Gears of War: E-Day Review – Is It Worth Buying?

Gears of War: E-Day Review – A Brutal Return to Form Worth Buying

After years without a traditional Gears experience, Gears of War: E-Day takes the franchise back to what made it special while modernizing its combat just enough to avoid feeling trapped in the Xbox 360 era.

Set 14 years before the original Gears of War, E-Day follows younger versions of Marcus Fenix and Dominic Santiago as the Locust Horde erupts from below and humanity is thrown into a desperate fight for survival. xbox.com

Rather than reinventing Gears, developer The Coalition has doubled down on what the franchise does best: brutal gunfights, massive set pieces, memorable characters and the feeling that you're fighting a war humanity isn't prepared to win.

Based on the campaign, the result is one of the strongest returns to classic Gears we've seen in years.

Classic Gears Combat — Only Faster

The most noticeable change is movement.

Cover-based third-person shooting remains at the heart of E-Day, but Marcus is significantly more mobile. Sprinting, sliding, jumping and improved traversal allow you to reposition much more quickly than in the older games.

The new dynamic cover system also means you're no longer constantly moving between conveniently placed chest-high walls.

Characters can adapt to different surfaces and heights, allowing bombed-out streets, vehicles, debris and craters to become part of the battlefield.

The Coalition describes the system as maintaining Gears' iconic cover combat while introducing modernized movement and additional verticality. xbox.com

It's a significant change, but crucially:

E-Day still feels like Gears.

Weapons are loud and violent. Hit feedback feels excellent. Melee remains appropriately brutal, and returning weapons have received enough attention to feel modern without losing their identities.

New Weapons Make the Locust Even More Fun to Kill

E-Day isn't simply recycling the old arsenal.

The Gut Puncher grenade launcher, for example, lets you fire a grenade and control when it detonates. The heavier Ripper offers another option for sustained fire, while the Incinerator uses Imulsion against enemies.

Old favorites haven't been forgotten, either.

Weapons such as the Hammerburst return with improved sound, recoil and feedback, while the game's larger urban combat spaces occasionally encourage longer-range engagements instead of constantly funneling players into close-range Gnasher battles.

That variety becomes important over a campaign that can take approximately 13 hours, depending on exploration, difficulty and how aggressively you hunt for optional content. [English (auto-generated)] Gear…

Emergence Day Might Be the Game's Greatest Weapon

The setting is arguably E-Day's biggest strength.

Previous games showed humanity after it had already adapted to the Locust War. Here, we're witnessing the beginning.

Civilization is actively collapsing.

Civilians flee through city streets. Soldiers desperately attempt to establish defensive positions. Neighborhoods that initially resemble recognizable urban environments become increasingly devastated as the invasion spreads.

It gives the campaign a constant sense of escalation.

This isn't simply another battle in a decades-long war.

This is the day everything went to hell.

The game isn't entirely linear, either. Larger city sections allow players to explore, find collectibles and encounter optional objectives.

Some encounters resemble miniature Horde battles where Marcus and his squad join other soldiers attempting to survive waves of Locust.

Thankfully, E-Day doesn't turn Gears into another enormous open-world game.

The larger areas provide some freedom without abandoning the carefully designed combat encounters that made the series famous.

There is a downside: some of these areas can occasionally feel empty, and players looking for nonstop firefights may find portions of the exploration slower than they'd like.

Weapon Mods Give Exploration a Purpose

Exploring isn't just about collectibles.

Hidden cases contain modifications that improve weapons with changes to recoil, magazines, damage and other attributes. Some upgrades can even change weapon sights and noticeably alter how a gun performs.

Armor upgrades add another progression layer.

E-Day also introduces tactical abilities, including tools such as a drone scan for identifying enemies and an instant healing stim.

Fortunately, these don't turn Gears into an ability-driven hero shooter.

They're additional tools.

Your guns are still the star of the show.

Marcus and Dom Are Finally Back Together

For longtime Gears fans, this is arguably the real reason to play E-Day.

Marcus and Dom are together again.

Because the game takes place well before the original trilogy, we're seeing versions of these characters who haven't yet endured everything that eventually shapes them.

They're younger and less battle-worn, but they still feel like Marcus and Dom.

The supporting cast receives plenty of attention as well—occasionally too much. There are moments where the story moves Marcus and Dom into the background while other characters take center stage.

The performances remain strong, but after waiting this long to see the pair together again, it's understandable to want as much Marcus-and-Dom screen time as possible.

When the campaign focuses on their relationship, however, E-Day delivers some of its strongest moments.

E-Day Looks Incredible

This may also be one of the best-looking games in the series.

E-Day is rebuilt on Unreal Engine 5, with The Coalition targeting modern visuals alongside 4K resolution and up to 60 FPS across campaign and multiplayer. xbox.com

But raw graphical horsepower isn't what makes the game stand out.

It's the art direction.

The enormous gothic architecture and strange scale associated with classic Gears remain intact, but they're mixed with recognizable urban environments—stores, streets, traffic lights and ordinary pieces of civilization.

Then you watch them get destroyed.

Seeing the city deteriorate throughout Emergence Day visually reinforces the idea that humanity is losing control.

Throw in huge set pieces, boss battles and horror-inspired encounters and E-Day frequently captures the spectacle that helped define the original trilogy.

Where E-Day Falls Short

It isn't perfect.

Friendly AI can occasionally become frustrating. Getting downed only to watch an AI-controlled squadmate take too long to revive you can turn an otherwise great firefight into an unnecessary checkpoint reload.

Pacing also isn't flawless.

Some of the open-city sections drag slightly, while certain story sequences leave you standing around waiting for conversations—or doors—to finish before you can continue.

And considering how heavily E-Day has leaned into the horror and brutality of Emergence Day, we would've liked to see the campaign push those horror elements even further.

They're noticeable.

They just aren't always as terrifying as they could have been.

None of these problems are severe enough to significantly damage the overall experience.