Gears of War is back, baby! It’s been seven years since the release of Gears 5 and a lot has changed since then. With XBOX CEO Asha Sharma making Gears of War: E-Day the first Xbox console exclusive release since its renewed interest in exclusivity, there’s a lot of pressure on E-Day to deliver an experience that makes you sit up and say, “I need to play that”. Thankfully, developers, The Coalition have put together an experience worthy of Sergeant Fenix himself.
I’ve always been intrigued by the beginning of the Locust War. When we join Marcus and Dom in the original Gears of War, the fight against the Locust has been going on for 14 years at this point. So much will have happened in that time, and I have said for a long time that I’d love to see how the COG (Coalition of Ordered Governments) first dealt with the Locust uprising. I’ve often envisioned the panic, the intensity, and scrabbling to understand this new enemy and how to fight it. When they announced Gears of War: E-Day I couldn’t believe they were taking us back to where it all started, but I was nervous, could they live up to the hype in my head?
Gear Today, Gone Tomorrow
Gears of War: E-Day’s story focuses on the events of E-Day: Emergence Day. This is the name given to the day that the Locust army emerged from E-Holes and started raining destruction and terror on the world of Sera. Peace has just arrived in Sera, six weeks after the COG won the Pendulum Wars against the Union of Independent Republics (UIR), it’s a time of things beginning to return to normal after 80 years of war. Though there seems to have been strange tremors happening for a couple of weeks…
Marcus and Dom, among many other soldiers, are in the city of Kalona attending an armistice and memorial to symbolise the end of the Pendulum Wars and remember those who have fallen. Both are still feeling the loss of Dom’s brother, Carlos, and their relationship is still in its early stages. And then, all hell breaks loose, literally and figuratively. The ground begins to crack and terrifying creatures begin emerging from the ground, ripping people and soldiers apart.
What follows is an intense and desperate three days of fighting for survival in the city of Kalona.
A COG in the Machine
Gears of War: E-Day’s focus is a welcome return to the much-beloved main characters of Marcus Fenix, brilliantly played, as always by John DiMaggio, and Dominic Santiago, also brilliantly played by Carlos Ferro. They are joined by retired COG soldier Mags Carter (Elizabeth Faith Ludlow) and rookie, Lucas Reyes (Jake Ryan Lozano). Before they know it, they are fighting together against this new horror, officially becoming Bravo Squad and being tasked with assisting the people of Kalona and taking on the Locust horde.
I’ve played all the Gears of War titles (bar Tactics, I need to get back to that), and this is the most human the series has felt. We’ve always known that Gears has been about fighting for the survival of humanity. Fighting to overcome increasingly insurmountable odds, whatever the cost, and the series has never been shy about taking a beat to absolutely devastate us (hello, Gears of War 2 and Gears of War 3) but E-Day takes the time to tell the stories of many of the characters, including the the wider population and even the city itself.
Gear Me Out
None of this is of detriment to the gameplay or pace either, The Coalition have smartly weaved in those human moments amongst the game’s five Acts. Whether it’s Reyes nervous, fact-laden anxiety, and hope that he won’t be the FNG (Fucking New Guy) forever, Mags’ scepticism and jaded worldview, or exploring what makes Marcus and Dom ‘Brothers to the End’, they are a layered and worthy cast. This extends to the wider supporting characters who all do a fantastic job of you despising them or loving them.
Fans of the series may be hoping that some of their favourites appear, and there are some welcome returning faces, but thankfully, Gears of War: E-Day does not rely on nostalgia to try to win you over. There are nods to characters and moments in the game’s history throughout, but nothing ever feels shoehorned in or like fan-service. It’ll make you smile, and maybe even well-up at points.
Gear After Gear
The campaign’s story is a wild ride that feels, tonally, so different to any of the other Gears titles. In other Gears titles, there’s high stakes, and setbacks, and you fight through it and overcome, but there’s always been an end-goal and a plan. E-Day puts you on the back foot throughout. The Locust have the advantage, they have taken the whole world by surprise, and you feel this at every stage of the game.
This makes the fightback feel so much more meaningful, the small successes. The evidence of resistance, terror, and heartbreak as you pass through the streets of Kalona is everywhere to be seen. The world is incredibly detailed, and you don’t need to be handheld to see them. There are key moments of interaction, but the developers have done such an amazing job of depicting this freshly war-torn city in so much detail.
The campaign ends at the third day, when the war is only just beginning. It makes me want to see more tales from this era of the Locust war, and I hope we get some more in the future. But equally, I still want to see what happens in Gears of War 6.
My Kalona
Gears of War: E-Day’s presentation combines both the more traditional, and familiar, linear paths with set-pieces, with the newer concept of semi-open world areas. You may remember in Gears 5 them trying this in super sparse open world area where you used a skiff to navigate to points of interest, shoot everything and move on. In E-Day, it’s much more compact and smartly done.
The whole game takes place in, and around the city of Kalona, and the open-world bits take place on the streets of the city. These sections are expansive and quite open for a Gears game, but still fit into the chapter format of the game, so never feel overwhelming. In these sections, you will have a main objective, but you’re encouraged to look around, explore, help civilians and fellow Gears, and take out any invading Locust you come across.
You’re Friendly, Neighbourhood Gear
I loved these sections; it felt like such a brilliant way to convey the story and devastation they are trying to portray. You’re on the streets, seeing buildings collapse, people running for their lives as Locust soldiers bear down on them, shotgun in hand. It felt rough, dirty and unprepared, you don’t know what you’ll encounter and as you explore. You even get a map where you can track your locations, objectives, and collectibles.
This, of course, all falls down without stuff to do in these areas. Thankfully, the sections don’t feel onerous, and there’s plenty of stuff to do. The best way to play, is to follow the main objectives and explore as you go. You’ll come across ‘secondary objectives’ where you can take on side missions to help other characters, and civilians take on the Locust, or get to safety. These of course usually boil down to, speak to person, bad guys appear, kill them all! And that’s not a bad thing that’s Gears, baby! There’s no shoe-horned quest variety; Marcus isn’t going to find three bundles of flowers or save a cat from a tree. It’s Marcus Fenix, not Marcus Felix!
All Geared Up
Completing secondary objectives will reward you with mods. Mods are a new mechanic in a Gears of War campaign and allow you to modify your weapons at Supply Cache points which are scattered across the game’s chapters. You can use these to refill your ammo and change your loadout. Any weapons you find in the game, be it COG or Locust, will get added to your pool of available weapons to equip at these spots. You can then equip up to four modifiers that give you a range of boosts or improvements, such as improved handling, zooms, or change the ammo type. Want to slap a bayonet on a Gnasher? Have at it. Always thought the Lancer could benefit from a scope? It’s yours. Want bullets to set enemies on fire? Satisfy your pyromania tendencies here!
Along with secondary objectives, you’ll also want to keep an eye out for Hard Cases, these are yellow equipment cases that can be found in most of the game’s chapters. These give you additional slots to equip mods, as well as a variety of mods to equip too. They’re well worth seeking out, as they add great versatility and variety to the game’s weaponry.
Gears in Motion
The gameplay in Gears of War: E-Day is top tier Gears (I wanted to add that because it rhymed). Movement feels weighted and meaningful. The new mechanics, along with smart world design that they’ve added in, such as the jump button, add new tactical options to how you play. You can climb up vehicles, or ledges to get above the enemy and attack from above.
There’s some minor tweaks to what you might be used to, the active reload screen being in the centre by default, for example. Or that pressing Y on XBOX is what you need to jump / scale cover. If you’re used to mashing A to move, like me, it took a hot minute to get used to that, but they do work well. And even though you can change the settings, I did end up leaving them where they were set.
In the open-world areas, you can approach in multiple ways. In some scenarios, you’ll approach a group of Locust that haven’t spotted you yet, and they don’t trigger as soon as you move into the area. This allows you to tactically approach from a different position, scope out the enemy types and make a tactical decision on who you want to take out first. Of course, get spotted and all bets are off.
Combat is pretty frenetic at times too, with the variety of Locust enemies that appear, you’ll often find yourself backtracking, changing location or scrabbling between the right weapon and seeking out replacement ammo on the field. It was a good kind of panic, one that made you think on your feet.
Torque the Torque
Gunplay is super fun; it’s tried and tested Gears. Your loadout is two weapons and a pistol, with a piece of equipment. Usually this is a grenade of some sort, there are some sections where you can pick up more Horde-like pieces of equipment, such as the Razor Mine or Machine Gun Turret.
There’s plenty of variety in the guns too. There are the familiar favourites, such as the Lancer (complete with Chainsaw), who’s origin we learn about in E-Day, as well as the Hammerburst and Gnasher. What is great is the introduction of new weapons that feel like old weapons, so when you don’t see them in future titles (as in games set after E-Day) it’s not weird. Though I have to say that the Gut-Puncher is one of my favourite new weapons. A grenade launcher with automatic and manually detonated rounds. This became a vital piece of equipment as you can take out well dug-in enemies or blow up E-Holes in equal measure.
You also get to see early versions of some weapons too like the Torque Bow, it sounds and looks different to the one we know and loathe. The distinct noise we’re familiar with isn’t there, and it challenges you to remember to look out for it when you do start encountering them.
Locust of Control
A similar thing can be said about the Locust enemy-types you encounter through E-Day. Fourteen years till the original Gears of War means there’s some way to go in the evolution of the Locust’s combat too. They’ve got new (old?) weapons, like the Ripper, as well as different enemy types. How about an unarmoured Brumak, fully equipped with long chains it swings to split you into as gibby-mess? The introduction of the familiar, and unfamiliar in the enemy types is great too. The new Spore Matron’s introduction is hilarious, whilst also introducing a tough new enemy type.
Bosses take familiar forms such as Brumaks and Corpsers. The big-bad in this one is The Impaler (sadly not named Vlad), an imposing Locust with a threatening aura, determination and an arm full of COG tags as trophies. He’s brutal, and leaves a trail of destruction, and corpses in his wake. The boss fights feel fun and sometimes have you using your environment or other methods to take them out, rather than just filling them with bullets. They feel grand, and a good challenge, and often had me running away uttering “please, don’t step on me!”.
The enemies don’t just sit behind cover either. They’re smart, they’ll change positions and rush you regularly. You’ve got to keep your wits about you, or they’ll be on you too. There’s a version of the Locust grenadier who has no weapons and literally just charges as you, and he’s quick. He’ll be on you and have you fighting for dear life before long, so make sure your co-op buddies are on it, because they may have to save you.
Siege the Day
The campaign supports local and online co-op for up to four players (two players locally), and there’s even those classic split up sections to look forward to, as well. You can take on the campaign, multiplayer or the brand new Horde Siege mode. From what I played in the beta, both multiplayer components are going to be a lot of fun, with plenty of challenge.
Horde Siege puts you in the open-world areas from the campaign in a team of three, alongside three other teams of three (so, 12 total) and tasks you with surviving and taking out enemies. It’ll throw squad and multi-squad objectives and bosses for you to take on. The beta was a lot of fun, and I can see my spending a lot of time in it.
I am personally very excited for my Insane difficulty playthrough with my co-op buddies. And grinding towards the “Dead Serious” achievement.
Blood in My Eyes
Visually, the game is stunning. Gears of War games have always looked incredible, and once again The Coalition have pulled it out of the bag to depict a world so full of life and war. The character models are highly detailed, with facial movements feeling accurate, genuine, and again, human. There’s real depth in emotion during the cutscenes, along with some humorous moments too.
There’s a good variety too, the game isn’t just the greys and browns of buildings and destruction. Neon lights adorn hotels, police stations and other large buildings, red ominous glow from E-Holes infest the streets and gruesome ends are depicted everywhere. The level variety takes us across Kalona’s streets, to the woods in the outskirts, to an Imulsion factory with its toxic yellowy, green glow.
I’ve always thought the Gears series could explore the horror genre more, and after E-Day, I’m even more convinced this should happen. Some of the direction, lighting and setting of some of the areas in the game are so eerie, they will have you moving through slowly, constantly checking your six.
“When Was the Last Time the Wind Said ‘Hostiles’ to You?”
The music and sound in Gears is also brilliant. It is dramatic, effective, and tonally on point. It complements the mood of the story so well. The instrumentation runs a gamut of emotion with instruments painting a haunting, despondent hopelessness, through to a chugging determination of defiance through some satisfying guitar playing.
Weapons sound excellent, with each one having their own distinct noise. The depth sounding meatier when an active reload goes live, indicating that enhanced power. Shooting in the distance or calls for help draws you towards your next fight.
And, of course, the voice acting is stellar across the board. From the haunting “Sapiens” of the Locust to the cries of help or comms chatter of your fellow Gears soldiers. There is one character that sounded an awful lot like it was being voiced by Marcus Fenix’s John DiMaggio later on in the game which was a little jarring, but checking the credits, seemingly not the case.
Good Lore-d
Gears of War: E-Day is a triumphantly polished game. I was there during the dark days of the Gears 5 launch, a buggy mess of a launch, and thankfully The Coalition have absolutely nailed the delivery of E-Day. It plays, handles and performs perfectly.
In terms of any gripes or complaints, I only had one.
Alongside the aforementioned secondary objectives and hard cases, you will also collect collectibles. In Gears of War tradition, these add to lore of the game, taking the form of COG Tags of fallen soldiers or other items of interest. These are great as they add lore to the world of E-Day, with Bravo Squad chipping in to reflect on the items they found too.
You Know What Really Grinds My Gears?
The collectibles are neatly tracked, numbered and ordered by act and chapter. This makes sense, there’s 140 collectibles to find, so you’d want to know how many you’ve found in a given act or chapter. The same cannot be said for the hard cases and secondary objectives. These two are split by act, but not by chapter. Not only that but replaying a chapter resets the hard cases and secondary objectives you might have already grabbed in the level you’re playing. This doesn’t erase them in your overall tally, thankfully. This means that if you miss one, you have to grab everything again, meaning tracking them is harder. I missed three hard cases in my first play, one in Act 4, I seemingly need to replay the whole act again to determine where it was.
I suppose it might be so that you can’t carry over the later mods to an earlier point in the game, but that’s speculation. Either way, not having a breakdown of numbers by chapter for two of the three collectible items, when you’ve done it for one, seems an odd choice. It’s not a big deal in the grand scheme of things, but as a fan of achievements it’s an annoyance.
Gears of War: Judgment
Gears of War: E-Day may well have just become my favourite Gears of War title. Not only did it smash my hopes and expectations, it curb-stomped them into oblivion.
E-Day succeeds in telling the story of Emergence Day in a gripping, desperate, and most importantly, fun way. The culmination of 20 years as a franchise, refining everything the series is into a must-play XBOX title that takes you on a gloriously brutal, emotionally-satisfying, and epic, cinematic adventure.
Load up Gears, we’ve got work to do.
Gears of War: E-Day was reviewed on Xbox Series X. We would like to thank The Coalition and XBOX for review access.
Gears of War: E-Day releases 6 October 2026 on PC and Xbox Series consoles. Early access is available from 1 October 2026.
Gears of War: E-Day Guides
- Achievement List
- Defeat the Brumak in Act 1, Chapter 4
- Defeat the Corpser in Act 3, Chapter 2
- Unlock the “Two Grubs, One Gut-Punch” Achievement
- Unlock the “Explosive Indigestion” Achievement
- Unlock the “Payback’s a Pitch” Achievement
- Unlock the “I Am Heavy Weapons Guy” Achievement
- Unlock the “Okay, Boomer” Achievement
