Developer: The Coalition
Publisher: XBOX Game Studios
Reviewed On: XBOX Series X, PC
Available On: XBOX Series X|S, PC
Release Date: October 6, 2026 / October 1, 2026 (Early Access)
Review Copy Provided By: XBOX Game Studios
I don’t remember playing Gears of War alone, well, probably the first gam, but ever since I bought my Xbox One in 2017, my experience with Gears has always been slicing through Locust Drones with my wife. Gunning through the rubble and ruins of Sera’s cities, surviving wave after wave of enemies, and overcoming boss fights together have made it a pure delight to finish every major Gears of War entry in co-op except for one, Gears 5.
That tradition didn’t end. I played Gears of War: E-Day in both single-player and co-op to completion, and oh my, it’s been incredible.
Gears of War: E-Day, the seventh major installment in the franchise, serves as its major prequel entry, tackling the very first day the Locust emerged from the ground—hence the name Emergence Day, or as the people of Sera call it: E-Day.
I remember watching the very first reveal trailer for Gears of War: E-Day. At first, I thought, hey, The Coalition has a new Gears game coming. Then came the big moment when Dom was shown lending Marcus a hand, and I immediately shouted, “Yes!” The title then popped up after both our beloved protagonists looking over a city burning: Gears of War: E-Day. That made me jump and even more excited because we were finally about to experience Emergence Day! They’ve also brought “of War” back to the title. It always felt off-brand to me when the former studio head, Rod Fergusson, removed “of War” for the sake of streamlining the title as the series became more mainstream. Gears is not Gears of War, and it will never make any sense to call it that way… ever.
This is The Coalition’s third attempt at the franchise, and I’m loving where it’s going. While Gears 5 didn’t leave a positive impression on me personally, what the studio has done with E-Day feels almost like an apology letter to fans who didn’t like the game, as The Coalition has really upped its game with this one.
I’ve been wanting Marcus and Dom back in a prequel entry, and now we’ve finally gotten it—with the lens focused on Emergence Day. It’s a story that doesn’t just focus on the events of E-Day; rather, it’s a story of survival, friendship, emotional connections, and what it’s like to experience the events that shaped the Gears of War universe we all know. Behind the solid walls of their Gears armor are much more vulnerable people.
Marcus Fenix is still bogged down by the loss of a close friend during the Pendulum Wars, while Dominic Santiago is leaving the COG to become more involved in his children’s lives and be physically present as a father and husband. Then you have two new characters, Lucas and Carter, who are written well enough that I genuinely care about both of them. Lucas puts on a facade as someone with a mouthful of facts, hiding his pain so convincingly that the deeper motivation behind his willingness to help comes from trying to compensate for what he lost and the mistakes he made during the Pendulum Wars. Carter, meanwhile, was dishonorably discharged after a routine mission went wrong, with COG officials making her the scapegoat because she was the only member of her squad to survive.
They all have distinct personalities that complement Marcus and Dom well, adding meaningful banter while giving the characters opportunities to share the emotional trauma they’ve experienced. It’s an adventure about a squad, how they survive together, and how they’ll continue fighting for Sera’s survival against the Locust invasion in the years to come.
I also personally expected E-Day to immediately tie into the first Gears of War, and I thought I would be disappointed if it didn’t. However, that wasn’t the case. Instead of forcing a time jump just to connect E-Day directly to the events of the first game, The Coalition decided to contain its story within the first few days of E-Day. I’m actually impressed that they pulled it off, and I ended up liking the decision.
It’s hard to witness how quickly a massive city like Kalona falls. What was once a city filled with history and culture becomes a pile of rubble that’s barely recognizable. In the final moments, Bravo Squad looks out toward the horizon, expecting the worst from this newly born war against an enemy they have yet to fully understand.
Gears of War isn’t Gears of War without its run-and-gun action and waist-high cover. It’s the tried-and-true formula that has worked throughout the franchise. The series has evolved slowly over the years, experimenting with mechanics such as the open-world segments in Gears 5 and the ability to yank enemies from behind cover when there’s only a small gap between you.
Some mechanics have been removed in E-Day, specifically the yank-and-shank cover mechanic and chainsaw duels. Other than those omissions, you basically have everything Gears of War is known for, but with some notable improvements.
One of those improvements is probably what I personally love the most: the improved movement. You can now sprint freely by pressing the Left Stick without having to hold the A button or deal with the zoomed-in camera sitting closely behind your character. This gives me much better mobility in tricky situations where I need to escape.
There’s even a slide mechanic. While sprinting, you can tap A to slide if you’re moving fast enough. If not, you’ll simply perform a dodge roll, or if you’re close to a piece of cover, your character will slam their body against it in typical Gears of War fashion. You can also take cover behind much lower objects now, giving you more options during firefights.
And last but not least, you can jump. Yes, there’s now a dedicated button for jumping. This removes some of the restrictions from older games, where you had to rely on specific mechanisms to get across certain areas. There’s a good amount of verticality this time around, and that makes the overall experience in Gears of War: E-Day feel not only modernized, but also much less restrictive.
The gunplay is still 100% Gears of War. Each weapon you use carries a lot of weight—not physically, but in terms of how it contributes to combat. Without the Lancer, it pretty much wouldn’t be Gears anymore. The weapon has become synonymous with the franchise. The community-favorite Gnasher also makes a comeback, along with a few more favorites of mine, such as the Longshot, Breecher, and Boomshot.
There are also a handful of new weapons, including an Imulsion-fueled shotgun called the Incinerator and a light machine gun called the Ripper. I could never forget how deadly the Incinerator is. Once you take a hit, you continue taking damage over time. There was one moment when a Drone rushed toward me with an Incinerator and knocked me down with a single shot right to the face. It was insane.
The Ripper holds a special place in my heart, though, especially when Perfect Reload is active, allowing you to fire four bullets at a time and deal a lot of damage. Still, the Incinerator is just too good to set aside, especially when you want to get up close and personal.
Overall, the combat and gunplay in Gears of War: E-Day are so good that I could barely put my controller down to take a break. It’s a lot of fun, and taking down Locusts with the Incinerator is incredibly satisfying. I just love watching them melt.
The open segments are back, and they feel much more thoroughly thought out compared with what I experienced in Gears 5. Kalona City is your playground, and there’s going to be a lot of back-and-forth exploration as you witness E-Day devastate a city once filled with life, culture, and history.
The explorable areas are separated into three zones: Downtown, Kalona Square, and the Industrial District. Downtown is home to much of the city’s population and its fancy hotels, while Kalona Square carries more of the city’s historical significance. The Industrial District, meanwhile, houses the Imulsion refineries.
These zones feel more focused and well thought out, keeping you engaged while exploring the ruined city. They aren’t as large as the open sections in Gears 5, where you needed a Skiff to traverse what I found to be lifeless and uninteresting terrain. In E-Day, you travel on foot, and thanks to the improved sprint system, exploring these zones is a breeze.
You’ll randomly see Gears trying to prevent the Locust from advancing, civilians running for their lives through alleyways, and other encounters that aren’t necessarily side quests. Sometimes it can be as simple as helping a rifleman take out a squad of Locust patrols roaming the streets or eliminating Locust snipers positioned in buildings. You can simply go about your day and focus on the main and side objectives, or stop and help without necessarily expecting a reward.
Aside from side missions and random encounters, the city zones are littered with collectibles and Hard Cases to find. These collectibles add value from a lore perspective, while Hard Cases provide mods for your weapons and armor. Exploration definitely rewards your effort, giving you moments you never would have come across if you hadn’t taken a particular path, along with upgrades you may never have realized you needed.
Gears of War isn’t known for having an extensive progression system like many other games. Its simplistic nature has traditionally focused on grabbing the best weapon you can find and moving on. Gears 5 added a progression system, but that was primarily used to upgrade Jack and his support abilities. Gears of War: E-Day, meanwhile, puts greater emphasis on weapon upgrades, which makes a lot of sense for a franchise like Gears. You have all these amazing weapons, so being able to improve them feels like a natural addition.
This time, depending on your playstyle, the game offers a wide variety of attachments that improve the weapons you get your hands on. I love this implementation. I found attachments that improved the Lancer’s critical damage and accuracy, along with a mod that granted me a Perfect Reload after performing a Chainsaw Execution. Armor mods can also make you harder to kill while behind cover, while another can heal you whenever you perform a Perfect Reload.
There’s also the new Tactical Gear that allows for more nuanced builds, especially when you’re playing in co-op. There are four Tactical Gears available. The Adrenaline Injector instantly refills your health while giving you a large amount of Adrenaline, reducing incoming damage and increasing your overall damage output. The Sonic Disruptor stuns Drones and other enemies, while the Stim Vaporizer is perfect for players who want to take on a support role, creating a large area of gas that heals and revives teammates. Lastly, there’s the Pulse Drone, which is great for marking enemies within the surrounding area.
Tactical Gear isn’t just there to spice up the gameplay; it complements different playstyles and becomes particularly useful when coordinating with other players. One person can focus on supporting the other Gears with the Stim Vaporizer, another can provide tactical support with the Pulse Drone, while someone equipped with the Adrenaline Injector rushes straight into the fight.
All players can even equip the same Tactical Gear if they want to. So, if your entire squad is made up of adrenaline junkies, you already know what happens when everyone activates the Injector—that temporary high kicks in and suddenly everyone wants to rush into fights up close and personal. That’s surely fun to witness in co-op.
I’m the “rush into battle” type of guy, and what I definitely need is some support when I start taking damage while charging into a fight. That makes the Adrenaline Injector my go-to choice.
Gears of War: E-Day is another technical feat from The Coalition. Its visuals are a treat, from walking down the foreboding corridors of the Kalona Police Department, filled with dead bodies, to standing atop a building and looking out over a city being obliterated by Locust forces. You also have to praise the team behind the game’s audio design. The metallic clanking and reverberation of the police station doors gave me an eerie feeling; the gears whirring through the chainsaw made me want to rush toward an enemy and tear them to pieces; and the screeching screams of Wretches were diabolical enough to make me anxious whenever they prepared to rush toward me.
It’s also worth noting that Gears of War: E-Day is impressively polished. I barely encountered any performance issues during my playthrough on PC at Ultra settings in 1440p. On the Xbox Series X, both Performance and Quality modes consistently delivered 60 FPS and 30 FPS, respectively. Split-screen co-op, however, is limited to 30 FPS due to how demanding the mode can be on the console. This makes the omission of split-screen co-op on PC disappointing, especially since its predecessors, Gears of War 4 and Gears 5, supported it. Whatever led the studio to omit the feature this time around remains unanswered for now.
I did encounter one recurring issue on the Xbox Series X that caused the game to crash during longer play sessions. To be fair to the studio, the reviewer’s guide mentions that long sessions may cause memory issues and recommends either reloading a checkpoint or restarting the game to avoid potential crashes. What isn’t clear, however, is exactly how long a “long session” is supposed to be. On one occasion, the game kicked me back to the Xbox dashboard after a chapter-ending cutscene despite that particular session lasting only around two hours. Whether two hours is considered a “long” session is unclear, and it remains to be seen whether the issue will be addressed when the Day One patch goes live.
Gears of War: E-Day is more than I could have hoped for: a focused, tightly contained, action-packed story filled with memorable characters and moments that deliver an emotional rollercoaster for those brave enough to witness the horrors of the first days of Emergence Day. E-Day is what a Gears of War game should be: relentlessly fun, engaging from all angles, and best experienced with friends. It has earned a spot in my personal Top 3 Games of the Year.
Gears of War E-Day (XSX)
Gears of War: E-Day is more than I could have hoped for: a focused, tightly contained, action-packed story filled with memorable characters and moments that deliver an emotional rollercoaster for those brave enough to witness the horrors of the first days of Emergence Day. E-Day is what a Gears of War game should be: relentlessly fun, engaging from all angles, and best experienced with friends. It has earned a spot in my personal Top 3 Games of the Year.
The Good
- Emotional and engaging story
- Excellent gunplay and improved movement
- Focused, rewarding open areas
- Meaningful weapon and armor upgrades
- Tactical Gear adds depth to co-op
- Excellent visuals and audio design
The Bad
- Split-screen co-op is missing on PC
- Xbox Series X crashes during longer sessions
