Gears of War E-Day review: "Brings Gears back to the cutting edge of shooters"

As Gears of War: E-Day launched, developer The Coalition was thinned by more Xbox layoffs. It's a heartbreaking circumstance by any metric, but the timing feels crueler since rolling credits on E-Day's campaign and seeing the extent of their triumph – an ode to big-screen action that restores Gears to the cutting edge of third-person shooters.

Too often, AAA shooter campaigns can feel like bolt-on afterthoughts in a multiplayer-oriented genre. But E-Day builds an entire city in excruciating detail, only to tear it down brick-by-brick around you.

Good kid, bad city

Kalona is an industrial city, with Gothic streets criss-crossing between dockyards and military forts. Headlines splashed across billboards celebrate the end of a war fought against the Union of Independent Republics (UIR). Kalona's gothic grandeur has been untouched by the war – I'm reminded of New York City's celebrations post-World War 2, which in pictures seems far removed from mainland Europe's devastation.

The conflict casts a long shadow over returning Gears protagonists Marcus Fenix and Dominic Santiago. Brought closer by the death of Dom's brother and Fenix's squaddie Carlos Santiago, who died fighting the UIR, the pair are ditching a military ceremony to get drunk when the titular Emergence Day begins. The earth cracks open and hordes of subterranean humanoids – some scuttling on all-fours, others geared with guns and armor – spill onto the surface and kill indiscriminately. The horror is awfully believable: civilians are slaughtered as they run while fire and sinkholes lay waste to Kalona itself; leaving Fenix and Santiago to link up with a back-footed defense alongside fellow Gears Carter and Reyes.

With E-Day's campaign set entirely within Kalona, The Coalition shows its destruction in unflinching detail. Hammering home that this is happening as we play, E-Day rarely cuts away from Fenix – who leads Bravo Squad from one fire to the next – and instead uses returning locales to ground Kalona's downfall. One setpiece, Legacy Bridge, is used several times – but with the campaign's full-throttle pacing makes it feel like lifetimes have passed between each visit, to say nothing of the city falling apart around it. I'm reminded of Halo 3: ODST's excellent single-setting, which made you ache for New Mombasa through reminders of the world that was.

The bleak tone is surprisingly complementary for Gears' larger-than-life action, personalities, and load-bearing use of the word "fucker". But even the latter is additive to E-Day's story. In the moments we spend with Fenix, Bravo Squad, and other survivors; the bravado is stripped back to explore grief, trauma, and humanity. And going so long without discussing shootouts (in a Gears of War game!) speaks to the strength of E-Day's setting. But this is an action game first and foremost – not that any reminder is needed.

Reloaded

Gears of War: E-Day is the best cover shooter I've played since the series' Xbox 360-era heyday. Where 2024's excellent Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 thrived by pushing its scale and melee combat, E-Day reaches new heights for cover shooters in a more literal sense – turning encounters into scrappy, fluid gunfights. An adaptive cover system means nearly anything can be used, not just ol' reliables like car bonnets and concrete corners, and on plenty of occasions I'm saved by Fenix's willingness to dive behind shin-high rubble and shoot whilst lying on his back. Cover being more naturalized does wonders for Kalona – the absence of traditionally signposted cover makes it feel like a city, not a level.

Surviving is tricky, even on normal difficulty. The Locust are smart foes and know how to press an advantage. Twitchy crawlers rush at your position even as well-armed Drones dig in and fire from cover, the latter preferring to shoot and flank rather than charge forwards. Unique enemies reveal themselves across the campaign, and are deployed rarely enough that they are always an 'oh shit' moment – be it acid-spitting toad-creatures or, to coin an in-game description, "floating ballsacks" that rain fire from above.

In your corner, precision and brute force are equally viable. For most of the game I opt to play at mid-range where possible, using bolt-action rifles to carefully pick off targets. But limited ammo means you'll often fight with whatever gun you can scavenge, and after one such fight in an overrun train station, I grew attached to the Gnasher shotgun – its buckshot initially feels lackluster, but when you're close enough to fire without first aiming, it's devastating.

There were several times when E-Day sold me on a gun I had initially written off. Weapon and armor mods, found in hardcases across the city, are deliciously impactful. My favorite switches the Gnasher to slug rounds, allowing it to capably pop Drone heads from several meters, and my Longshot sniper rifle was unrecognizable by the end of the game, having swapped its long-range scope for an over-the-shoulder reticle in tandem with a mod that reloads its chamber with every headshot.

The result is so much variety that I struggle to draw the line under examples – it would be sacrilege, surely, to not praise the acid-spitting Incinerator shotgun, or the return of the Lancer assault rifle. The Lancer is Gears' most famous weapon, thanks to the iconic chainsaw blade fixed beneath the barrel like a bayonet. But, I find melee disappointing in E-Day – a little too soft and weightless in comparison to trading desperate gunfire from cover.

It took me 16 hours to finish E-Day's five-act campaign. That includes most of its side objectives – not to chase down collectibles, but because I wanted the extra shootouts they promised. I rolled credits days ago, and feel the same melancholy that finishing a good book can leave me with – in this case, a testament to those engrossing few days in Kalona.

I'm a little less enthused by E-Day's multiplayer, which is a mixed bag. Versus – PvP modes ranging from team deathmatch to objective-based scraps – is too uneven to feel truly competitive. Expect to be matched with level 50+ players while you're still level one, resulting in too many one-sided stomps in quickplay. I can live with that in isolation, but more damning is how poorly E-Day's cover-based pacing survives contact against other players.

The emphasis on positioning that fuels the campaign's scrappy shootouts is gone, as players (including myself) careen around the map with one-shot-kill Gnasher shotguns – which is fun in its own way, but better-suited as a Quake-style LAN party game than something to be taken too seriously. Especially as guns and loadouts are locked behind a leveling system, so you can't just mash together your preferred kit and lean into the chaos.

Much better is Gears' Horde Siege mode, which drops three teams of four players into Kalona to fight the Locust on several fronts. Each squad has their own primary objective, but with optional side objectives encouraging detours, you'll often wander into someone else's war. It's an excellent dynamic: I've been on the cusp of being overrun during an objective defense, only for friendlies to crest the horizon, Lancers blazing, to save the day. It's even better when the shoe is on the other foot, and I've barreled through Locusts and over rubble to revive someone outside of my squad. A hero? Me? You're too kind (and correct).

The world feels harder nowadays, and layoffs at The Coalition are just one facet of that. I often look to games to meet me in the moment, but equally important are those with the power to take us away. Gears of War: E-Day does this sublimely, its campaign contrasting quiet vulnerability and cataclysmic setpieces so dramatically that it would be comical if not so well done. Versus mode isn't for me, but I continue to dip into Horde Siege on evenings and I'm already planning to run through the campaign on a harder difficulty with friends. E-Day is a very good time, and it's easy to underestimate how powerful that can be.

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