With Gears of War: E-Day aiming to recapture "the vibes of the original games", The Coalition believes its upcoming prequel "has the potential to be one of the best stories in the Gears franchise"

Emergence Day is when the world changed. The planet of Sera besieged by a strange, subterranean threat – the Locust Horde eradicating pockets of civilization within hours, leaving those left beneath the rubble grasping for what little remains of their humanity. This is the ground Gears of War: E-Day will cover, a long-awaited prequel that charts the most important event in the franchise's history.

"We can't think of a bigger way to celebrate the 20th anniversary of Gears," says Matt Searcy, creative director at The Coalition, speaking exclusively with GamesRadar+. "This is our most ambitious game yet, entirely built from scratch in Unreal Engine 5. Even though this is a return to our roots, with Marcus and Dom facing the Locust for the first time, we wanted to build a game that feels like Gears but plays like new. E-Day is a celebration of both the past and what's to come in the future."

Welcome To Hell

Gears of War has never been afraid of leaping around its historical timeline. Epic Games' original trilogy tracked the final three years of the Locust War, with The Coalition spotlighting the 25-year aftermath in Gears 4 and its sequel. People Can Fly was given free reign to explore the six weeks of carnage that followed E-Day, and Splash Damage delved into the year that followed in Tactics. But no studio has dared to entertain an expedition into the blood, guts, and ruin of this day of reckoning. Until now.

"This is the story we were excited to tell and so the process has been super energizing. There are touchpoints in the lore for us to build from, but enough room that we get to bring new elements and ideas in. Getting to go back to the tone and vibes of the original games, exploring the details of Emergence, and imagining what would happen to a city (and the soldiers protecting it) as monsters poured out from the ground was a great starting point to reintroduce the Locust and these characters," says Searcy.

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That reintroduction kicked off in earnest last August, as Gears of War: Reloaded sought to remind Delta Squad veterans of how potent Gears' action can be in more confined spaces. Unlike 2019's Gears 5, with its open-borders approach to world design, this adventure is far more focused. "The story of Emergence Day is really about what happened to the people of Sera. It was a massive, worldwide event, and we wanted players to feel the impact – so we decided to set this game in a single city."

We know of the city of Kalona by reputation alone. It's infamous for being one of the first cities to crumble beneath the might of the Locust – its loss propelling the nation of Tyrus ever closer to collapse. Gears of War: E-Day will document this tragedy, one harrowing encounter at a time. "Our story is set over consecutive days so that players can become intimate with the city," says Searcy. "We want them to feel the loss of what was here: the history, the people, and the lives they were living."

The implicit promise is that Gears of War: E-Day will be a more intimate experience than Gears 5, the conflict set in the days before anybody had the bright idea to attach a chainsaw bayonet to a standard issue Mark 1 Assault Rifle. "Kalona is a rich environment to tell a great story," he continues. "You'll get to visit downtown city streets, historical landmarks, military installments, industrial Imulsion refineries, and even forested outskirts. And as a battlefield, the game just plays great in a city! It's the best gameplay playground for an intense cover-based shooter like Gears."

E-Day will also look beyond the terror beset on Tyrus to document the budding bromance of Sergeant Marcus Fenix and Corporal Dominic Santiago. The Coalition isn't willing to go into too much detail on their early relationship just yet, although Searcy is quick to heighten expectations. "We think it has the potential to be one of the best stories in the Gears franchise, and certainly the most heart and emotion when you're looking at Marcus, Dom, and the origin of the brotherhood that they forge in this game."

The Coalition is yet to set a release date for Gears of War: E-Day, nor is it scheduled to appear during the upcoming Developer Direct on January 22. So while we wait for more information, you may want to gather some friends and dive back into Reloaded, which marked the series' debut on PlayStation last year. While it's unclear whether E-Day will follow suit with a multiplatform launch, the studio says the remaster was a key milestone on the road to its release.

"It's been so cool to see players come together without barriers for the first time in Gear's almost 20-year history," says Searcy. "For many of the team here at The Coalition, the 2006 original was the game that made us fall in love with this franchise, so it has a lot of meaning to be able to reconnect with Marcus, Dom, and the Locust. Seeing our community fight side by side with new players across platforms reaffirms and reminds us why we make Gears: because gaming brings us together."

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