Gears of War: E-Day is the first true prequel to the series in roughly seven years, following 2019's Gears of War 5. When it was first unveiled at the 2024 Xbox Games Showcase with a trailer reimagining Mad World from the original Gears, it generated massive buzz, and anticipation only mounted further once the release date was locked in for October 6.

The fact that it tackles Emergence Day—the literal catalyst for every event in the franchise—was also more than enough to set fan hearts racing. With expectations piled high during the lengthy hiatus, the demand for the series' trademark heavy combat has naturally grown as well. So, would it genuinely deliver on those lofty expectations? We decided to step into Kalona with the keys handed over by Xbox and find out for ourselves.

Gears of War: E-Day plunges straight into the dawn of the war against the Locust, the single most pivotal event and narrative origin point in the universe. Protagonist Marcus heads to a local bar alongside comrade Dominic Santiago to toast the end of a recently concluded conflict. Then, out of nowhere, grotesque monsters erupt from the earth. Without even getting into their COG armor, Marcus, retired veteran Mags Carter—who happened to be at the pub—and cadet Lucas Reyes are forced to scramble for weapons and dive headfirst into the war.

The game follows four members of Bravo Squad as they execute a three-day operation across the dying planet of Sera and the city of Kalona, slowly being ground down by the Locust invasion. Though it spans a mere three days, the Locust horde is so relentless and overwhelming that a genuine sense of desperation bleeds right through to the player. Humanity wasn't even properly prepared for war; the leadership of the COG, the reigning government body, firmly believed that UIR—the opposing faction from the war that had just ended—was staging a comeback. Pair that institutional blindness with the Locust's habit of bursting out from beneath the ground, and you have a recipe for a catastrophically accelerated human extinction scenario.

All four squad members come loaded with distinct backgrounds and personal tales. Ironically, protagonist Marcus carries the slimmest backstory of the bunch; unlike Carter, who worked at the Kalona emulsion refinery, or Reyes, whose chapter briefly touches upon the scars of war, Marcus's past is barely touched upon. Which makes a certain amount of sense, seeing as Marcus is the quintessential face of the Gears franchise. The tragic event befalling Dominic Santiago is also skimmed over briefly, but given how central it is to Dominic's narrative arc, the emotional weight still hits hard. That said, because the story focuses so heavily on the dramatic chaos of Emergence Day and non-stop firefights, the screen time allotted to individual characters feels a tad skimpy.

Alongside the characters and narrative, a handful of fan-service elements sweeten the pot. Familiar faces like Tai drop by to say hello, and the detailed graphics let you soak in the dieselpunk aesthetic of Sera before the Hammer of Dawn strikes the planet directly. Plus, little touches like the origin story of the iconic chainsaw-toting Lancer, or the characters initially referring to brand-new threats simply as "that monster" due to a lack of proper nomenclature, add a cheeky layer of amusement.

Gears of War: E-Day faithfully recreates the series' trademark gunfights that reek of heavy metal and gunpowder. The four members of Bravo Squad must lean heavily on cover mechanics to weather incoming enemy fire. Given how easy it is to bite the dust thanks to the sheer volume of foes, securing solid cover is non-negotiable. Couple that with the suitably weighty movement of the Gears, hordes of pressuring enemies, and undeniably satisfying weaponry, and you have a recipe for compelling combat.

The impact and shooting feedback of the firearms are particular highlights. From the baseline Lancer down to the Gnasher, Longshot, and Reaver, every weapon delivers cracking firing and impact audio cues. Weapons can be kitted out with up to four distinct modular upgrades, and the Active Reload system—a staple of the franchise—does double duty by not only bumping up attack power but also dealing explosive splash damage or firing double rounds. That said, whenever you swap to a weapon dropped by a fallen enemy, it only comes with its stock setup, meaning your preferred custom modules don't automatically carry over. You have to trek back to a supply cache every single time; it's realistic, sure, but intensely annoying.

During the early stretches of the game, we mainly leaned on the prototype Lancer and Breashot. Since the Lancer boasts high ammo capacity paired with brutal melee potential, a high-firepower ranged companion like the Breashot was practically mandatory to cover the gaps. By the mid-game, depending on the tactical situation, we found ourselves frequently trading off between the Lancer and the Reaver, primarily because the enemy troops dropped them often enough to make ammunition replenishment a breeze.

Overall weapon balancing feels remarkably solid. Running the prototype Lancer alongside the Breashot won't net you the close-quarters stopping power of a Gnasher or an Incinerator, but swapping to the Incinerator trades away your ranged options for blistering short-range devastation while leaving you starved for ammo. The Longshot offers ridiculous damage output, but you'll be sprinting all over the place to scrounge up bullets, while the Torque Bow—though occasionally dropped by enemies for easy pickups—requires a wind-up time that demands careful handling.

The opposition you mow down with these firearms is no slouch either. Given that the game tackles the earliest era possible, you'll frequently butt heads with basic, foundational drones, but do not mistake them for pushovers. Locust infantry drones aggressively rush you in the opening chapter, and if they manage to grab hold of you, it's instant death unless an ally bails you out—making them far more irritating than standard gun-toting grunts. The unceasing wave of skirmishes effectively hammers home the desperate reality of a dying planet.

Various native creatures from Sera's subterranean cave systems also crawl out of the woodwork. You get to admire the pale, unarmored appearance of the Wretches, while Tickers make dramatic entrances complete with explosive flair. A variety of larger beasts like Corpsers, Reavers, and Brumaks also put in appearances—including a bare-naked Brumak completely unburdened by heavy armor. Reavers in particular pop up at the most irritatingly random moments, and their airborne antics make tracking them a genuine exercise in frustration.

That said, the overall enemy balancing leaves something to be desired. Playing on the standard difficulty, the game relies heavily on cheap, flood-the-zone tactics. As you push across chapters, it frequently feels like the developers simply inflated enemy health pools, and when combined with the cover-heavy shooting loops, the combat quickly slips into a repetitive groove. Whenever a new wave triggers, it's the exact same routine: deal with snipers, deal with Boomers and Grinders, deal with drones. If you sat down and actually counted, the roster of enemy types isn't strictly small, but because they are deployed in such homogenous ways, the encounters end up feeling painfully monotonous.

This flat combat loop rears its ugliest head during the factory chapter boss and the final encounter. While the production values and staging of the factory boss fight are impressive, tossing out toxic spheres to crack open your cover while laying down laser sweeps that force you back behind walls feels less genuinely challenging and more downright unfair. The bloated health pools mean both bosses drag on forever, turning a cinematic climax into a slog. The final boss fares no better, relying on sheer health bars instead of evolving tactical phases to pad out the runtime.

Gears of War: E-Day is a strictly linear affair. Your primary objective shifts from mission to mission across chapters, occasionally interrupted by optional side quests where you rescue wounded civilians. Knocking out these side quests rewards you with weapon modules, but that's about the extent of the extra content. You can scavenge collectables, sure, but there's no economy to speak of, no purchasing gear upgrades, and zero room for dynamic conversations with nearby NPCs.

In short, the overarching architecture feels rather dated, leaving plenty of room for fatigue to set in. The narrative unfolds through a rigid sequence of mission briefings, gunfights, and mission completions, while the gameplay itself is an endless cycle of taking cover and pulling triggers. Of course, if you dissect most games down to their bare bones, you'll find similar skeletons, but E-Day makes virtually no effort to dress it up. While one could argue this rigid adherence is simply part of the Gears of War identity, it feels a bit archaic for a full-price title launching in 2026 with a roughly £45 price tag.

Repeating environments and backdrops across chapters only amplify these shortcomings. Take the 'bridge' setpiece, for instance; while it clearly tries to bookend the campaign with symmetrical narrative framing, forcing you to backtrack through the exact same geography twice feels like a missed opportunity. Sure, unique setpieces like subway infiltrations and boss fights against massive fauna do pop up, but they are far too few and far between. The constant recycling of spaces, skirmishes, and mechanical loops makes the roughly 22-hour runtime feel unnecessarily bloated and drawn-out.

The way weapon modifications are distributed also actively works against immersion. Yellow crates are tucked away in corners across various maps, triggering pop-up prompts the moment you wander close—a persistent distraction even in the thick of a firefight. While tying these upgrades to dedicated missions or integrating an in-game store could have shaken things up, the developers showed little imagination here. Given that the maps aren't particularly small, running back and forth to hunt down supply boxes on top of main mission objectives simply inflates travel time without adding actual fun.

Gears of War: E-Day nails the franchise's signature hefty combat through upgraded visuals and lays bare the harrowing devastation of Emergence Day with crystal clarity. However, a formulaic game structure and homogenous combat encounters that feel entirely out of touch for 2026 leave the experience front-loaded with fun before wearing thin by the end. Boss encounters similarly devolve into tedious endurance tests fueled entirely by inflated health meters. While longtime fans will likely find comfort in the familiar bloodshed, it's a tough recommendation for absolute newcomers.