Hands-on with Gears of War: E-Day's classic multiplayer and massive Horde mode

Hi there. Today, I'm sharing some thoughts on Gears of War: E-Day, as I had the chance to try out the multiplayer modes ahead of the open beta coming in August. After going up against the monsters of the Locust in Horde, as well as other human players in Versus, I've come away with a fair bit of praise and a few concerns.

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Hands-on with Horde and Versus

Straight away, even this pre-release version of the game is gorgeous. Gears of War: E-Day is spearheaded by the technologically dextrous team at The Coalition, and it ran great, with gorgeous lighting and dense effects as smoke grenades pop and bullets crack through the air. I never noticed any stutters or framedrops, no matter how busy scenes became.

The first mode I tried out — and the one I suspect I'll be giving the most attention in the future — was the new Horde Siege. Gears of War wasn't the first series to introduce wave-based survival, but the second entry certainly popularized the mode, and it's fitting that the next game in the series offers a comprehensive rethink of what that can be.

Horde Siege has three different squads working in tandem across a gargantuan chunk of a city. It's so large that you're given a map to show where everyone is at any given point. Players choose from a handful of classes (I favored the Medic) that determine your starting loadout of weapons and a special ability. In the Medic's case, I was able to put down a healing field that could keep the squad alive through heavy fire, even reviving my teammates (or myself) if they fell.

Each team has different objectives like defending a particular Rig, but there are also bonus objectives to take on, such as taking out a high value target.
These side missions are more dangerous, but offer special rewards, including weapon parts that can be used to radically alter how a gun works, changing shotguns to use slugs, altering burst fire modes, and so on.

Once the objectives have been finished across a few rounds, the gameplay shifts, requiring players to be evacuated in a Helldivers 2-esque last stand, clearing the way for a Raven helicopter to pick everyone up. It's a gameplay loop that just feels right, fusing together elements of Horde in prior games that didn't quite come together, welding these concepts into an extraction hook that's fun and frenetic.

Switching over the Versus multiplayer, things here are what a longtime Gears of War player would expect...mostly. Once again, two squads go head-to-head across abandoned marketplaces and bunkers, spawning in with a Lancer and Gnasher while scrounging for more powerful weapons across the map.

It's here that a couple of new systems do shine. E-Day introduces jumping, which provides new options for climbing around and navigating the devastated arenas. The new slide is also handy, allowing me at multiple points to flank the enemy squad by narrowly squeezing under a small overhand in a path otherwise funneling someone into a kill box.

Wallbouncing, the infamous movement mechanic where players rapidly take cover to "bounce" from one section to another, is still present, but some subtle tweaks in cover distance mean it's not quite as straightforward as before. After a brutal loss in our first round, my team was able to coordinate a cover fire strategy and completely demolish everyone we came across in subsequent matches.

Still, I do have more questions around the longevity of Versus compared to the systems in play with Horde Siege. It's not a bad experience, but I see Horde Siege as far more newcomer friendly, and it's the mode that has the biggest chance taking the spotlight, by far.

I also simply found myself with many of the same thoughts that permeated my experience initially going through Halo: Campaign Evolved. Once again, I quite enjoyed what I was playing, but in the wake of mass (ongoing) layoffs across Xbox, I don't have faith that the corporate leadership overseeing these teams will allow them to stick together, grow, and nurture their work.

Until future notice, however, I'm extremely happy with how Gears of War: E-Day is shaping up. The changes to movement systems here feel fair and balanced, and I truly believe The Coalition has something special coming together with the way Horde Siege works. I'm looking forward to playing more when the full game arrives in October.