Enlisted (PC) - 'Advanced Beginner' Level!

Getting Past Those Noob Blues!

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Beginning to Get the Hang of This (Until I Don't)! LOL

I won't mince words, the multiplayer online first person shooter Enlisted is - I imagine - somewhat like learning to ride a unicycle. I am sure once you have gotten the hang of staying on the darn thing it's fun, but until that time it's gotta be one hell of a frustrating time (where you wonder why you are bothering with the friggin' thing in the first place)!

Above: Early days in Enlisted is a struggle as your entry level bolt action - here
a US Springfield - sees you eking out small kill runs. The temptation for the
beginner is to resort to 'noob tubing' with the rifle grenade!

As an ex-Battlefield player this is my experience as a beginner in Enlisted. The two styles of combat shooter are so philosophically opposed that it's a bit of a mind f*** for those first few (and by few I mean dozens) of games.

The crucial difference between Battlefield and Enlisted is the spawn mechanics, specifically Battlefield's individual soldier focus versus Enlisted squad play format... And it's this change from 'looking after yourself' to 'looking after a gaggle of soldiers' that takes some getting use to.

Everyone Around Me Is an Idiot!

Amusingly, as a Battlefield player you always got the sense that everyone else was the idiot, you'll always see comments like 'stupid team' in the game chat. It's never your fault - it's everyone else's!

And while understandable at times - especially in public servers - in Enlisted you have greater cause to rant about the action of your AI controlled squad mates. Just having to worry about yourself compared to having responsibility of up to half a dozen other squad members is a bit of a heavy responsibility

...Now the soldiers that surround me really are idiots, it's not just my bias opinion! 😆

Above: In the early game - as an Allied Faction player - the M1 Carbine is a revelation after
struggling with the basic bolt action rifle. However, with it's low power .30 cartridge you
do tend to spam at first, but with experience you can eventually pull off distance shots!.

For all that we hear these days about the advances in AI, this is definitely not apparent when you see some of the imbecilic activities of your virtual teammates. And some of these shenanigans aren't just comical but can also be down right counterproductive and can cause you your players life. Like...

• Despite ordering your squad to 'HOLD' (stay) in a position, you invariable turn round to discover them following you like little ducks! (And/or got themselves all killed.)
• What the AI *thinks* is 'cover' often turns out to be out in the open in plain view of the enemy (and they get shot).
• When taking cover inside a house, AI *think* a window is 'hard cover!
• AI have a habit of meandering about in a gun fight, and more than once one of my AI has actually stood in front of me when I am firing! (Which can have dire consequences if what I am firing is a rifle launched grenade or a bazooka!)
• As above, but standing in front of me when I am engaging a target the AI acts as a 'bullet sponge' protecting the enemy and then I get shot!!!

Now, in their defence, part of this is to do with a beginner's lack of understanding of how to properly order/control AI in Enlisted (a great part of which is understanding and accepting their limitations). I strongly recommend that if you what to play Enlisted you look up one of the videos on YouTube about controlling your AI and learning how to correctly assign orders.

But even then, the AI in the game *will* always (well, 70% of the time) let you down and will never be perfect.

Above: An early game tip - ALWAYS equip your soldiers with a pistol as soon as you can! Even
if it's just the basic revolver... There is nothing worse than the 'click' of an empty rifle when you
have an enemy in front of you!!! 

Your only conciliation is that this is just as much of a problem for the enemy player as it is for you, so annoying as it is it kinda balances out - hence those lovely squad wipes that you get to enjoy (where you know that somewhere another real player is cursing his dumb AI squad mates)! 😉

At the end of the day, with experience, you simply learn to accept this flaw in then game and eventually look at the AI as what they are - spares, whom you can occasionally benefit from when you get killed by using the 'teleport' function to gain a second life.

Note: Many make a lot of this 'second chance' aspect of Enlisted as one of it's great 'features' - something you can't enjoy in games like Battlefield - BUT even this has it's down side...

Above: Another handy bit of kit that may not save your life BUT at least give you the satisfaction
of extracting revenge on your killer is the AP (anti-personnel) mine!

Time and time again, you will 'teleport' into a live squad mate only just in time to see the enemy who just killed 'you' doing exactly the same to your new body! BANG! Or - even worse, you will spawn into you new body hoping to revenge the death of your previous incarnation only to have to endure your new squad member going through the excruciating weapon reload animation...And so, BANG! 😡 

Above: One of the disconcerting sights foisted upon you because of Enlisted's 'teleporting'
feature is the occasional glimpse of the 'last you' in 'your' deceased state!

Again, the difference between a complete beginner to Enlisted and an intermediate player is that you learn to develop a philosophical attitude to the pros and cons of the games AI squad members.

They are all idiots!

They Real Benefits of Bearing With Enlisted

I fully understand those who try Enlisted and then soon decide that it is 'not for them', particularly if they come from a Battlefield or CoD gaming background. Believe me, I had my own doubts about this in my early playing experience and thought that the constant spawn/death cycle was overwhelming...

(Just spawning in your whole squad only to have them immediately wiped out by a well timed artillery strike is not funny!)

BUT...

Again, if you can develop a thick skin and accept - as I said - that this just being a bad for the other side as it is for you and that your AI squad is not several *yous* but just you and some spares (you only die once) you can work through the pain and reach a zen like indifference to the fortunes of Enlisted.

Above: A step up (intermediate beginner?) is when you start to unlock the semi auto and full
auto weapons, especially the rifles. Again, my failing is to replace 'carful aiming' with
trigger spamming. I am having to discipline myself to understand that although I can keep 
pulling that trigger, I need to slow down. I'm not there yet. (Also, I realise that the BAR was
used as an LMG, but I get pleasure at getting long shots with it anyway!)

Once you reach this enlightened state - and believe me, even then you will still have moments that your head is ready to explode at some of the stupid ways that you die -  you can then relax and enjoy some of the sublime moments that this game has to offer you...

And what are these, you might ask?

Well, like it or not, the additional 'lives' that being able to teleport into a remaining squad member affords you IS an advantage (when it works) Trouble is that you tend not to notice when it does work and only remember the frequent times when it didn't!

Being able to instantly respawn very close to where you died does offer you a tactical advantage. Sometimes you can actually catch the enemy who killed your previous avatar on the hope (but if her is an experienced play - or just plain lucky - he will have found your whole squad and will mow them down before you have time to react).

Still, it beats the old Battlefield system of having to spawn back at the nearest spawn point and then having to run all the way back to the action. Sometime those extra tens of seconds that takes can mean the difference between winning or losing an objective.

Above: THE FUN SWITCH - And then you get there, you unlock your first SMG And all of
a sudden things start getting close in and personal! You'll find that your style of play starts to
get more aggressive and suddenly you are leading the charge to capture  objectives (rather than
cowering on the periphery supporting others with your long shots). The M3 Grease Gun is a 
hard hitter BUT has a slow rate of fire so you still have to be careful with your aim and not
expect to 'spray and prey' (er, like I did in these clips)!

Also, the variety of specialist infantry that you can include in your squad means a greater variety in the types of play you get. I was a bit stayed in my Battlefield role - I always played an Engineer if I could - but Enlisted forces you to take on the role of any available member (left) in your squad.

This can be quite exciting - imagine for a moment that your squad is defending an objective, with a large force of enemy rushing you. You are a machine gunner and get killed, so you then have to respawn in a low level bolt action guy! Boy, that makes things very 'exciting'! 😂

Then there is the obvious appeal of an ever expanding inventory of weapons and vehicle types. In Battlefield the number and types of equipment available to you was somewhat finite (excluding DLC) and once your soldier had levelled up you kinda had little else to play with...

But Enlisted - made by the same developer that makes War Thunder - uses a format where there seems to be a unending number of 'new' weapons coming into the game. Though like War Thunder a many of these weapons and vehicles can be prototypes or 'what if' paper items I actually like that...

Above: The other side of the coin? Playing the US & Brits you kinda feel that you are somehow
disadvantaged with your selection of weapons (particularly in the early game). But this is untrue...
*Except* when it comes to the mighty German MG42 - 'Hitler's Buzzsaw! In these clips, I manage
to capture a German bunker and turn the MG42 on it's owners... OMG!!!

For example, as a bit of a gun nut I took advantage of the American faction's access to the PEDESRSON RIFLE. This rifle never actually saw service in any military, but for a while, it was the main competitor to the legendary M1 Garand when the US was choosing it's new service rifle. Being able to play with exotic items like this may spoil the immersion for some people, but for me it allows me to explore some weapons that I have only ever read about... Turns out that I love the Pederson! I think it's a better weapon than the Garand.

I'll end with a word of caution though. Being based on the War Thunder game model is both good and bad as this format is heavily cantered on the idea of PREMIUM purchases, whether that be a subscription with access to increased game benefits or out and out buying of special weapons and equipment which is not available to players enjoying the 'free' version of the game..

There is a temptation to think that this is a 'pay to win' system with those that are willing to fork out real money to buy 'better' weapons' gaining a real advantage.

In Conclusion

So, I guess the main question is - is Enlisted a better or worse game than Battlefield or Call of Duty?

My honest opinion is, if you were to - say - give me a choice of Battlefield V (the World War 2 one) and Enlisted I would chose BFV. No hesitation.

So why am I playing Enlisted? ...Variety, plain and simple. I got burnt out playing Battlefield V obsessively when I was playing it and it all got to be an act of 'rinse and repeat' after a while - as I am sure will eventually happen to me playing Enlisted.

But, in the meantime, Enlisted offers me a change of scene and an host of new weapons and vehicles to play with. The AI squad feature is novel and kinda works to your advantage just enough times to make it worth while.

It strikes me (just) now how Enlisted's  game mechanic are kinda like playing a slot machine. Some times it pays off, most of the time it doesn't BUT when it does it's a adrenaline rush! I forgive and forget the five times my squad was mercilessly was wiped out for that one exhilarating time that I enjoy wiping out someone else's squad mercilessly! 😂

But most of all - as the A Team's Hannibal Smith used to say - I love it when a plan comes together. And when Enlisted game features and mechanics work in your favour and your team gets the win you - rightly or wrongly  get an overwhelming sense that that was because of what you did!

Above: It's a bit of a learning curve, but taking tanks out with the explosive pack eventually
does become second nature! Before you unlock better AT weapons you best get good with this.

Whether it was because your mechanic built a spawn point at just the right place, or because your AI squad - for once - did exactly what you told them to do and occupied an objective in order to secure it, or you get a crucial squad wipe out with a bolt action rifle to prevent then enemy capturing an objective.... Those times are precious!

What Next (Become an Intermediate Player)..?

Restricting myself to playing the American element of the 'Allies' faction has been a less painful way to work though the beginner's experience with Enlisted (for me). 

Many people opt for the German faction as a beginner as it afford you earlier access to semi and fully automatic weapons, which can make those excruciatingly dire early games a little less soul destroying. The US squads offer this same sort of (relatively) quick jump to automatic weapons at a time when grappling with the bolt action rifle shovels additional misery over the already difficult experience of learning a new game style.

However... As you slowly get used to the game and turn from a complete Enlisted beginner into an 'advanced beginner' you start to appreciate the hard hitting power of the bolt action *if* you have the patience to master it (an early work around this problem is to unlock the grenade launcher for the Springfield, which gives you a bit of a 'noob tube' effect).

Above: The transition between absolute beginner and 'advanced beginner' (?) may be when you
finally begin to click with bolt action rifles. Rather than spamming with semi-autos I found
that the British Lee Enfield No. 4 rifle converted me into bolt-action fan. The slower rate of fire
is compensated for by the 'one shot' knockdown power, and with the No.4's 10 round magazine
you feel slightly less stressed about running out at a crucial moment (slightly). Although my
fire rate was slower my hit/kill per shots actually increased!

Despite the US line offering you a few excellent semi-auto battle rifles - in the Pederson, Johnson and the legendary Garand - another early game 'sanity saviour' is the M1 Carbine. A softer shooting simi-auto that make the fast shooting intense close-quarters battles a little more palatable (especially when you come up against German troops with auto weapons).

But, despite all these work arounds and as your play skill starts to work it's way up a fairly steep learning curve, you begin to appreciate the hard hitting power of the bolt action. And even the lowly Springfield can become a lethal instrument if you play wisely (despite it's 5 shot capacity).

So, deciding to push myself a little more - and discarding the early 'noob tubing' with the grenade launcher - PLUS being a quite happy with where I have gotten with my US squads (especially my Marines) I have now started working on the BRITISH (& Commonwealth) element of the Allied faction, with it's basic infantry weapon being the Lee Enfields!

While the basic Lee Enfield No. III SMLE only has the advantage over the Springfield in that it hold 10 cartridges instead of five, you can very soon grind up to the legendary No. 4 rifle!

And for me this was a epiphany. Suddenly bolt action rifles in Enlisted make sense and I didn't miss my American Garand so much (close quarters can still be a bit tricky, so try and play clever at medium range and carry an revolver for those nasty reload moments).

For me the British (& Commonwealth - which I mention as I have an Australians among my squads) are the Western Allies 'expert mode', with you always being challenged by you adversaries 'superior weapons' (though at BRI and BRII Germans and Japanese still mostly rely on bolt actions).

And that's where I am now... Starting the British grind (and loving my new Australian 'Commandos' which you get when you unlock the 'Guerrilla' faction)...

Above: My Aussies - note that 'guerrillas' are restricted to SMGs, shotguns and bolt actions
(unless you pick up an enemy weapon), so they are close-in and ambush troops. But here
you see that some of mine are armed with the excellent 'Owen' SMG.