Gears of War is the franchise that got me into Xbox. Sure, I had an original Xbox for a while, but it was my 360, with Gears 2, that sold me on the whole brand. I was a bit too late to understand the Halo hype; for me, Halo: Reach was my first proper Halo, and anything before it never resonated once I went back to try it. No, Halo wasn’t the killer app many fans claimed at the time, and still do; in truth, Gears of War was the real system seller for Xbox.
I followed the series to the most recent Gears 5, which released in 2019, and I didn't really hate any entry, but I did notice a dip in quality as they moved further from the core four: Marcus, Dom, Cole, and Baird. Gears of War had backed itself into a corner: does it double down on the next generation of characters, or can it make an aging Marcus believable in the fight against the grubs? These and plenty more questions have bounced around my head as Father Time and storylines moved Gears on, and the whole thing started to feel unrecognizable from the franchise I originally fell in love with.
When Gears of War: E-Day was first announced, I was skeptical. Between the original trilogy and Judgment, it felt like we had already mined this era of the timeline for all it was worth. Reading about Emergence Day in the lore or hearing an older Marcus grumble about it is one thing; watching Sera’s citizens' lives get violently upended in an instant is another. The second Marcus and Dom step outside to investigate the tremors shaking the street, the game has its hooks in you. I've also read plenty of novels and comics set in this period of the Gears universe, so I wondered what could feel fresh, since the characters involved here clearly have mapped-out fates.
Seeing Marcus and Dom together again is something I didn't realize I needed. All the emotional damage Gears 3 did came flooding back. We obviously know exactly how their overarching story plays out across Gears 1 through 5. Instead of making this prequel feel redundant, that knowledge just adds a heavy, tragic backdrop to everything they do. Even knowing where these characters end up, Dom’s reactions to certain pivotal story beats absolutely choked me up.
For a game I assumed wouldn't really surprise me, it did.
To flesh out Sera's darker era, the game introduces a stellar supporting cast. Mags and Reyes are fantastic additions to the roster, alongside a terrified mix of civilians and stranded COG soldiers. For those worried - no, Mags and Reyes don’t become the main attraction - it’s very much still the Marcus and Dom show, although they do give a small couple of sections to them so we can learn of their backstories.
A special mention goes to John DiMaggio. How he managed to dial back the years to make Marcus sound this raw and inexperienced is a mystery, but his vocal performance is brilliant.
I'll keep the major story beats spoiler-free, but for fans who have devoured Karen Traviss's novels over the years, seeing that foundational canon preserved on-screen is a massive win. The world already feels deeply lived-in and scarred by the Pendulum Wars long before the grubs even breach the surface.
The characters throughout the game look fantastic; at times I would turn the camera just to see their faces, and they are some of the best I have ever seen in a game. To match the impressive character models, the vistas are genuinely jaw-dropping at times. Looking over cities under attack, and seeing the lighting in darkened areas, like walking through trees and watching moonlight split through the branches, is unmatched this generation.
Even when the locust emerge through an E-hole, the rubble crumbling and bursting into the air, accompanied by the chilling red lights they emit, is an absolute spectacle. Outside the Forza series, Gears of War: E-Day is a graphical showstopper for Xbox.
It sells the illusion of an all-out invasion in real time, backed by a deeply oppressive soundscape and a fantastic musical score that lends each situation heavy emotional weight. Heck, even before you load your save, having Metallica's "For Whom the Bell Tolls" blasting on the main menu sets the exact right tone for what is to come. Once you drop in, the familiar shrieks of the Locust echoing through subway tunnels and the deafening roar of a Lancer chainsaw tearing through armor constantly remind you of the overwhelming odds humanity is facing.
E-Day really feels like a survival game, with humanity caught off guard and forced to adapt on the fly to the latest threat to its civilization. The staggered weapon drops in the early campaign feel natural, progressing from a broken piece of pipe to snub pistols and gnashers before you finally get your hands on the meaty retro lancers.
The drones are tough, taking heavy, sustained fire to bring down, and the boss encounters are properly scaled set-pieces that highlight exactly how outmatched the COG was at the beginning of the war. When Gears 4 came out, there was a lot of talk about returning to the series' horror roots. E-Day actually delivers. During the opening segments, the scarce ammo and desperate pacing felt remarkably close to the Resident Evil 2 remake, not in terms of puzzles, but in raw, tense atmosphere. Every blind corner feels like a massive risk. I spent the first few hours playing with my mouth open, soaking in just how hostile the world felt.
Beyond the gritty, desolate setting, traversal has changed the most: the Gears are substantially more agile this time around, finally able to mantle-jump and climb vertical obstacles to open new lines of sight. It completely changes how you approach a firefight. You're no longer just locking into a single piece of waist-high cover and trading fire across a flat plane; you're constantly repositioning and looking for high ground. Seeing Marcus Fenix vault over ledges like an acrobat is surreal after decades of heavy roadie running, but it gives the combat a much-needed change-up. Purists might take a minute to warm up to it, but in the heat of a firefight, it feels fantastic.
The combat toolkit has a couple of weird omissions. You can no longer plant grenades on walls or stick them to enemies, and the ability to grab a downed grub as a meat shield has been scrapped. You could argue this makes sense narratively: these soldiers are encountering the Locust for the very first time and acting on pure panic rather than refined military tactics, but it still feels jarring when staple mechanics you've used since 2006 suddenly vanish from your muscle memory.
Gears 5 stumbled when it tried to force open-world hubs into the mix, leaving long, empty stretches on the Skiff between missions. E-Day strikes a much better balance. It walks the line between linear set-pieces and open zones, giving you room to breathe without sacrificing the tight pacing a Gears campaign relies on.
You’ll find supply hubs scattered throughout the ruined city districts where you can upgrade weapons with custom mods. You unlock these by taking on optional side objectives, like clearing an alley to rescue a pinned-down squad of rookies or securing a high-value supply cache before it’s overrun. Adding a bigger magazine onto your Gnasher or a new grip onto your Lancer adds a sense of progression.
It’s a clever evolution of the formula, giving the series a refresh it's needed since Gears 3. I rolled the credits in about 10 hours, but my save file showed only 54% completion after the main missions, leaving plenty of collectibles and side missions waiting. The story is genuinely good, something we can’t say about the last couple of mainline entries, and it soft-reboots the narrative without restarting altogether. Best of all, the campaign fully supports old-school, on-the-couch 2-player split-screen co-op on Xbox Series X/S and PC, making it a must-play with a friend.
Campaign isn’t the only way to get together with friends; after all, this is a story about camaraderie and brotherhood. The multiplayer suite (Versus PvP and Horde PvE) is back, and it's changed quite a bit. Running 50-wave Horde sessions was a nightly ritual for me during the 360 era, and this new iteration, Horde Siege, is everything I wanted the mode to become after future entries took cautious steps to advance the formula. By building its map directly from the campaign's massive city district instead of walled-off sections, it finally achieves the scale previous games missed. You get three distinct ways to play: Blitz for fast, high-intensity short mission runs; classic Horde for traditional wave defense; and Siege, which extends things into longer, grueling, objective-driven operations.
The absolute best design choice here is that your squad isn't alone on the map. Other teams are actively fighting off the Locust in adjacent sectors of the same sprawling city block. It is an incredible feeling to be pinned down behind a rusted-out car, only to see another squad of Gears cross the street to lay down covering fire. You organically cross paths with other players in real time, helping them clear objectives or pooling your firepower to take down a massive boss before pulling back to finish your own goals ahead of extraction.
This changes the mode's entire dynamic. Instead of hunkering down in a tiny corner and praying your ammo and defenses hold out, you'll sprint across an active war zone to secure energy pickups and buy weapon upgrades. It makes Horde feel like an ongoing part of the ongoing war rather than a separate arcade mode tacked onto the main menu. If The Coalition takes this exact framework and iterates on it for the next mainline game, they might finally crack the code on a fully open-world Gears game they attempted and failed at with Gears 5.
Versus mode has never been my favorite mode in Gears. The super sweaty mode full of wall bouncing and Gnasher gibs is here and as twitchy as ever. Wall bouncing may have taken a back seat, but the games I've played have replaced it with players who have already mastered chaining cover exits into slides to pop you instantly. The playlists are quite restrictive too, with Quick Play queue shuffling between modes at random, meaning modes like Team Deathmatch, Conquest, etc. are only playable when it's their turn on the carousel; it is strange, and I am sure this will change in time to let you select a mode.
The only standalone mode you can select is the brand-new Warpath; it has a moving ring that opposing teams must capture and hold to reach 100 points. It's a new twist on Conquest and actually a whole lot of fun. Instead of squatting in one area defending, you have to keep moving and watch for the other team trying to take the zone for themselves. If I ever venture back into PvP, I'll play Warpath.
For now, Ranked mode is locked off with a coming soon notice, which makes little difference to me, but I am sure Versus lovers will find it frustrating. I am sure those of you who live for sweaty shotgun action will enjoy the new movement and use it in a bunch of ways to make it unplayable for the rest of us within weeks. But for those of us who get Gears primarily for the story, co-op, and PvE, Versus is a mode to try out to see what it is all about, but don’t feel bad skipping it altogether if PvP doesn’t tickle your pickle.
As a massive nerd for the history of the Gears universe, my one lingering wish is that we could have spent some time fighting the UIR in the Pendulum Wars. Given that the conflict lasted almost a century, we've barely had a chance to play through it, aside from a short flashback in Gears 4. I completely understand why the studio wanted to drop players straight into the chaos of E-Day, but I'm holding out hope we might see a Pendulum Wars expansion somewhere down the line.
Gears of War: E-Day is a great starting point for new players and a nostalgic return to the war's early days for longtime fans. Every part of the map feels like an active war zone, capturing the panic and fear of Emergence Day better than any previous entry.
Even though I knew where the characters eventually end up, E-Day kept me on the edge of my seat throughout. It balances high-octane set pieces with genuine horror beats, backed by best-in-class visual design and a campaign layout that modernizes the series without losing its identity. The Coalition has laid all its cards on the table and delivered what is arguably the franchise's best campaign. It's a showcase for the studio, restoring my faith not just in Gears' future, but in Xbox as a whole.
I said recently that this year was already stacked with bangers, but E-Day just made the Game of the Year conversation significantly harder.
READ MORE: Gears of War: E-Day Season 1 Patch Notes: Weapon Tuning, Bug Fixes, and More
