When will my fun come to an end?
I’m having a lot of fun in Enlisted’s open beta, and my readers know if I say something is fine, it’s good, and if I really like it, I really like it. I really like Enlisted. And I’m really worried about the future of this game.
Enlisted if you don’t know is an MMOFPS developed and launched by Gaijin Games, and if you know who Gaijin is then you probably know why I’m scared. It is a session based shooter, but the “gimmick” so to speak is that players build and take into battle squads of characters. You level up those squads, get them better equipment, get them various perks, and there’s a whole RPG element to better outfitting yourself as you level up through battle. As you level up your “war campaign” by playing matches you get access to more weapons and more squads.
The battles themselves are amazing and revolve around capturing territory. There’s an element some might be familiar with from Titanfall except squad-based. Your squad trails you and actually shoots at stuff (albeit poorly). It gives everyone a sense of participation because there’s always bots to pick off and your squad can get kills. If killed in battle, you can immediately swap to one of the living squad members as opposed to being sent back to the respawn timer.
Most of your time on the field is going to be with a bolt-action rifle, Enlisted is not (at least not yet) a spamfest of automatic weapons and the game seems tuned to prevent players from filling a squad with submachine guns. Friendly fire is turned off. The gameplay itself is more hardcore as most shots will immediately down someone. It’s important to note that about the guns before I say this next part.
Enlisted has gacha mechanics, but (to my mind) it’s the most useless gacha system I’ve ever seen. For completing matches and finishing challenges you get draw cards, and those cards can draw weapons and soldiers. The differences between ranks of weapons is tiny. You don’t get a weapon with double magazine or extra damage, but with perks like less screen shake during an explosion.
So why am I scared of Enlisted? Because it’s Gaijin and I know that just because the game is fantastic now doesn’t mean it won’t get drilled into the ground through future updates directing players toward the cash shop. There’s also the issue of more players reaching higher tiers and questions of game balance that come in as high-tier tanks and other abilities like artillery barrages become more commonplace.
Admittedly I am becoming more cynical about games as a service in general, as well as other living medias where I find myself thinking “this is great, I hope they don’t ruin it in the future.”
I really recommend Enlisted for people who want a new world war 2 game to play. I even made a video where you can see a match played with no obnoxious commentary. I’m going to go play some Enlisted right now.
MMO Fallout 