close. Fourth place, with a lot of heart.
