NB: I will be reviewing the update in the order of their release. I won’t be reviewing the Battle Pass content or marathon event.
Fulfilled:
New Unique Class with Unique Mechanics: Paratrooper
This is the first major update of Enlisted in 2023 titled “Airborne Forces”. This update introduces a new squad class, the Paratrooper squads which brings a rather unique spawning mechanic, picking a drop point anywhere on the map within the playable zone and jumping from a plane to the designated drop point. This makes them the most versatile and powerful squad to date. However, sadly this squad is unlockable neither during the pre-merge campaign level nor the tech tree and can only be received through buying a premium squad or getting them through a grindy marathon event (1x US, 2x UK, 1x Japan, 1x Italy).
New Battlefield in Normandy: Steel Plant
This new map is included with the “Airborne Forces” update. Steel Plant is very different to what Normandy currently has. It has unique architecture (the cooling tower, steel mill, multiple-level office etc.), and a lot of unreachable high spots that can only be accessed by landing a paratrooper squad on it. Overall, a fresh new map for Normandy.
Titan Rise
Enlisted’s April Fools event, definitely not inspired by the First Person Mecha Shooter developed by Respawn Entertainment 
. Besides featuring giant walker tanks, it also introduced a rather interesting mechanic for spawning vehicles which is the scoring system. Basically, you need to get a certain score in order to spawn vehicles. If implemented, this mechanic will change the current dynamic by forcing everyone to play infantry and play the objective first before spawning the vehicle therefore stopping the tanks and planes spam and making them a valuable asset. Unfortunately, this mechanic has not been implemented yet.
Major UI Upgrade
Not going to say a lot about the new UI. It is still bad and overwhelming albeit less than the old UI. There are a lot of things to be worked on in the UI.
New Type of Aircraft Weapons: Drop Tank
This is the second major update of Enlisted in 2023 titled “Jungle Fires”. This update also introduced a new aircraft weapon: Drop Tank. Unfortunately, it can only be used by two new premium plane squads and two new events unlock plane squads for both Japan and US. It, however, is hugely disappointing since it is very underwhelming to use. The damage tick from the flame is laughable as if you are just dropping fart bombs on the enemies. Almost no one, at least from experience, is using it.
New Battlefield in the Pacific: New Georgia
This new map is included with the “Jungle Fire” update. This map brought in new types of interiors, a cave system, a downed Japanese bomber, and a beached cargo ship, all based on historical photos and location. This is, by far, the most gorgeous map ever designed in Enlisted.
New Progression System
Finally, we’ve come to the update that changed Enlisted as we know and oh boy, I have a lot of things to say. The New Enlisted aka the “Merge” update has been in the making for almost a year, finally releasing toward the end of 2023. As you can see in the roadmap positioning, the Merge was supposed to be released in Q2 but probably due to the complexity of the update, it had to go through delays and multiple phases of open testing and probably internal testing as well.
From my experience, here are some of the positive, mixed, and negative of the Merge.
Positive:
- Matches are now mostly filled with real players with unpredictable outcomes as opposed to mostly bot farms with predictable winning factions for each campaign.
- Progressions are no longer linear with campaign level and instead, it is represented in the tech tree.
- No more repeat unlock of the same equipment.
- Premium squads can be used flexibly, no longer tied to their campaigns.
- BR matchmaking ensures that players with mostly low BR equipment will only fight against players with the same equipment.
- New equipment can be added anywhere depending on its Tier and BR.
- Balancing can be done easily through BR adjustment.
Mixed
- The absence of the UK and Italy tech tree.
- Italian soldiers didn’t use their uniforms in Stalingrad or Moscow even though Italy participated in the Eastern Front against the USSR. (Google CSIR and ARMIR)
- You can’t pick a soldier’s nationality since it is tied to the class.
- Vehicle camos are not adjusted to the climate of the map so you can see winter camo on summer map or desert camo on winter map.
- Campaign selections are gone and now, and campaigns are now decided by BR matchmaking.
- Stalingrad is available for high BR, but should only be for low BR only.
Negative:
- High BR gameplay is reduced to meta spam.
- Abysmal Silver earning even with a premium account.
- BR3 is either dominating against BR1-2 or being demolished by BR4-5.
From my observation of various posts and comments, the reactions to the Merge update are divided. On one side, some people are absolutely loving it since matches are now more alive. On the other side, some people despise it, calling it the death of Enlisted and are quitting en masse until Darkflow revert the update.
All in all, the Merge is still a positive update for the longevity of the game and its player base.
New Campaign in a New Format: Ardennes
Probably the last major update of Enlisted in 2023 is titled “New Era”. These updates introduce a new campaign “Battle of the Bulge” or Ardennes Offensive but instead of a whole new campaign with a separate progression and factions, it is just new maps where the US and Germany will fight. The maps feel like an amalgamation of the vast snowy terrain and forest of Moscow and the French villages of Normandy. The maps themselves are a bit too open on certain parts which doesn’t provide little to no cover to place rally point.
New Type of Ground Vehicle: APC
Lastly, the APC squad are added to the game. The APC can act like a mobile rally point or troop transport to the front line, much like the late Heroes and Generals (RIP). Unlike paratroopers, APC squads are in the tech tree therefore they can be obtained through grinding without any time gate but these tech tree’s APC are just trucks and unarmored half-track. You can however buy the premium APC squads that come with an actual APC (M3 Half-Track for USSR and Sd. Kfz 251/1 for Germany, both at BR2 for the APC). A nice addition to Enlisted, not useless but also not overpowered.
Unfulfilled:
OBT is over, the Release of Enlisted
I’m not sure that Enlisted is ready to be released especially with all the issues with the Merge itself. It needs a long time in the oven, possibly another year before it can finally reach 1.0.
Launch on ???
It is been debated whether Enlisted will finally be released on Steam (most likely) just like its sister and cousin: CRSED: FOAD and War Thunder. Or maybe they are launching on other gaming platforms such as Epic Game Store, who knows right?
New Campaign in a New Format 2: ???
We’ve already seen this with Ardennes, only new maps for two factions to fight along with new equipment for said factions or even a new whole faction. Personally, I’d like to see more early war campaigns like the Battle of France, the Invasion of Poland, the Winter War, or even the Invasion of Greece.
Conclusion
I’m still hoping that Darkflow will keep working on Enlisted and excited to see the future of it. Since it’s already the end of December, I’d like to say: Merry Christmas and Happy New Year folks. Alright, that’s it for my rambling. See you.