Gears of War E-Day Review – It Looks Incredible
Gears of War E-Day is finally out for everyone, and I’ve been really impressed with this game and just having so much fun with it.
Holy moly, Gears E-Day has impressed the hell out of me running on an Xbox Series X. It’s beautiful!
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Things kick off with a bit of this and that from the world before, and then shit just goes to hell. Everything devolves into what feels like a legitimate Hollywood disaster movie, with scary monsters, incredible environments and a surprisingly strong emphasis on horror.
And holy hell, is it good-looking too.
This is without a doubt the best a Gears game has ever looked. Not even the multiplayer beta gave us a proper taste of just how good it looks running on Xbox Series X during the campaign, even in Performance Mode at 60 fps.
As for that campaign, we finally get to see and experience the story of where Marcus and Dom were on Emergence Day. And as it turns out, it’s quite a story.
A Campaign That Almost Had Me Worried
I’ve got to be honest, the beginning of Gears E-Day is so strong that when I reached Act 2, it actually had me a little worried for a moment.
The reason is that after such a fantastic, tightly designed linear opening act, I started feeling like I’d been duped by a grand introduction, only to discover that the rest of the campaign was essentially an open-world Horde siege mode with some story and a few set pieces thrown in. Especially since loading into the campaign feels more like a multiplayer experience than a single-player one.
But by the time Act 2 delivered a pretty epic final chapter and Act 3 started getting going, my fears were put to rest. This game is quality through and through, despite occasionally jumping between more open-world areas and the tighter, linear campaign experiences we’re used to from previous games.
I’m also really impressed with how much they’ve leaned into the narrative themes of this game. They’re setting up the story, establishing the emotional impact of what’s happening in the world, and building that bond between Marcus and Dom so that by the time you reach the events of the previous games, you understand why these guys are so much like brothers.
It’s beautifully done.
The Horror of Emergence Day
What I really love is the way they’ve told so much of the story through the environments, especially during the beginning of the game.
The first act is genuinely intimidating and scary at times, leaning into some of the horror elements of the original Gears of War, but taking them even further. At first it’s fun, then scary, then fun again, then spooky, but in a fun way.
I love that your introduction to the Locust really makes them feel like monsters rather than just enemies. Of course, that feeling fades a little as you become more familiar with them, but those first encounters are fantastic.
It reminds me of the Berserker in the original game, where you genuinely felt like there was something big and terrifying in the room, and you were trapped in there with it.
What’s particularly impressive is how they manage to recreate that feeling even later in the game. They’ll take something like a Boomer, an enemy you’re used to seeing wandering around among other Locust, put it in a confined environment, light it beautifully, and suddenly you’ve got something resembling a horror scenario.
You feel like you’re trapped in a room with Leatherface rather than simply facing another monster you’re supposed to shoot until it explodes.
I really appreciate that, and I love how they’ve used the environments to tell this story that we’ve never experienced before.
We finally get to see just how beautiful this civilisation was before everything went to hell. The architecture, streets, cities and overall design are genuinely impressive, and the game does an incredible job of showing that civilisation literally crumbling in front of your eyes.
As you progress, the world gradually starts looking more and more like the Gears of War we’re familiar with, filled with rubble, debris and destruction.
It’s not unlike watching real conflicts unfold on the news, where places that were once beautiful cities full of people and life gradually become something resembling a war movie. Everything becomes brown, broken, dusty and covered in rubble.
You slowly witness that transformation throughout the campaign, and I think they’ve done a fantastic job of bringing that experience to life.
Modernising the Gears of War Formula
While the story moves backwards in the timeline, Gears is finally taking a swing at modernising its systems and controls to feel more like the hip and happening games the kids love these days.
Unfortunately, after putting the controls to the test in some co-op with my 13-year-old kid, I witnessed quite a bit of confusion and received a whole host of complaints.
And I think I agree with him.
The controls feel like a mishmash of old and new ideas that don’t quite come together as well as they should. I did experiment with some of the alternative layouts, though, and I actually think they should have led with the one simply called “Modern”.
The main problem is that they’re trying to find a middle ground between the traditional Gears control scheme and something more contemporary, and it doesn’t completely work.
I think they should have committed to the modern layout as the default, or at least presented players with a choice at the beginning. Something along the lines of whether you’re an old-school Gears player or someone who’s new to the franchise, with a recommended control scheme for each.
That would have made a lot more sense.
Combat, Movement and Enemy AI
When it comes to the actual gameplay, though, I think this is a really nice new direction for the franchise.
It still feels like Gears of War in many ways, but they’ve changed the dynamics of the combat, movement and even the environments themselves.
Everything feels much more vertical, and there’s a lot more going on in many of these areas.
I always enjoyed that traditional Gears approach to combat, especially in multiplayer, where it often felt like a very direct confrontation between you and the enemy. But what I really like here is how much more dynamic the encounters have become, whether you’re playing through the tighter linear sections or the larger, more open areas.
A big part of that comes down to the enemy AI, which really stood out to me throughout the campaign.
You can’t simply sit behind cover on one side of an arena and shoot at everything until it’s dead anymore. These suckers are devious.
You’ll be sitting there firing away, only to discover that enemies are constantly moving around you. It’s not just Tickers sneaking up on you either. Full-on Locust will flank your position, rush you down and force you to move.
It’s really fun because it keeps the combat moving and constantly encourages you to find better positions rather than simply staying in one place.
Combined with the impressive level design and more vertical environments, it makes for some fantastic encounters, and I’m already excited to play more of these areas in Horde Mode.
I’m not entirely sure how much crossover there is between the Horde maps and campaign environments, because some of the areas I played during the multiplayer beta looked very similar to locations I encountered in the campaign. I can’t say whether they’re exactly the same, though, so it’ll be interesting to see how much they share.
Weapon Mods and Customisation
Another big addition to the gameplay is the new weapon mod system.
As you progress through the campaign, you’ll discover little boxes scattered around the environments containing mods that you can unlock and equip.
Instead of simply picking up different weapons as you go, you’re now finding ways to customise them to suit your preferences. You can modify weapons like the Gnasher and sniper rifle, changing how they perform and giving yourself a little more control over your loadout.
What I like is that they haven’t gone too deep into the system, but they’ve added enough to make it worthwhile.
I suspect it’s also designed to support what they’re doing with Horde Mode, but it works nicely in the campaign too.
It gives you another reason to experiment with different weapons and approaches, and I particularly like the idea of having more options when replaying the campaign with friends in co-op or tackling it again on a higher difficulty.
It’s another element that helps keep things dynamic and gives you more opportunities to change things up.
Final Verdict
Gears of War: E-Day isn’t perfect. There are a few niggles here and there, and I still think the controls could have been handled better.
But when I think about what I wanted from another Gears game, especially after having such a big investment in the franchise during its early days, I honestly can’t think of too much more I could have asked for.
Like many of you, I absolutely loved Gears of War when it first came out. Over time, though, I gradually fell away from the franchise. It became something I still thought was cool, but I wasn’t particularly excited about it anymore.
Playing E-Day has changed that.
I was initially disappointed that they’d moved towards more open-world environments instead of sticking entirely to the tightly designed linear campaigns I loved from the earlier games. But the more I played and understood what they were trying to achieve, the more I appreciated the balance they’ve struck.
There’s more than enough of everything here to make it feel like a well-rounded experience, and I’ve actually come around to liking the approach.
I’m happy to have some of those larger, more open-world Horde-style areas mixed into the campaign, provided they keep bringing us back to those fantastic, tightly designed linear sections that I expect from a Gears of War game.
And that’s exactly what they’ve done.
I’m genuinely excited about Gears of War again, which is something I haven’t been able to say for quite a while.
I love video games, and I’ve always had a lot of love for the Gears franchise, so seeing it return in such impressive form makes me really happy.
In a year that’s already delivered so many great games, with plenty more still to come, Gears of War: E-Day is another fantastic addition to the library.
The Coalition and Xbox have really knocked this one out of the park, and I’m looking forward to playing a whole lot more of it.
