With this dark prequel, The Coalition has delivered a technical milestone for Xbox. The relentless battle against the Locusts grabs you from the very first second.
In a GlobalESportNews interview last week—even before I’d played Gears of War: E-Day myself—Studio Creative Director Matt Searcy told me the following about the prequel: “And it’s precisely that moment right at the beginning, when the world believes it finally has peace after 80 years, only to watch that hope shatter completely—that forms the central turning point and shapes everything that defines Gears of War from then on.” Now that I’ve played the new installment, I can confidently say that it didn’t overpromise.
In many ways, E-Day returns to the roots of Gears of War. And Emergence Day—the day the Locust horde first descends upon the people of Sera—is the perfect setting for this. Forget the more colorful visuals from the last two installments. Things get gritty here. Bloody. The Locust assault is brutal, and that’s exactly how it’s portrayed from the very first second—in a sequence that reminded me more of games like Resident Evil. The Coalition doesn’t hold back here, and that’s a good thing. I’d even go so far as to say that E-Day delivers the best Gears campaign yet.
Out of Nowhere: The Locust outbreak delivers some serious survival horror vibes
You’ll experience the horror and terror of this sudden aggression from deep within the planet up close and personal. On a seemingly peaceful evening, Marcus and Dom are having a beer in a bar in Kalona to honor Dom’s brother Carlos—where your future squad members, Carter and Reyes, are also hanging out. However, the mood changes in an instant when tremors rock the city, triggered by the Locust emerging from the ground. Soon, the first small monsters are swarming the streets, hunting down civilians, tearing them to pieces, and setting their sights on you as well. You’ll need weapons, so the makeshift squad heads to the police station, only to find a bloodbath there—which also inevitably reminds me of Resident Evil 2.
But don’t worry—in terms of gameplay, Gears of War: E-Day doesn’t follow in Capcom’s survival-horror footsteps, but stays true to its cover-based shooter DNA. The terrifying aspect stems solely from the atmosphere, the sound design, and the enemies’ appearance. The Coalition manages to make even enemies you’ve already seen in several previous installments seem once again like dangerous, bloodthirsty monsters that command your respect.
A merciless fight for survival: The merciless force of the Locust threat
Gears of War: E-Day hits the ground running right from the start. Not necessarily in terms of the game’s pace, but more in terms of its intensity—in every respect. In the way the Locust attack is portrayed and how The Coalition strives to give the characters depth and personality. It’s a constant shift between hope and despair, but you never lose sight of your goal—not even when chaos breaks out all around you. Whether it’s a Corpser or a Brumak, your worst enemies can literally crush you if you’re not careful.
Dynamic Firefights: Clever Flanking Attacks and New Freedom of Movement
Even—compared to other battles in E-Day—run-of-the-mill firefights can sometimes be a real source of excitement. Enemies try to flank you. Or they throw smoke grenades to surprise you with a shotgun through the wall of smoke. When multiple different enemy types are raining fire down on you at once, you’ll need to stay on top of the situation so you don’t rush out of cover only to be mowed down by a sniper or run right into the path of an opponent wielding an Incinerator shotgun. Often, the combat zones are spacious enough to give you the freedom to do just that. Your expanded movement repertoire fits right in here, as you can now jump and are more flexible when using cover. Depending on the obstacle, you’ll literally lie flat on the ground and crouch behind a piece of concrete or something similar to avoid fire.
Let’s put it this way: The battles in E-Day aren’t always so rigid that you’re on one side and your opponents are on the other. Verticality plays an equally important role—for example, enemies might target you from above, shooting out of windows. In other situations, you’ll find yourself in the middle of a square, defending a position while enemies advance from all sides and open fire on you. The Coalition combines all of this with plenty of spectacle. The ground cracks open, parts of buildings collapse, and so on—I don’t want to give too much away at this point. There’s never any doubt that the city is a war zone. Depending on the situation (and difficulty level), you’ll need to stay fully focused—after many intense confrontations, I had to take a brief moment to catch my breath before continuing.
Taking a Breath Amid the Ruins: More Open Levels, Side Missions, and Weapon Mods
But that doesn’t mean E-Day is just one action-packed sequence after another. There are frequent quieter moments in between, where you stroll through the city or a subway tunnel. These moments aren’t just filler; they contribute to the story by letting you learn more or simply giving you time to look around amid the devastation in Kalona and soak up more of the grim atmosphere.
This not only lets you experience the full extent of the Locust invasion, but also gives you more to do and discover—making the detour well worth your while. The sections in the city center are quite open and offer many branches and paths depending on which corner you take. There, you can discover individual side missions—don’t worry, you won’t be overwhelmed by them—as well as the Gears-style collectibles and crates containing weapon mods. You can attach the latter to your weapons at supply crates using multiple slots to improve accuracy, lethality, and other attributes. Depending on the situation, it can definitely be advantageous to have more effective gear on hand, making it worth your while. You don’t have to worry about it—you can just head straight to the next main objective—but the upgrades offer enough incentive to explore the area.
Stunning Visuals: Unreal Engine 5 Delivers a Polished, Interactive War Movie
The story and gameplay portrayal of Emergence Day is just one aspect; the technical implementation is the other. And it’s outstanding. I played on the Series X in Quality mode, and E-Day looks simply fantastic there. The Coalition uses Unreal Engine 5 to bring the urban warfare to life with impressive intensity. When all hell breaks loose, you feel it through the changing environments, and as things collapse and explode around you, you truly feel like you’re right in the middle of an interactive war movie.
The clean, polished execution deserves special praise. E-Day is one of the few modern games where I’ve experienced virtually no glitches or similar errors so far—occasionally a few flickering puddles or things like that, but nothing dramatic. A lot of fine-tuning has clearly gone into this, and it pays off, since you aren’t yanked out of the immersion by any bugs. On top of that, the environments are incredibly detailed, and The Coalition makes creative use of lighting and sound design more than a few times to create creepy, terrifying situations. The studio knows its craft—and as I mentioned earlier, the team manages to make even the familiar Locust enemies feel like a real threat again. I wouldn’t have thought it possible, but it works.
A few more words about the co-op and multiplayer aspects. You can play together in pairs via split-screen and in groups of four in online mode. The Horde Siege (PvE) and Versus (PvP) modes were not yet available during the testing period.
Gears of War: E-Day – Review Summary
Ultimately, this review focuses solely on the campaign—and it certainly deserves all five stars. It’s actually been quite a while since a game last captivated and enthralled me this much. I can imagine that the team was under a certain amount of pressure to do justice to the oft-mentioned Emergence Day. The Coalition has succeeded in doing exactly that in an outstanding way, both in terms of gameplay and technology. The technology holds up perfectly here and helps the studio create a relentless, brutal, and intense war spectacle. You can’t help but feel sympathy for all the virtual people who are slaughtered in Kalona within a matter of hours, while you yourself experience an emotional roller coaster, swinging from one sense of accomplishment to the next crushing blow—and yet you keep going anyway, because you have to do something to defend yourself against the Locust. You may be fighting sci-fi battles against nasty monsters from the planet’s core, but that doesn’t make the story any less human. After the criticism of the last two installments and the long hiatus leading up to E-Day, I can say that the wait was definitely worth it—nothing less than the strongest Gears story to date awaits you here.
