Gears of War: E-Day – Review

TODAY WE CANCEL THE APOCALYPSE!

It’s been a while since I started a game and felt transported back in time, somewhere between 2004 and 2007, when I had no worries beyond the sheer satisfaction of button-mashing. When I was happy if I didn't get a crash, managed at least 20 FPS, and then let myself get lost in other universes. In recent years, I've only had that feeling with Space Marine 2 and DOOM The Dark Ages – because I automatically exclude retro games from the calculation. I consume those daily and I don't seem to build up a tolerance for large doses. But another new, modern title?

I put all my eggs (both of them) in one basket and hoped with every fibre of my being that Gears of War E-Day would be the game to pull it off. Ever since the first teaser, which left my jaw on the floor. Then came the open beta, and I couldn't tear myself away from the Xbox until I'd gone through everything the Horde Siege mode had to offer, as described in a Preview also published here, in GRIND magazine.

Now E-Day has launched in its complete form and has nestled (to carry on with my egg story) neatly onto the list of games that make me feel SOMETHING. That make me feel like a gamer. That there's still hope for our favourite series. That all is not lost and a AAA game can still be made like in the old days, worthy of the hype and of the name it carries.

Today, Gears of War E-Day cancels the Apocalypse.

EPIC, GEARED & RELOADED

Before we get carried away with E-Day, which instantly became one of the best games in the series, we should take two steps back and look at Gears of War Reloaded – a remaster of a remaster, as is the fashion with the big studios these days. To be honest, I don't know whether the first Gears really needed a double update, but the fact that the original also made it to PlayStation 5 was a bold move.

Reloaded isn't a bad remaster, especially as The Coalition chose not to touch the campaign structure at all and kept the classic experience intact. I finished it while waiting for E-Day and, if I had to compare it with Halo Campaign Evolved, the balance tips in favour of the cogs. Not only is it another homage to the work Cliff Bleszinski steered, but, bugs aside, it wipes the floor with the mediocrity of the drunken turkeys at Halo Studios – in execution, presentation and respect for the franchise's values.

Why bring it up here? Because before you play Gears of War E-Day, a run through the OG, Ultimate Edition or Reloaded would be well worth your time. Or through the complete trilogy, Judgement included. Fuck it! First, they're all special games and it would be a shame to miss them. Second, the prequel's references will click better and be easier to digest.

Optionally, to judge for yourself the handover from Epic to The Coalition, a back-to-back playthrough of Gears 4 and 5 wouldn't hurt either. You've probably guessed by now that I'm trying to indoctrinate you and recruit you to the brudders who growl every time they hear a chainsaw engine and who hate the very concept of the Locust with every fibre of their being. You'll thank me later, when a bottomless pit opens up in the basement of your block of flats or in the garden behind your house, with a menacing red light pouring out of it…

THE LOGIC OF A PREQUEL

They say E-Day cost 400 million dollars and has no chance of making that money back from sales. Both Microsoft and The Coalition probably knew this from the start of the project – especially as it's an Xbox exclusive. What does that mean in practice? That it can be played on console and PC, including via Steam. Exclusivity just means it doesn't cross enemy PlayStation lines, as Reloaded did.

A risky move, but I think the aim was always for the new Gears of War to act as a killer app for the Game Pass service, where it was available on day 1. Traditional sales are, I'd venture, a secondary target.

The marketing got done, praise be to the Octus Canon, even by enlisting Luke Preece for some artwork that will make your fillings fall out the way the corrupted angels fell after Lucifer. Luke, in case you don't know him, is a British illustrator who's more than happy to churn out extremely heavy metal, ridiculously cool pieces that capture the whole attitude of the game. He even had a hand in the design of the two custom gamepads, easily some of the coolest made for Xbox so far – by the way, I couldn't resist and bought one.

If that wasn't fucking metal enough, there's a whole Metallica skin pack, with blue lightning, long hair and chest hair, plus a musical theme from the same ballpark for the main menu: “For Whom the Bell Tolls”, from the album Ride the Lightning (surprise, the first album I bought with my own money).

Yes, brudders, Gears of War: E-Day is a prequel. One that opens the door to at least two more games. It's set 14 years before we find Marcus in The Slab, sprung by Dom, and just after the COG signs an armistice with the UIR, post-Pendulum Wars. If the Locust hadn't stuck their tails in, this should have been a moment of joy for everyone in the Coalition – but E-Day has other plans, truly dreadful ones…

E-DAY

If anyone feared that Gears of War E-Day wouldn't deliver the Marcus and Dom bromance, put those fears to bed. 90% of the game orbits around the dynamic between the two. In fact, that's exactly how it starts, with a fairly long introduction in which the "couple" of war comrades reminisce and try to patch up their traumas from the conflict with the UIR, over a beer, like lads. Younger and less worn down, but easily recognisable. The atmosphere is oppressive right from the start, as if you know something terrible is coming, beyond the victory festivities in Kalona.

This is also where we meet the other two members of the squad: Mags Carter and Lucas Reyes. Mags has some experience under her belt – too much of it, and the explosive kind – and seems like the type who'd rather drown her sorrows and ignore the fact that she suffers from rustlung, a disease caused by exposure to Emulsion. I like the character, especially thanks to the voice acting and the attitude that comes with it. Honestly, when it comes to voices and performances, few other games get anywhere near E-Day.

Mags is well written and behaves just as you'd expect a true Gear who has messed up in the past to behave. She's tied into community life, does physical work in the refinery and has no time for jokes. Lucas, on the other hand, is greener than an unripe cucumber and, as someone put it beautifully on the GRIND Discord, he's the kid who grew up idolising veterans like Marcus and Dom, only to end up just as scarred in a very short time.

Four characters in the same place, the right people at the wrong moment for the whole planet of Sera. That's how Gears of War E-Day sets the scene for the day the Locust invasion erupts, sudden and violent. Out of nowhere, like an unstoppable force, heralded by small tremors and a sinister miasma (present metaphorically), it's all tied together by brilliant art direction, in which the red-and-black contrast is staged astonishingly well through the lighting.

ESSENTIAL GEARS

Then the invasion kicks off and everything turns into a sort of Silent Hill crossed with the opening moments of The Last of Us and a dash of The Division. It has to be said that the attention to detail in E-Day is obsessive, and Kalona, the metropolis of science and industry, feels as real as can be. The art deco architecture, with brutalist touches, has volume and spatiality, which suits the game now that there's a jump mechanic too – one that isn't overused, but simply makes up for the absence of the classic Roadie Run.

Still, E-Day feels heavy, weighty, massive, inertial. It's quicker and more flexible in movement and in cover, but it remains the same Gears we all fell in love with. I really like how you can use any bump in the terrain as protection to shoot from, although nothing stops you pulling out the Gnasher and blasting the Locust in active close combat, or reaching for a bayonet, chainsaw, knife or axe to dish out melee executions. Be patient, we'll get to the weapons and enemies in detail.

A MAD WORLD

The chaos and total destruction the Locust bring catch the COG forces off guard like nothing else could. The prequel concept E-Day plays with is brilliant, and I have no idea how the hell it manages to convince even you, the player who knows the franchise by heart, to forget everything for a moment and feel like you're facing an enemy you've never seen before.

Because Gears of War E-Day juggles moments of pure horror and furious action sequences, then remembers its characters and gives us emotional, even dramatic, moments. Dom is eaten up inside by the lack of contact with his family, and Marcus feels a moral debt to him. Mags considers herself responsible for the civilians, while Lucas simply absorbs the shocks of the Apocalypse like a series of kicks to the balls.

Gears has always been a series that respected its heroes, and E-Day keeps up the tradition. The new squad has phenomenal chemistry, with natural dialogue that suits episodes of utterly senseless total war. When absolutely everything around you is collapsing and no strategy or tactic works any more, you're not really in the mood for philosophy, just survival.

The same goes for the supporting characters. Akila Gray quickly became my favourite commander in the whole series. She has her head screwed on and strikes an effective balance between what is moral and what is necessary, unlike the bloodthirsty Colonel Trench. Naturally, a Carmine turns up in the campaign too, the legendary badass Zander "Zee", but I'll let you find out for yourselves what fate awaits him and how far he's willing to go to see a mission through.

But a few moments turn E-Day into a single-player masterpiece and, although I feel the urge to list them, I don't want to spoil them for you: the encounter with Tai Kaliso, the moment the Lancer prototype gets a chainsaw, and all the missions around the city of Kalona. Because, epic as Kalona is, the battles in the forests surrounding it are something INCRED-FUCKING-IBLE. There's also something to be said for the airport battle and the assault on a Raven Nest, the Gears universe's equivalent of an aircraft carrier.

On top of that, I was gobsmacked when I realised how Gears of War E-Day stitches together, through the day-night cycle, linear moments with classic level design and entire chapters set in an open-world environment packed with side objectives, easter eggs and dozens of collectibles – the perfect fusion of classic gameplay and Horde Siege mode.

CRUSH THE HUMAN BUGS

I said the Locust horde is more terrifying than ever. At times, E-Day comes uncomfortably close to a horror game, especially when the fantastic four have to sneak through the underground, where the beasts dig by the light of red lanterns.

The main antagonist, Vrhaak "Țepes", is a big, fleshy brute with little brain, but he leads a legion of Locust the likes of which the series has never seen. Among them, I have to mention the Spore Matrons – a sort of upside-down flying scrotum with a brown eye at the base, perfect for riddling with a few Longshot rounds. Otherwise, they unleash a swarm of spores that is hard to dodge even from cover. Alongside Boomer Flayers, equipped with Gorehooks, and the disgusting Bile Frogs, the enemies in the new Gears of War are more aggressive, more mobile, more lethal and smarter than ever, especially on the higher difficulty levels.

I've no complaints about the weapons either, because their E-Day iterations are by far the most steroid-pumped yet. They have recoil, sound to match, and you can feel every bullet satisfyingly sinking into flesh. The Gnasher is a carnage machine, and the new Incinerator shotgun is the equivalent of a nuclear explosion squeezed into a spit of Emulsion at one end and an axe blade at the other. I often caught myself using just these two, especially in Siege, where every class can get its hands on them. But the two versions of the Lancer shouldn't be ignored either, especially when a bayonet or chainsaw attack is within reach. The rest of the COG and Locust arsenal is just as cool, with lethal solutions for whatever tactic you adopt in the campaign or multiplayer.

E-ADDICTION

Gears of War E-Day has eaten my days and nights since the Open Beta. I can't put it down, and I haven't been able to play anything else since it landed on my console. I blasted through the campaign in one go, I plan to play it again on the highest difficulty, and I can't sleep until I've come out MVP in a few Horde Siege matches.

I don't want to go on about the MP modes again, as I've already covered them in the preview, and the changes in the final version currently show up only in the maximum levels and a still limited map rotation. That rotation makes up for it with multiple secondary and primary objectives, plus random invasions – in which a Brumak, a Corpser or a pair of flying Scorias show up and take a coordinated attack from all three squads to bring down.

E-Day has quickly muscled its way into the top tier of Gears of War games, right behind the original trilogy. It's also one of the best titles released in 2026, blending modern touches with classic gameplay mechanics perfectly. Get it, play through the excellent campaign – preferably in local co-op – and then step confidently into Horde Siege, where the game really shows its teeth. All I can do is applaud The Coalition's latest, hope for at least two more games this good, and give it a score to match. You'll find me in-game.

Thanks to Xbox Game Studios for the opportunity to play Gears of War: E-Day.

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Played on: Xbox Series S
Release date: 6 October 2026
Developer: The Coalition, People Can Fly
Publisher: Xbox Game Studios