Gears of War: E-Day is a series-best showpiece, and I hope that means something

Hi there! Today, I'm mainly talking about Gears of War: E-Day, the latest title from The Coalition and Xbox Game Studios. It's been a few years since the last proper Gears of War game, and over the past several days, I've spent a fair bit of time exploring this new story and world.

Gears of War is a series close to my heart, so I've got a fair bit to say about the game and the environment it is releasing in.

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A city and people torn apart

While Xbox gave me a review code to play through the campaign, it is important to note that I didn't have access to the multiplayer suite for this review, as the servers go live when the game launches. I stand by all my thoughts from when I previewed Horde Siege and Versus earlier in the year, but for now, this is focused entirely on the story.

As the name suggests, Gears of War: E-Day is a prequel, taking things back to the very end of the Pendulum Wars, and right to the beginning of the titular Emergence Day that sees humanity locked in combat with the Locust Horde.

I played in co-op for my first run through, as Gears of War has always been a franchise focused on co-op. Up to four people can play together online as Bravo Squad (with two on a single Xbox console) composed of series icons Marcus Fenix and Dominic Santiago, as well as the newbies Lucas Rayes and Mags Carter.

Disaster unfolds quickly as monsters emerge from the below the ground, with early segments paced and framed like a horror title as the unfolding carnage rapidly accelerates. Straight away, Gears of War: E-Day is visually stunning, with some truly gorgeous ray-tracing work done in Unreal Engine 5.

Pale neon lights give away to crimson horror with expert precision, and I frequently found myself impressed by not just the detail but the composition of every locale. It's a specific thing, but the sense of bright daylight flooding into a dark building when a window or door is opened is captured here, perhaps better than in any other game I've played.

The Coalition has also taken a lot of special care to make sure playing with friends still feels right. The Camera transitions as scenes shift from a cinematic into gameplay are top-notch, with subtle adjustments for each player's character.

With that new frontier of visual quality comes new frontiers in brutality. This is a truly brutal and gory game, even by Gears of War standards. There's an impact to the violence that hasn't quite been seen before, and a lot of that has to do with how it's being inflicted on civilians.

It's one thing to watch soldiers die in combat, it's another seeing the Locust revel in slaughtering people that can't fight back. It feeds a rage for immediate revenge, but slowly grows a sense of despair as well. No matter how many Locust are killed, more are coming. Saving people is impossible, but you still have to try.

Try, Bravo Squad does. Over the course of a 12 or so hour campaign, me and my squadmates roamed the city of Kalona, desperately fighting back, alternating linear setpieces with more wide-open zones that encouraged exploration. Subway tunnels, alleys, and overpasses hide secondary objectives and gear boxes collectibles, both of which bestow upgrades for customizing Bravo's weaponry.

This exploration marries the wider zones of Gears 5 with the more grounded, dense city environments the series is known for. Combined with the improved running and the addition of jumping, it works quite well, rewarding paying attention to the environment instead of just running to the next objective marker.

One particularly great moment that still stands out to me came early on in Act 2, as my squad was roaming the streets, taking a gander before we moved on. Looking across the city high-rise, I saw a banner unfurled from a window that said "HELP US."

It would've been easy, even expected, for this to just be set dressing, but instead, it was a natural way of drawing attention to a side quest. It's a small thing, as it doesn't really change what you're doing, but it changes how you perceive those bits that are off the main path, and it's this kind of careful design philosophy that's present all across E-Day.

Getting into firefights across Kalona doesn't feel boxed in, like there's only one correct approach. On numerous occasions, one or two members of the team could provide covering fire as a third flanked by mantling or jumping across rafters to get behind enemy snipers and grenadiers.

That wide-zone design philosophy adds a sense of scale to the city, to the point it is, in essence, another character. It's one thing to see a landmark like a particularly large statue, but seeing it hours later with nearby buildings half-sunk or bombed to pieces provides both a notion of place and an increased level of desperation for how bad things are getting.

Even in more guided locations, the gameplay here is the best it's ever been. Guns feel and sound satisfying, from the pop of headshots to the thunk of a grenade launcher. With the weapon customization system, there are a number of wild options to use, such as giving the Gnasher shotgun a bayonet, or making a Perfect Reload on the Lancer fire incendiary rounds.

All of this culminates in a desperate final push across the game's last acts, with some truly fantastic setpieces. Even playing on Normal, my squad was in some difficult fights, with brutal enemy composition and unending waves of foes.

Throughout the entire game, the story itself isn't bad, but it doesn't have any shocking twists or big turns, which isn't much of a surprise in itself. After all, this is a prequel with two characters that go on to be mainstays in the original games. Instead, what is here feels distilled, examining the emotional resonance of the cast and what is making them tick as the war kicks off, with some fun tidbits toward the end that longtime fans will definitely pick up on.

You see the slightly-more-optimistic people that Marcus and Dom used to be, and why they grow to rely on each other so much.

As the credits rolled, I found myself thinking that this was the most pure fun I've ever had playing a Gears of War title developed by The Coalition. The gameplay, the audiovisual design, the world, it's all crafted with exquisite care.

Then I found myself wondering if that matters. After all, we've been through this already. Halo Studios delivered a wonderful remake of the first Halo title back in July, one I've spent tons of time with. A few months later, the team has been gutted by layoffs.

As Xbox continues its so-called reset, layoffs have already seen at least one narrative director cut from The Coalition ahead of the game's launch. I can't imagine what it's like for the rest of the team, or really any other team. Delivering something of this quality should be a moment of pure celebration and joy. But I'm worried.

"You really want to be a soldier all your life?"

It's a question that Dom asks of Marcus over a beer, in the few calm minutes before hell breaks through the ground. And yet there's so much packed into it. The players, the veterans of the franchise, already know the answer.

Pound for pound, Gears of War: E-Day is the best game The Coalition has ever made, and one of my favorites of the year. I hope against hope that matters in the months to come.

Assorted news

This week, a side effect of Xbox's original maligned 2013 plans has been turned into a pretty cool feature.

• A demo for Castlevania: Belmont's Curse goes live today, and players on all platforms can transfer their progress to the full game when it launches on
• The Xbox disc-to-digital program has now rolled out for everyone, so if you've got physical games and an Xbox Series X with a disc drive, it's worth going through and redeeming them. I just got digital licenses for Monster Hunter Wilds, Red Dead Redemption 2, and Middle-earth: Shadow of War, the latter of which also supports Xbox Play Anywhere, so I can play it on my PC. Right now, Square Enix and Bandai Namco are the big holdouts for not supporting the program, but we'll see if that changes.
• The Expansion Pass has an interview with Shawn Layden, the former chairman of PlayStation Studios (then SIE Worldwide Studios). Layden had some interesting comments, especially when it comes to relying on data vs. creativity in greenlighting games.