Gears of War: E-Day changed how I use cover. I still duck behind a wall when the Locust start firing, but I don’t stay there as long. Sliding out from cover or climbing to higher ground changes how you approach a fight. Combat stays active, but Marcus still moves with the deliberate pace I expect from Gears.
Gears of War: E-Day is a prequel set 14 years before the original Gears of War. It brings Marcus Fenix and Dom Santiago back to the beginning of the Locust invasion. You’re in Kalona as Emergence Day begins and the Locust overrun the city. If you’ve been away from Gears, you don’t need to remember every recent storyline to understand what’s happening. If you’ve been with the series for years, seeing Marcus and Dom together again is only part of the appeal. The darker direction and more aggressive Locust brought back a side of Gears I’ve missed.
So how well do E-Day’s changes work across the full campaign? Let’s take a closer look.
Gears of War: E-Day details
Platform(s): XBOX Series X|S, PC
Reviewed on: XBOX Series X
Developer(s): The Coalition
Publisher(s): XBOX Game Studios
Genre: Third-person shooter
Modes: Single-player, two-player split-screen co-op, online co-op, Horde Siege, Versus
ESRB Rating: M (Mature 17+)
Marcus and Dom return before everything falls apart
E-Day starts before Kalona becomes a battlefield. The Pendulum Wars have ended, and Marcus and Dom are looking at what comes next. That calm doesn’t last. Once the Locust surface, the city changes quickly, and the squad is learning about the enemy at the same time you are.
E-Day doesn’t treat Emergence Day like a history lesson. You get enough context to understand why this attack changes everything, then the campaign lets the invasion unfold around Marcus and Dom. Streets that look normal early on are damaged later, and returning to those places makes the scale of the attack easier to understand.
Marcus and Dom are younger here, but their friendship is already established. They know how to talk to each other, argue, and work together without the campaign stopping to explain every part of their history. If you’re new to Gears, their relationship makes sense from what happens here. If you already know them, there’s something different about seeing them before the events of the original games.
I enjoyed seeing that version of both characters because the story isn’t just filling in blanks between older games. The prequel has its own conflict, and Marcus and Dom have to react to an enemy they don’t understand yet.
Mags Carter and Lucas Reyes join Marcus and Dom in Bravo Squad, and they keep the campaign from feeling like a two-character reunion. Mags brings more experience to the group. Conversations with both characters fill out Bravo Squad without taking attention away from Marcus and Dom.
The Locust are more intimidating early on because the squad has no idea what they’re capable of yet. New enemy types change what the group understands about the invasion, which makes those early encounters more unpredictable.
Combat opens up without abandoning cover
The biggest gameplay change isn’t that Gears suddenly became a much faster shooter. E-Day gets you out of the safest piece of cover more often. Enemies push toward you, jumping can get you above them, and staying behind the same wall too long can leave you surrounded.
I was still looking for cover first, but I was also thinking about where I could go next if the Locust started closing in. The game keeps the deliberate movement I associate with Gears, but you have more ways to reposition once a fight starts.
Jumping and sliding change how you fight
Jumping lets Marcus reach parts of an area that older Gears games kept off limits. That can open another way out when enemies close in or give you a better angle on a group below.
Sliding is useful for the same reason. You can break from cover, cross exposed space, and get behind something else before the Locust close the gap. The movement is faster, but leaving safety at the wrong time can still get you downed quickly.
Moving between cover spots now plays a larger role between bursts of gunfire. I thought more about where I wanted to fire from instead of simply finding the nearest safe wall.
The weapon selection supports that freedom. The Gnasher and Longshot return, and newer weapons such as the Breechshot change what I want to carry into the next encounter. I rarely felt locked into one approach during a fight.
Hard Cases connect exploration to combat
The larger sections of Kalona are more useful when exploration changes what you can do in combat. Hard Cases are hidden around the city and provide modifications for your gear. Supply Caches let you adjust weapons, armour, and tactical equipment as you find more options.
I was more interested in exploring away from the main objective because Hard Cases changed how my gear worked in later fights. That made searching these larger areas useful instead of turning every detour into another collectible hunt.
The wider areas aren’t as consistent as the main missions. Some secondary objectives repeat similar tasks, and there are stretches with too little happening between them. Tracking optional content can also be unclear.
I preferred the larger areas when they added more context to Kalona or led to something useful for combat. When they turned into back-and-forth travel, I was ready to get back to the main mission.
Kalona looks and sounds like a city under attack
Gears of War: E-Day looks excellent. Unreal Engine 5 brings a lot of detail to character faces, armour, debris, and the interiors you fight through. Marcus and Dom look younger, but both are immediately recognizable.
Lighting does a lot of the work in darker areas. Interiors and underground spaces can get very dim, yet enemies remain clear enough once a fight starts. The larger action sequences also give the city a sense of scale without taking over the smaller firefights that make up most of the campaign.
Between fights, facial animation gives the squad’s conversations more personality. Mags and Lucas are just as expressive as Marcus and Dom, especially during the close-up conversations between missions.
Weapon audio and Locust sounds add just as much. Gunfire has a heavy crack, and enemy calls can warn you about danger before you have every target in view. When several Locust are moving around at once, the sound mix makes it easier to tell where trouble is coming from.
The music stays lower when the squad is talking, then rises as fights get larger. It supports what’s happening without drowning out the weapons or dialogue.
I didn’t run into technical problems that got in the way of the campaign. Even when fights got busy or one of the larger action sequences started, nothing pulled my attention away from what I was doing.
Gears of War: E-Day reminded me why I like the Gears of War franchise
What I like most about Gears of War: E-Day is how quickly the new movement became part of the way I already play Gears. I’m still taking cover, watching for Locust pushes, and choosing when to move. Jumping and sliding simply give me more ways to handle those fights. That’s the kind of change I wanted from E-Day.
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Jumping and sliding add more ways to use cover. | Some secondary objectives repeat similar tasks. |
| Marcus and Dom are back in a darker Emergence Day campaign. | Tracking optional content can be unclear. |
| Excellent character detail, lighting, and weapon audio. | Some larger areas have too little happening between objectives. |
If you’re still playing Gears 5, E-Day is a different kind of campaign. It’s more directed, darker, and much more interested in Marcus, Dom, and Emergence Day. If the broader exploration in Gears 5 is the main reason you keep playing it, I wouldn’t buy E-Day expecting more of that.
If you skipped Gears of War 4, Gears 5, or both, this is an easy place to come back. You don’t need to catch up on every newer storyline because the campaign returns to the beginning of the Locust invasion. If this is your first Gears game, the story explains enough to understand Marcus, Dom, and what Emergence Day means without turning the opening hours into a history lesson.
The side content is where I had the most frustration. Some secondary objectives start to repeat, and I didn’t always know what I’d already finished. More than once, I found myself wanting to leave those detours behind and get back to the main campaign. That’s where I was having the most fun.
Overall assessment of Gears of War: E-Day
Gameplay: 4.5/5
Graphics: 4.5/5
Sound: 4.5/5
Lasting appeal/Replayability: 4/5
Overall rating: 4.5/5 (90%)
If you are looking for a Gears of War game with heavy cover combat, Marcus and Dom, and a darker look at the Locust invasion, Gears of War: E-Day gets those things right. Marcus and Dom got me interested, but the changes to combat are what I’ll remember most.
Ready to return to Emergence Day with Marcus and Dom? You can find Gears of War: E-Day for XBOX Series X at Best Buy Canada. If you already have the base game, the Gears of War: E-Day Premium Upgrade includes up to five days of early access, the Bravo Squad Signature Weapon Pack, five seasonal customization packs, and 1,000 Iron. The Gears of War: E-Day Limited Edition XBOX Wireless Controller is also available if you want a controller styled after the game.
