While I may not have been with Gears Of War from the jump, from the moment I was introduced to the series with Gears Of War 2, I was hooked. Since then, the franchise has become one of my favourites in all of gaming. And while horde and multiplayer have always been fun, it’s always been about the campaign for me. Now as we near the release of the next Gears game, Gears Of War: E-Day the hype has been building. While we all painfully wait for October to roll around, I was given the chance to check out a preview of the Gears Of War: E-Day campaign.
In case you haven’t been keeping up with the news about Gears Of War, E-Day is a prequel to the original Gears Of War game. The Coalition has decided to go back to the series roots rather than finalize the modern-day trilogy with Kait Diaz and her crew, we are back to where it all began with Marcus Fenix and Dom Santiago and their crew.
It was an interesting choice to go back to the beginning, and I for one am all for it. I hope to go back to the modern trilogy at some point, but this feels a bit like a soft reboot for the franchise. With a series full of lore, going back to explore where that lore came from has me quite excited.
Emergence Day
As the title suggests, Gears Of War: E-Day takes place during the historic Emergence Day, 14 years before the original Gears Of War game. Humanity on the planet Sera has just entered a period of peace after the Pendulum Wars and Marcus and Dom have retired. Suddenly the Locust Horde’s attack, rising up from their emergence holes and throwing the planet into chaos.
The preview build threw me into the beginning of Act 2 and played through the first 2 chapters. Technically the second chapter is split into 2 chapters and this was only part one, but for all intents and purposes this was 2 chapters. Marcus and Dom have linked up with Mags Carter and Lucas Reyes and have found a few other COG squads. The squads split up in order to take back a main bridge that links part of Kalona with Oria Stadium, which has been turned into a forward operating base.
Once secured the 4 are given their COG armor and weapons and form Bravo squad as active members of duty once more. They are sent to work their way through the city, helping civilians escape and help pinned down COGs. When I first booted up the preview, I was kind of annoyed to be jumping into the middle of the game. What information am I missing from act 1? It just felt weird to jump into the middle of a game. That said the preview build didn’t offer up too much story wise so I can see why they chose it. Sadly, leaks are a bigger and bigger issue these days. If this were to somehow leak, at least there wouldn’t be major plotlines out there.
However, because of this I can’t really comment too much on how I think the story is. I’m sure Act 1 will quickly set the tone and I have no doubt The Coalition is going to deliver a solid Gears story here. There just isn’t too much info I can give with this little slice.
That said, just in this roughly 1-hour slice of Act 2 there was already multiple cool moments for longtime fans of Gear of War. If you are paying attention, you will get a lot of lore dropped on you with the dialogue and cutscenes. That alone tells me The Coalition gets it and I’m excited to see where they take it.
Gears Mixed With Space Marines
As far as gameplay goes, everything about E-Day felt like Gears Of War in how it handles. Back in 2024 when I played through the incredible Warhammer 40K: Space Marine 2 I couldn’t help but constantly feel like I was playing a Gears Of War game. It was dark and gritty and played very similarly in many aspects. Now in 2026 playing this preview the entire time I felt like I was playing Space Marine 2 again.
I’m not making this comparison to say it’s a bad thing by any means, quite the opposite. But it has been a while since Gears 5 in 2019 so it is a much more relevant comparison now.
The third person shooting and moving around still has that heavy feel to it. I have seen complaints about that during some of the beta tests but honestly, that’s Gears. The Coalition has made sure to make things still feel authentically Gears. Things like active reload are still here. Some of the weapons, such as the Breechshot you can see the bullets actually being loaded in during an active reload. I thought that was a nice touch.
Speaking of the weapons they all felt great to use, though I typically stuck to my lancer and the Breechshot. The melee kills felt great as well, and its Gears so of course I was using my chainsaw every chance I got.
They’ve also added more cover options with even lower pieces of coverage that you can get down behind. I am not sure how realistic it is for someone to get off accurate shots from this position, but hey it works for Gears.
Open Districts
The other thing that needs to be touched on from the preview is the concept of open world areas. If you played Gears 5 you will recall they tested the waters for open world design. The Coalition has talked a little bit about these more open district type levels in E-Day as well. In one of the chapters here I got a taste for what that would be like.
Now at least in this section of the game the open district was quite small. Small enough that it probably only took 15 minutes or so to get through. In this section there were a couple of optional secondary missions. One for helping another squad out and one for rescuing some citizens.
Both of those missions pretty much played out the same. Defend a position from the locust hordes and then save the citizens or squad. This entire area seemed like a bit of a tutorial area for how the open districts look and play. I have to believe it was kept smaller than what we will see further on in the game. It will be interesting to see how they handle the open districts vs more linear sections. I personally have always preferred a more linear experience with Gears but if they keep these districts relatively compact, I can see myself enjoying them as well.
A Cut Above
I’m also happy to report that the preview build ran as smoothly as possible on my Xbox Series X. I didn’t experience any performance issues during my time with the game. And as weird as it is to say about a war torn game, E-Day is beautiful. The Coalition has always made graphically stunning games and E-Day is no different. I can confidently say Gears Of War: E-Day is one of the best looking games out there.
Ready For More
If there is one thing I’ve learned from previews since I’ve been writing them, it’s that I have a love/hate relationship with them because my excitement level is built up even more and I have to wait. That is indeed the case with Gears of War: E-Day as my time here was enjoyed thoroughly and I just want to jump back in. The Coalition looks to be on the verge of creating one of the year’s best games.
Gears of War: E-Day will release October 6th for Xbox Series S/X, Xbox PC and Steam. An Early access period will be available beginning on October 1st for players who purchase the premium edition.
