"Gears of War: E-Day" reviewed: The city is the best character
Kalona is the secret star of "Gears of War: E-Day". I get to know the city, learn to love it – and watch as it falls into ruins. That is more powerful than anything the prequel attempts narratively. Otherwise, it's the usual: take cover, shoot, chainsaw.
Heads pop like water balloons, and I'm right in the middle of it. The first few minutes of «Gears of War: E-Day» already feel wonderfully familiar: taking cover, shooting, a snappy remark from Marcus Fenix that doesn't always land – it's «Gears», plain and simple.
The perspective is new. «E-Day» is the sixth main installment in the series, but it takes place about 14 years before the first game. It's about the titular Emergence Day, when the Locust Horde attacks humanity for the first time. Marcus Fenix and Dominic Santiago are sitting in a bar, having a beer for Dominic's late brother, Carlos. Then the Horde arrives. Along with them: Lucas Reyes and Mags Carter. The four of them fight their way through, and I get to decide which one I play as – which doesn't change the course of the game.
After 15 hours of campaign, only one character has stayed with me. Her name is Kalona, she has no dialogue, and she is a city. The people in her occupied me significantly less.
A city with character
Kalona is not just a backdrop, but a chronicle. Linear missions alternate with open, freely explorable sections where I complete side missions – which, at their core, simply offer more shooting. This structure is not unusual for the series. What is new is that it is limited to a single city. That turns out to be a major strength.
Kalona consists of streets that bleed into one another, and I keep returning to the same areas. Each time, a little more lies in ruins. The path to the hospital I took the day before is blocked the next day. Everything looks familiar and yet alien. I get to know the city, learn to love it, and then I watch it fall apart.
The fact that this works is also due to the technology. Kalona looks bombastic, precisely because it changes: plumes of smoke over collapsed facades, rubble that was a roof yesterday. In the end, Kalona is almost as much a character as the Gears I fight with. Almost. Because thanks to their replaceability, I don't really care about them.
Cover is life
As good as the setting is, the gameplay is classic. In terms of play, «Gears» remains «Gears». I dash from wall to car wreck, fire from a third-person perspective, and let enemies burst into pieces. That still works excellently.
There are more cover types and heights, including «low ground» cover: if the top half of a wall is shot away, I go prone. I then move slower and offer a larger target. Sometimes, however, that is the difference between life and death.
The biggest change concerns movement. Marcus and company transition from a sprint into a slide, shooting while doing so and sliding under vehicles. They can also jump, grab ledges, and climb – for the first time, even without having to take cover first.
What sounds like a lot on paper barely changes the feel of the game. The Gears have become more agile, but not light-footed. They still have momentum and weight, remaining more cumbersome than I am used to from other third-person shooters. I like that.
Weapons, weapons, weapons
The firearms are still wonderfully clunky, bone-breaking murder machines. I can modify them, but I have to find the parts in crates first. Upgrading is done at supply caches, the game's workbenches. This allows me to optimize my equipment, compensate for the weaknesses of individual weapons, or specifically reinforce their strengths. Stims and armor can also be customized in a similar style.
This gives the game a strategic dimension and invites experimentation. Against giant Brumaks, I take the bow with explosive projectiles. Spore Matrons, which look like flying testicles with eyes, I take down from the sky with the sniper rifle. If I'm fighting through the narrow subway, I reach for the Gnasher. It would be cool if I could save my configurations – as it is, I have to click everything together again every time.
If I press the corresponding button in the right window while reloading, I reload stronger ammunition. While aiming, I can switch shoulders. Solid, cool shooter fare.
When it comes to lore, «E-Day» misses opportunities. For example, with the Lancer – the weapon with the chainsaw attached. The explanation here: A hulking man likes chainsaws. So an engineer screws one onto his Lancer. That's it. Okay, maybe I expected too much with my romanticized worldview, and the explanation fits «Gears» well enough. But I would have liked to see how the engineer does it. Instead, he disappears with the chainsaw and hands me the finished product.
There is one catch to the gameplay. Over time, the shooting becomes repetitive: cover, shoot, next group of enemies. Especially when my comrades shout «They come in waves!» for what feels like the twentieth time. You don't say. However, that is not a «Gears» problem, but one of the entire genre.
Story, where?
What I do with the weapons carries the game, like the city. Why I do it, less so.
As a prequel, «E-Day» fails across the board. The characters exude the charm of a slug, and the game tells me nothing I didn't already know from the first «Gears of War». I can't even spoil it for you here. In short: bang, bang, boom, boom, and finally, Kalona falls.
So I wait until the end in vain for an exploration of what Carlos' death does to Marcus and Dominic. Aside from a clichéd, bro-like «But we still have each other», nothing comes of it. The same goes for Mags: very early on, it's shown to me that she is likely terminally ill. Two acts later, the game briefly touches on it again – then it peters out. Only newcomer Lucas gets a bit more room for his development. But his story feels like it's in every second war movie and therefore leaves me cold. The Locust Horde also remains pale. What is their motivation – besides being a placeholder for absolute evil?
All that remains is the soldier pathos between the battles. After 15 hours, I would have gladly traded that for five minutes of real conversation.
Visually a feast, with cracks
What the characters lack in expression, the engine makes up for in their innards. I am a person with a penchant for the morbid and probably have something in common with the developer studio The Coalition: the entrails of the dead are so detailed that I think I can distinguish the small intestine from the large intestine. You can find that great – but you don't have to.
Thanks to volumetric smoke, smoke grenades block vision credibly; projectiles are simulated with physical accuracy. The main characters look simply fantastic up close.
The game runs smoothly on my PC. Equipped with a Radeon RX 9070 XT and Ryzen 9 7900X3D in 2160p and with virtually all details at maximum – at over 60 FPS. I activated FSR with the «Dynamic» preset.
Nevertheless: In my review build, I had repeated pop-ins – Unreal Engine 5 says hello. In places where the developers probably assumed no one would look, the textures look more like PS3 than 2026. The NPCs also seem like last-gen rather than current-gen to me. But that could be due to my review build, and perhaps the developers will patch that before launch.
The soundtrack and sound design are also convincing. When I'm firing at Reavers from the helicopter with the Gatling gun, the wind is whipping around my ears, the enemies are screeching and then bursting with relish while an orchestral soundtrack pushes me along, it's simply brilliant.
Co-op? I couldn't test it
«Gears» was and is a co-op game for me. The campaign of «E-Day» can be played with up to three other people. For the review, I unfortunately had to go it alone, as no one else had time. In addition, there are the «Horde Siege» and «Versus» modes, which were not available at the time of testing. Both therefore do not flow into my rating – but they do into my expectations: if colleague Domagoj's preview is anything to go by, Horde Siege should be a highlight.
«Gears of War: E-Day» will be released on October 6, 2026, for Xbox Series X/S and PC via Steam. It will also be available on Day One on Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass. Microsoft provided me with the game for testing on PC.
In a nutshell
I am watching a city die
What makes "Gears of War: E-Day" special is Kalona. The city changes so much throughout the campaign that it becomes the main character for me – while the actual characters remain pale, just like the story. Surrounding it is a massive and solid shooter that immediately feels like "Gears". The new movement options make Marcus and company more agile without taking away their weight. It still gets repetitive over time, but that's how I feel about most shooters.
Those who love the series will get their money's worth. Those who haven't been able to get into it so far won't be converted here. For me, "Gears of War: E-Day" is a classic 3.5-star game. Since I can't give half stars, I'll round up. The reason: I couldn't test the multiplayer modes, but they will most likely significantly extend the fun. And if a friend asked me to play through the campaign with them again, I would agree without hesitation. Because "Gears" is most fun in co-op. And I would love to watch Kalona fall again.
Pro
- heavy, crisp cover-based gunplay with tangible weight
- Kalona is constantly changing and becomes the actual main character
- Weapon modifications invite you to experiment
- strong sound design and atmospheric soundtrack
- new movement options without breaking the feel of the series
- Campaign in co-op with up to four people
- a feast for gore fans
Contra
- A story lacking in suspense, characters lacking in depth
- Battles become repetitive over time
- Pop-ins and textures that are at times at a last-last-gen level
- Loadouts cannot be saved
- missed opportunities with the lore
From big data to big brother, Cyborgs to Sci-Fi. All aspects of technology and society fascinate me.
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