Gears of War: E-Day (Campaign) Review – Back in It

It’s been a long wait for a new Gears of War game. Gears 5 arrived seven years ago, setting a new path forward for the franchise with some major swings, but since then, the franchise has been oddly dormant. Releases like strategy spinoff Gears Tactics, Gears 5 DLC Hivebusters, and a 2025 remaster of the first game have provided little doses of Gears here and there, sure, but a mainline release has been frustratingly elusive.

Enter: Gears of War: E-Day, a prequel set 14 years before the events of the first game that brings back classic duo Marcus Fenix and Dominic Santiago, returns to the more grounded tone of the series’ earlier entries, and evolves the series’ tried-and-true formula with several interesting changes and additions. The result? A Gears of War game that is not only well worth the long wait preceding it, but also ranks as one of the series’ best outings in years.

E-Day tells the story of Emergence Day, the day that the Locust Horde emerged from beneath the ground and laid waste to the planet of Sera, launching a global, years-long war that would destroy much of the planet and claim countless lives. Marcus Fenix returns as the primary protagonist for the first time since the end of the original trilogy, while Dom, too, returns as the secondary protagonist. In more ways than one, Gears of War: E-Day attempts to recapture the magic of the series’ earlier days.

"As much as I loved E-Day’s campaign, and as much as I do think there are things to appreciate in the story, I feel the narrative department is one of the game’s weaker areas."

As much as I loved E-Day’s campaign, and as much as I do think there are things to appreciate in the story, I feel the narrative department is one of the game’s weaker areas. On one hand, as a longtime Gears fan, I absolutely adored seeing Marcus and Dom take centerstage again.

From Marcus’ gruff attitude and his classic, grumpy one-liners to the strong, brotherly bond that he shares with Dom, everything about the duo and their dynamic that was special in the original trilogy works remarkably well here as well, especially if you’re coming into the game with a pre-existing fondness for the series and the characters. Granted, the game’s writing can still be a little spotty at times, with more than a few moments of flat dialogue or character interactions that just don’t land, but overall, there’s a lot to like here for veteran series fans.

That said, not everything E-Day’s story tries lands well. Its attempts to ground Marcus with yet more past trauma feel largely uninteresting, especially given the fact that the series has already gone through those same beats and arcs in the past (and much more effectively, I might add). Similarly, Dom’s arc feels like a series of missed opportunities, in that it feels like he barely even has one. His shared past with Marcus does have some part to play in the story, as you might expect, but for the most part, Dom feels like he is barely involved in the story in any meaningful way.

"As a longtime Gears fan, I absolutely adored seeing Marcus and Dom take centerstage again."

Perhaps that is down to the fact that E-Day spends significant chunks of its campaign trying to get players to invest in its two main new additions – both of whom are admittedly great characters. There’s Mags Carter, a former Gears who wrestles with a respiratory disease and with disillusionment with the government she once served even as is thrown back into the fray on Emergence Day.

Then there’s Lucas Reyes, a nervous yet well-meaning rookie who could have easily been a forgettable trope, but actually turns out to be an endearing and likeable personality. Both new characters are solid additions to the Gears cast, and have no issues standing right alongside Marcus and Dom as E-Day’s core group. In fact, I would even say that Mags in particular probably has the best and most interesting arc in the game – even if it sometimes does feel a tad half-baked.

What works far better for Gears of War: E-Day than its enjoyable but inconsistent storytelling is its setting. The entirety of the game is set across just a couple of disastrous nights in the city of Kalona, and it works spectacularly on multiple levels. For starters, conceptually, I personally love that level of narrative focus. E-Day is a hugely important day in Gears lore, so getting to see it all pan out with this level of detail and attention is massively exciting for series fans- and this game does great justice to that concept. You get to see the horrific, destructive effects of Emergence Day across an entirely, densely populated city in real time, and it is incredible.

A thriving, active urban location isn’t something that we’ve ever seen in a Gears game before, so it’s an absolute joy to not only see it here, but also see it get obliterated in horrifying ways across the length of the campaign.

That setting is also what allows E-Day to bring back some of the horror vibes that were such an important part of the older Gears of War games, making for more than a few moments laced with palpable dread and atmosphere as you walk through dimly lit corridors or devastating scenes of ruin and destruction. Don’t get me wrong, this is still very much a bombastic action game, but like the series’ earlier outings, it does feel much more grounded and, at times, horror-tinged.

"What works far better for Gears of War: E-Day than its enjoyable but inconsistent storytelling is its setting."

Kalona also serves as a great setting for Gears of War: E-Day from a design perspective. Not too long into the campaign, the game opens up and lets you lose in the city, adopting a semi-open world approach. Where Gears 5 let players traverse larger, open-ended maps, E-Day instead zooms in and delivers a smaller but denser and more deliberately designed location. It’s a much better fit for the Gears gameplay loop- the city is a wide-linear environment with plenty of room for exploration and optional content, but being a packed, urban environment, it retains the tight, linear, claustrophobic design that always works best for the franchise.

Exploring the city is, for the most part, quite enjoyable, with plenty of side missions, collectibles, and more to distract you from the critical path. That said, though the city’s design does make exploration fun, the actual optional content you find isn’t always as consistently impressive. There are some solid side missions to be found for sure, but for the most part, they lack narrative weight or any unique design ideas, and instead end up being rote combat encounters- with a couple of exceptions here and there.

Thankfully, the actual act of moving about and navigating the city always remains fun, thanks in large part to Gears of War: E-Day’s new and improved movement mechanics. Gears characters have always had a distinct, heavy feel to their movement, and that, of course, is something that E-Day very much retains, though it does also introduce new movement options that improve things in significant ways. Players can climb and vault over ledges and obstacles, jump at any time, slide under gaps, use low ground cover, and more, as a result of which moment-to-moment movement now feels faster, more agile, and more dynamic than it ever has in a Gears of War game.

As you would expect, that elevates the game in more ways than one. For starters, level design in E-Day is top notch. It boasts more verticality than we’ve ever seen in a Gears game to date, which, of course, is perfectly suited for E-Day’s urban setting. Meanwhile, combat and encounter design also benefit hugely from the improved movement mechanics. Those, of course, are areas where Gears of War games have always excelled, but with enhanced movement and more complex, layered, and vertical level design, E-Day boasts perhaps some of the best encounter design in the entire series.

That, in fact, is what I would say is this campaign’s biggest strength. It is superbly paced, and like all the best Gears campaigns, knows how to keep ramping things up. From excellent set pieces and high-octane boss fights to tense combat encounters and thrilling on-rails sequences, it keeps finding ways to make its combat mechanics and level design shine.

"Thankfully, the actual act of moving about and navigating the city always remains fun"

The fact that it doesn’t run out of steam throughout the length of its dozen hour-long campaign, which, of course, is also punctuated with plenty of excellent cutscenes, heartfelt and intimate character moments, moments of levity, and more, is testament to how well paced it is. All of that only serves to highlight the inconsistencies with the writing that much more, because if The Coalition had the writing chops of the likes of, say, Naughty Dog or even IO Interactive with 007: First Light, it could have turned out an even more memorable experience.

Meanwhile, E-Day makes changes to the Gears gameplay experience in other ways as well, specifically with the introduction of build customization options. Each weapon now has several mod slots, which you can also equip armour mods to beef up your defenses, and tactical mods, which are essentially abilities working on a cooldown. Weapon mods can often provide legitimately useful perks, such as chainsaw executions that grant automatic perfect reloads, while tactical abilities can change up the action in some interesting ways as well. All told, customization options are fairly limited, but I do appreciate the small level of agency and variation they add to the combat- while scouring environments to find mods is also always fun.

Weapons themselves feel typically excellent. Every shot feels weighty and impactful, and of course, there still is nothing that is quite as satisfactory as the feeling of that perfect active reload. Both new and returning weapons shine in their own ways, and throughout the campaign, I found more than a few that I fell in love with- from the trusty chainsaw Lancer and classic Hammerburst to the deadly Torque bow, the explosive new Gut-puncher, and many others. Combined with the new dynamic movement and the excellently designed combat arenas, the weapons and core combat mechanics of E-Day make every single firefight you get into an absolute blast.

Typically for the franchise, the game is also a visual and technical beast. E-Day uses a visual pallet that harkens back to the war-torn, browned out urban landscapes of the original trilogy, while still managing to boast the visual and artistic variety that they so sorely lacked.

"It is superbly paced, and like all the best Gears campaigns, knows how to keep ramping things up."

Environments are obsessively detailed, characters boast incredible, lifelike designs and animations, enemy designs are typically excellent for a Gears of War game, while, as mentioned earlier, the game also excels at visual depictions of widespread urban destruction and slaughter. Make no mistake, there’s no shortage of jaw-dropping moments and visuals here. There are times when E-Day stutters a little bit with its frame rate (I played mostly in performance mode on an Xbox Series X), but by and large, it’s every bit the visual and technical marvel you would expect a Gears of War game to be.

Gears of War: E-Day delivers all the things you would want first and foremost from a Gears experience in spades- blood, guts, explosions, and high-octane action. Its storytelling and writing can feel a bit inconsistent, but even so, it manages to deliver one of the series’ best-paced and most enjoyable campaigns in years.

New movement mechanics and encounter design in particular help the series’ excellent fundamental combat mechanics shine brighter than ever, while Kalona also serves as a great semi-open world-slash-wide linear setting, even if its optional content offerings aren’t always up to the mark. All said and done, Gears of War: E-Day is an excellent new outing for the series, and one of its stronger entries in many years.

This game was reviewed on Xbox Series X.