Gears of War: E-Day was our favorite reveal of Xbox's 2024 Game Showcase
The emotional rebirth of Gears - all around me are familiar faces!
Y’all don’t understand how hype we got when the final trailer for Xbox’s Game Showcase was Gears of War: E-Day! It’s been so long since we had gotten another Gears of War game; I believe it has been since 2019 when Gears 5 was released, which is so long from this prequel announcement! I know it would be a while until we get to play E-Day because no release date was shown - not even a year like 2025, like how the other games during the showcase were showing - so we could expect that around early 2026.
Gears of War: E-Day is set 14 years before the first Gears of War game, released in 2006. It is set when the Locust emerges from below onto the world of Sera, causing a new battle that nobody has prepared for. I say this because there was the Pendulum Wars, a war between the COG army and UIR for the Imulsion resource, that just ended not too long ago before E-Day happened - six weeks to be exact, so they were low on resources, and survival was at an all-time high. Marcus and Dom are back, and we are so excited to play as them again and to do a co-op campaign with my brother. It is bittersweet, though, seeing them together again; if you played through the original Gears of War series from 1 through 3, you know what I mean.
They immediately hooked me again to Gears of War as they never fail with their trailers and commercials for Gears. The trailer kept that same dark tone you were to see in the first game trailer released for Gears of War 1. Not only that, but they also got a rendition of the Mad World song playing for this trailer. This time, Marcus, who we usually see as strong and ripping through Locust with the chainsaw, struggles to fight one Locust Drone. We must remember this is their first encounter with the Locust Horde, so they aren’t as experienced fighting them. It was great to see Dom still helping out Marcus and knowing they had each other’s backs since the start.
They will also introduce weapons like the Lancer with the Chainsaw attachment (Mark 2 Lancer) and more. Marcus used a Lancer with a bayonet attachment (Mark 1), which we first used as an additional weapon in Gears of War 3. We’ll see how it would work in the prequel and the guns and maps they’ll put in for multiplayer.
This game returns to its original name - Gears of War, rather than Gears. I am not sure why they removed the “of war” portion in the name for 5, but it feels like they are going in the right direction of bringing that feel back of the original. They are building this Gears of War from the ground up in Unreal Engine 5, which is already such a great game engine just from seeing how Hellblade 2 looked and played. The trailer was also created using the in-game engine with real-time models, lighting, textures, and more. This is not a CG-rendered trailer, so the graphics and effects we see are a first look at what the game will be like at release.
I also wonder how the story will go. Will Marcus and Dom meet Baird and Cole? Gears of War: Judgement was also a prequel, the origin story for Baird and Cole set a couple of months after E-Day had begun. I also want to see if they will go through the entire timeline of 14 years up to when Marcus is locked up at the beginning of Gears of War 1. There’s so much you can do!
The wait for the next Gears of War will be long, so I hope they will release an updated/remastered Gears of War Collection from 1 through 3/Judgement. Whatever they do from now, I will keep an eye out for. Gears of War: E-Day excited me for the revival of the Gears franchise, and it was such a surprise to have them go back to the beginning. This does not mean that The Coalition will abandon the story they created with Gears 4 and 5, as they will continue with Gears 6 - but they were so excited to go back to the original story that a prequel was something they just had to do. It was put at the end of the trailer that it will be for Xbox Series X|S, Game Pass, and Steam. Truthfully - I would have to get whatever physical/collectors edition they got - we own each Gears of War game physically, so we have to do the same with this one.
