TL;DR: Enlisted’s gameplay might be enjoyable, but the shocking reality of its cosmetic monetization system is nothing short of a financial disaster. Players, particularly new ones, are confronted with an outrageous scheme where each cosmetic item is a one-time use for a single soldier, forcing them to shell out exorbitant amounts over and over again for different soldiers, squads, and campaigns. The staggering cost to fully outfit a squad resembles a financial black hole, leaving players questioning the sanity of spending thousands of dollars on duplicate cosmetics which can’t be reused. The overall impression is one of drastic, predatory monetization, with the game’s profit-driven approach overshadowing any semblance of player-friendly engagement.
Full disclosure; I’m a new player, only started playing 3 weeks ago. I enjoy the gameplay, so I bought 3 months of premium time and the current battle pass too. The game is fun for me, and it scratches the itch I’m looking for currently.
One of the 2 main aspects that made me try this game is the sense of scale it gives in the matches and the squad customization element.
While the first one is arguably something I enjoy, the customization is downright criminal.
I’ve seen some shitty monetization practices in my life, but what Enlisted is doing has to be the worst designed, predatory and anti consumer system ever.
Unless I’m mistaken, this is how it works:
Every cosmetic slot is tied to a single soldier in a single theatre of war. Not to an army, not to a squad, it’s down to the unique solider level.
Now that I’ve accrued some appearance orders and some gold too, I figured I would start engaging with this system. That’s when I realized just how predatory it is.
So let’s say I’m playing Germany, and want my soldiers to wear the Stahlhelm. Ok, so if the game doesn’t assign a helm to my soldiers randomly, I’ll have to cough up some cash and pay. Fair, - I guess - it’s a F2P game afterall, so that’s how it’s going to be. That’s when I found out that the Stahlhelm cosmetic I just paid for is not actually an unlock, just a single use item for a single soldier in a single theatre of war. Is this for real? Like what the hell? Does DarkFlow seriously expect people to buy the exact same cosmetic dozens or sometimes even hundreds of times? How on earth is this ok? Oh, and that’s not even the worst part. You can even lose these cosmetics (that you paid for) once you realize that your soldiers perk points are randomized (which a new player won’t) and if you buy cosmetics for a soldier that you’ll later have to ditch because of it’s perk points they are just lost forever. But wait, there is more! Your soldier classes have multiple levels. So the shiny new helmet you bought for your Rifleman Lvl 1 is only tied to that soldier, but in higher BR brackets, your Rifleman Lvl 3 is a separate entity, so you have to buy them again. Seriously, how is anybody ok with this?
Once I realized this I started doing calculations, and it’s just mind boggling.
So equiping a single soldier with a head, torso and leg cosmetic costs 390 Gold or the equivalent of ~$3.9. (this doesn’t include the change of their sometimes hideous heads or the glove slot)
To do the same for your shiny new fully upgraded riflemen squad, it will be nine times this much, so 3510 gold, or the equivalent of ~$35. For a single squad for one theatre of war. Remember they can’t be reused, so now you have to buy the exact same cosmetics multiple times, in the case of Germany, a whopping 6 times. So that single rifleman squad outfitted to all campaigns, 9 x $35, which is $315. For a single freaking squad. The equivalent of 4 fully priced AAA titles, and some DLC (or cosmetics lol) and still have some left over.
Now that you paid $315, surely, you can now start equipping your squads with the equipment you bought right? Wrong, you have to do this for every freaking soldier, in every squad, in every campaign and every army on almost every BR level. Remember, Rifleman 1 is not Rifleman 2 or 3 so you have to buy all of this all over again.
Now let’s look at a VERY basic lineup of squads consisting of 3 infantry squads and one vehicle.
Rifleman squad is $315
Engineer squad is $210
Machinegun squad is $280
Tank squad crew is $175
I was looking forward to engaging with this system, but looking at the costs there is no way I’m going to throw thousands of dollars to buy the exact same helmet/coat/trousers hundreds of times.
Also consider, that this is on top of premium time and a battlepass which are all recurring revenues. The whole thing just feels like it’s monetized as a dying mobile game or worse. Is this game on it’s last legs and trying to milk the remaining customers for whatever they can before they shut down? (Genuine question, I’m still new)
This isn’t my first F2P game, and I’m willing to spend money on them if the value proposition is right, but here it’s just not. DarkFlow, please consider the following suggestion so people will actually engage with this system.
Make cosmetic pieces more expensive but make them unlocks for an army. So continuing the example of the Stahlhelm (standard gray with the chinstrap down), make it cost like 20 Appearance Orders or $6 (using your current formula of 1 AO = 30 Gold)
Some other examples:
Helmet slot: 20 AO or $6
Torso slot: 80 AO or $24
Leg slot: 30 AO or $9
These prices are still pretty expensive, but it would be a much better value proposition than the current system.
