If you read my Gears 5 review back in 2019, you know how much the Gears of War franchise means to me. It is a series that my entire family gets excited for because it offers such a wide variety of content for all types of players. Its been seven years since Gears 5, and my son has now played through most of the series and loves playing Horde with us. Yes, we added another member to the Bravo Squad. Naturally, when Gears of War: E-Day was announced we were all extremely excited.

Not only are we finally getting another Gears of War after such a long wait, but we get to go back to Emergence Day and experience that part of the story. But most importantly, getting Dom back on the team. I’m here to say that not only is Gears of War: E-Day one of my favorite games this year in general, it may be one of my favorite Gears of War games in the series. Let’s dive into this Emergence Hole and see what The Coalition cooked up.

Just gets you in the feels seeing these two back together, even if it isn’t the happiest of reunions.

Brothers to the End

Gears of War: E-Day takes place during Emergence Day, and for those that don’t know, that is when the Locust army emerged from the ground to wage a planet-wide war on Sera. Killing around 25% of the population within the first twenty-six hours of their attack; the Locust were relentless and ruthless with their slaughter. If you haven’t played the other titles, the short of it is the Locust weren’t exactly a surprise, nor are they some alien species that the leaders of Sera didn’t know about.

Not to spoil the the stories for new players, but they were waging their own battle against the Lambent and even tried to reason with the humans for safe haven on the surface. As we see in most of the Gears of War games, the leaders of this world aren’t exactly good people. When the humans rejected their offer of mutual cooperation for safe haven and to help fight the Lambent, they decided to just take the surface for themselves. There is definitely a lot more lore and story to dive into here, and I’m tip-toeing spoilers, but that is the gist of why Emergence Day even happened. Now lets get to the actual storyline.

Nah, these massive red glowing holes with monsters coming out of them is totally fine.

We begin the story with Marcus Fenix and Dom Santiago reuniting during a ceremony after the seventy-nine year long Pendulum War ended. We are witnessing a distressed Marcus still suffering from PTSD from the war and losing his best friend Carlos Santiago, Dom’s older brother. His loss and grief of Carlos plays a big part in the story and there were some legitimately great moments of writing with this throughout the story. It was great seeing these two back together again, and that feeling doesn’t go away as they continue to bond through the entire story.

While you don’t have to have played the other games to enjoy Gears of War: E-Day, there is definitely a different vibe and feeling going through this game knowing what is to come. Luckily, it doesn’t fall into that annoying trope of prequels where it puts the main characters in almost death situations, when you already know they aren’t going to die. However, there are still plenty of heartfelt, close call, and badass moments all throughout the campaign.

Meet the new Bravo Squad!

Marcus and Dom’s catching up at the local bar doesn’t last all that long when the tremors start happening and the emergency alarms start blazing, signaling an attack. Just fresh off of finishing the Pendulum War, no one was expecting an attack, let alone one from below. The duo quickly teams up with Mags Carter, a Specialist and ex-demolitions squad member, and Lucas Reyes a Cadet First Class, Communications Officer. They join and become the new Bravo Squad and this is what allows the four player co-op to be playable.

I wasn’t too sure about the new characters at first, but I was pleasantly surprised with how much time Gears of War: E-Day spent on giving them proper character depth. Both Mags and Lucas have a checkered past that you will get to know throughout the game. That comes from general dialogue chatter, so full on specific chapters that will focus on them more. That isn’t to say they take up a bunch of screen time, but I was happy to see that they at least got a good amount of character development.

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While there are plenty of great new characters, as well as returning ones like Tai Kaliso, one of the main characters is the city of Kalona itself. Since majority of Gears of War: E-Day takes place within the main city districts of Kalona, you will be exploring wide-linear levels in a couple of the acts. This allows for exploration to find weapon and armor mods as well as collectables. The open design also allows for some amazing co-op tactics with flanking, taking high ground, or even going under in tunnels at some point. The level and city design here is fantastic. What impressed me the most is how they continued to evolve it.

Through the acts there will be multiple times where you will leave the city to the outskirts in the forest, or in the underground tunnels. However, when you return back to these familiar city parts, they will be completely different due to the ongoing destruction and carnage. So while you will return to the same areas a couple of times throughout the campaign, each time you revisit it, it will be different. They did a fantastic job in showing the increased decimation of the city, and of the COG army, as the game went on.

Vraahk has some legitimately fantastic intros where he steals the scenes. I just wish there was more gameplay with him.

The campaign is one of my favorite Gears of War campaigns I have played since Gears of War 3. This could easily be put in the top three contenders of best campaigns for me as it just had so much to it. There was a nice blend of some open world aspects, while bringing back the horror and tension that the earlier titles had. Then there are the big set pieces with Brumaks and Corpsers, and the villain is imposing and dangerous feeling. The new movement allowed for so much more fun level design and combat encounters because of the great level design. And the story with Marcus and Dom is both touching and heartbreaking at the same time. It might be the most well written of the Gears of War games as well.

That being said, I do have a couple of nitpicks with it. I do love how they continued to evolve the city each time you return to it, but while you’re playing through the open sections, it often didn’t feel like a city being overrun. I get they can’t just have thousands of Locusts flooding the streets, but they could have had some more scenes or escape sequence showing thousands marching through the streets. My other issue is that the main villain, while awesome, just doesn’t get enough screen time. This is unfortunately an issue with many Gears of War games where the villain has a great intro, but then they disappear for a while until the very end. It would have been nice to get some more confrontation between Vraahk and the Bravo Team in gameplay to setup more tension for the final fight.

Looks like there is just a few more than they thought.

We’re all that’s left. And we’re not gonna run.

Gears of War: E-Day while still at its core plays and feels similar to the older game, there has been some tweaks and changes to the systems. The two major ones of course are the addition of jumping as well as sprinting instead of the Roadie Run. I wasn’t too sure how these would feel, or if it was going to be too much of a change, but honestly I absolutely love the jump and clambering. The sprint instead of Roadie Run is whatever, functionally its a way to move faster regardless, but there is more agility with the sprint. However, the jump system came into play so much.

Being able to clamber up cars and walls and jump between gaps to access vantage spots feels fantastic. But I also think that is a testament to how great the level design is as well. There are so many great options during combat encounters you can tell they were really able to go crazy on crafting these levels with the jumping and sliding mechanic. There is a new low cover system where the character will almost go prone to hide behind lower cover, but I have to say, this didn’t come up too often to see a benefit.

The Ripper with the dual shot mod on active reload is very powerful.

Another major addition to the campaign and Horde mode is the weapon, tactical gear, and armor mod system. During the campaign you will unlock these mods by finding Hard Cases scattered through multiple levels, and each one will unlock a new mod for your various gear. For the most part, these are pretty easy to spot as there will be a notification there is one in the area, then using your Tac-Com will highlight the case.

Each weapon will have unique mods that fit their specific style. For instance, there are mods for the Toque Bow that will make your arrows explode upon connection, as well as decreasing charging time. You will be able to add better scopes onto snipers or even smaller 1.3x sites onto pistols and Lancers. Barrel upgrades to increase accuracy and damage as well as even changing the ammo type for the new Gut-Puncher grenade launcher. There are a lot of options to modify your favorite weapons to be absolutely devastating in combat.

Completing sidequests can also unlock various mods.

There is also the introduction of Tactical Gear, this is an evolution of the J.A.C.K. abilities from Gears 5, but now you get to posses them like an ability. Adrenaline Injector, Sonic Disruptor, Pulse Drone, and the Stim Vaporizer are usable in the campaign, but only equipped one at a time. This is where four player co-op will definitely be beneficial. However, even solo, there are benefits to swapping between them depending on if you know the battle you’re going to be in.

Gears of War: E-Day armor mods are used to help change up some combat tactics a bit. Things like overall improved weapon recoil or that your melee attacks cause stun. Some of my favorites where close range kills grant a Perfect Reload, or Hardened Cover which increases cover defense. There are also health buffs like Best Defense where kills from cover will heal you a bit. They aren’t major game changers, but they are nice ways to continue honing in your prefect build.

All these additions I felt really enhanced the already stellar gameplay of the Gears of War franchise. Customizing our mods to fit your playstyle, running in hot with a Gnasher with mods that heal you and give you Perfect Reloads with close kills is satisfying. The additional verticality and movement that comes from the jumping, clambering, sprinting, and sliding create one of the best feeling and fun Gears to play. However, with all this great gameplay, I did feel like it was a step back not including Meat Shields, Grenade Sticking, and Chainsaw Duels. Unfortunately, those three didn’t get included, or maybe purposefully cut, but it was weird to not have them in this game.

Invasions can happen periodically during a Horde Siege match, and even happen right where the evac is supposed to be…

Serve the Horde. Die for the Queen!

Possibly the biggest and most exciting change for Gears of War: E-Day is finally we are getting a fully revamped Horde mode called Horde Siege. Unfortunately, the classic Horde mode as you know it in the previous games isn’t featured here. There is technically a wave based version only, but it is limited. In the Classic Horde mode you just have ten waves of enemies, and there aren’t as many barricades since Horde Siege doesn’t feature a lot of that. So that may be disappointing for some, I certainly hope they bring back a true Classic Horde in the feature, but for now there is Horde Siege.

Horde Siege is a large scale multiplayer PvE Horde mode that puts twelve players (split into three squads of four) on one large map. This is a shared battlefield across the large Kalona city blocks that are featured in the campaign like the Golden Quarter, Octus District, Plaza Ruins, and Prospect Bay. The main objective for each squad is to activate their R.I.G. (Resonation Imaging Geographer), and then evac. However, there are side objectives you can accomplish to gain extra energy and weapon parts to unlock mods for your class.

Running into other squads and teaming up to help out objectives is an awesome feature of the new Horde.

During your missions, there is a good chance you will run into the other crews who are accomplishing their tasks and it is awesome when you can team up with a large group and take out some Locust. There are Invasion Events that will attempt to bring all the squads together to take out a boss wave that will feature the big enemies like Brumaks and  Corpsers. I absolutely loved this feeling of twelve people all collecting together to take down these massive bosses and waves of enemies. Or just coming to help out another squad that is pinned down trying to evac. It is something that hasn’t been done before in Gears of War and I found myself enjoying this more than the normal fifty,jb wave Classic Horde.

Much like Gears 5 Horde, you will be able to pick a class to be: Assault, Breacher, Marksman, and Medic. Each class has a level cap of 30, and each time you level up you will unlock additional loadout options like new weapons and mods for your Tactical Gear. As you complete objectives in Horde Siege you will collect Weapon Parts which then can be spent to unlock the mods that you want for your gear and weapons. Leveling up also has heath and damage upgrade milestones that you can achieve that boost your base stats.

There is limited timed event where Vraahk can show up as a boss. Would love to see other bosses from previous games show up at some point.

Unfortunately, since this mode is online only, you cannot attempt to play this solo or with a closed group. If you do not have a fourth in your group, you will have to matchmake and that always comes with ups and downs. I had great groups, and then I had some that just would never stick together and we would get picked apart. My biggest issue though is if someone quits, they are replaced by an AI player, and they are just bad. They often don’t even stay with the group as you progress through the city, and sometimes they will just run off and get into random battles. You essentially are just losing a teammate at that point. There also doesn’t seem to be any “Join In Progress” matchmaking, so once you get an AI, that’s it.

My only other concern with Horde Siege is where they go with extra maps. The current maps are basically all of the city districts from the campaign, since it is supposed to fit in with the theme of the campaign as well. I love that, but at the same time, I’m struggling to see where they go from here. Are we only getting these four maps for the duration of the game and they just add additional content in the maps? The idea with integrating it with the city of Kalona is great, but I see that as kind of limiting for the future. Hopefully they have some surprises up their sleeves!

Getting a Swift Vengeance with a chainsaw kill always feels good.

Acceptable tactical losses.

Versus mode of course makes its comeback in Gears of War: E-Day, and for the most part it is still going to be that love it or hate it mode for some. We are back to the 4v4 setup, and don’t worry, the mod system doesn’t make an appearance here. Everyone starts off with the same standard loadout and it’s all about power weapon and map control. Obviously with the gameplay additions and changes there is an overall pacing different with this new one that does change how it will feel, but other balances help out.

Of course, much like the campaign level design, the Versus levels are designed with the jumping, clambering, and sliding mechanics in mind which is great. However, this means you need to be on your toes more because enemies can just jump themselves right up and through windows that normally wouldn’t be reachable. The Coalition did make tweaks to the cover system that does slow down the super spammy wall bouncing technique that has plagued the games since forever. I’m sure that will annoy some of the hardcore pro players of Gears of War, but it will be much better for the less sweaty of the Versus mode players.

There really isn’t too much to go into here, other than the map designs are good, and there are even some with interactivity. However, there just isn’t enough maps. Gears of War: E-Day has the fewest launch maps of all of the Gears of War games with only six maps. The second fewest is Judgement with eight. All of the other games launched with ten or more. I know they plan on launching more maps with the free seasons to keep that content gravy train rolling, but only six maps at launch is sparse. I believe it also has the fewest launch modes and missing classic ones like Warzone and Execution.

While I do feel like it’s unacceptable to launch with this little of Versus content, I do at least like how they’re handling extra content. Seasonal content will have a free tier, and majority of what can be acquired for skins you just get by purchasing with in-game currency or unlocking with gameplay. If you do buy the Premium Pass, you won’t be locked out from that pass if you don’t finish it within the seasonal timeframe. You can always go back and continue any season to progress those specific unlocks.

The lighting and tone of the scenes can be so dark and disturbing.

Look at all that juice!

I’m going to be blunt about this, Gears of War: E-Day is one of the best looking games this gen, period. Holy hell does this game look good. The lighting is absolutely phenomenal throughout the entire game offering some truly special scenes. The way they use that heavy red to pour in and set the ominous tension in some of the levels is masterfully done. It really does help the overall horror feeling that it’s going for in parts with the lighting.

The amount of details in the character models and the level designs is immense as well. The city is extremely detailed and the destruction as the city slowly gets taken over is so well done. Performance mode is a locked 60fps, but you will lose the Ray Traced reflections and some overall quality in textures and terrain detail. However, it still looks phenomenal. There is a balance mode if you have a 120hz tv or monitor that will lock it at 40fps and still up the visuals over performance mode. Even playing it on the Series S it still looks damn good for that machine.

The environmental story telling with the level design is fantastic.

I must have taken over a hundred photos during this campaign, and I’m so bummed there isn’t a photo mode. The amount of amazing scene and vista setups is crazy. From the sweeping views of the city, the more landscape wide shots, or the huge amount of details that went into each level, I was taking so many pictures. The gore system feels like it got a rework as well offering much more detailed gore and body damage. The dismemberments, chainsawing, and finisher kills all look chunky and fantastic. It truly is a breathtakingly gorgeous game.

Sound design is also extremely top notch, which is something the series has always been great with. The weapons all have good heavy and punchy sound effects that really help set the intense combat tone. The gore splatters, explosions, and even the ambient sounds are so well done which help anchor the believability of this invasion.

The bright and bold lighting coupled with how detailed everything is makes for such gorgeous shots.

Voice acting is great across the board with John Dimaggio and Carlos Ferro returning as Marcus and Dom. They do such a great job as usual portraying these characters. I was even impressed how Carlos was able to bring a bit of youth to the young and in love Dom as well. The rest of the cast also does a great job with Mags, Lucas, and Tai. I don’t recall any bad voiced lines, just some cheesy dialogue and quips, but that’s Gears of War for you.

The soundtrack is also fantastic from Adam Lastiwka who composed Gears 5: Hivebusters and worked on The Callisto Protocol. He did a great job capturing the tones and what fans come to expect with the somber and intense tracks. Also, the game ending with For Whom the Bell Tolls by Metallica was sick.

The wooded section is just as fantastically detailed as the city is.

Gears of War: E-Day is a true masterpiece and sits up there with the best of the games this year, as well as the best of the Gears of War series. The way it masterfully tells the story of Emergence Day with its devastation and destruction, watching as the city of Kalona gradually becomes more war-torn was amazing. It was also amazing to have Marcus and Dom back in action again without it feeling like nostalgia bait, and the character development of Mags and Lucas was well paced and meaningful. While I do have a few nitpicks here and there, and I would have liked to see more Versus launch content, there aren’t many AAA games giving this much content with this much quality.

Gears of War: E-Day is available now on Xbox Series X|S and PC.

Reviewed on Xbox Series X.

A copy of Gears of War: E-Day was provided by the publisher.