Gears of War: E-Day hits early access ahead of 6 October launch

You play young Marcus Fenix and Dominic Santiago, the two soldiers the series has followed from the very start. They're in Bravo Squad with two newer faces, Mags Carter and cadet Lucas Reyes, and the campaign plays out in the city of Kalona as it falls. Polygon's reviewer, Ford James, says the story stretches across three in-game days and more than 20 hours, and you can play as any of the four.

According to the game's Wikipedia entry, The Coalition made it in Unreal Engine 5, with People Can Fly as co-developer. Microsoft's store page promises 4K resolution and up to 60 frames per second across the campaign and multiplayer, if your display can handle it. The game was first shown at the Xbox Games Showcase on 9 June 2024, as Xbox Wire reported at the time.

At heart, it's a co-op game too. You can play the campaign on your own, in two-player split-screen on a console, or online with up to four players. That couch option still means a lot to plenty of people, and we've made the case for it before.

The launch, and the trailer

Mike Crump, who heads The Coalition, announced early access in a post on Xbox Wire. "Today is a moment we've been looking forward to for a long time," he wrote. "On behalf of everyone at The Coalition, thank you to the fans who have followed us on this journey."

To mark the day, the studio put out a launch gameplay trailer set to Metallica's "For Whom the Bell Tolls". Xbox posted it on its official YouTube channel that same morning.

Multiplayer comes in two halves. Horde Siege is the new version of the series' wave-survival mode. Wikipedia calls it a 12-player co-op mode. Microsoft says it's built from squads of four, and each player picks a class, either Assault, Marksman, Medic or Breacher, before squads team up against world bosses. Versus is the 4v4 side, where players fight each other, with new maps plus ranked and social playlists. Microsoft's terms say online campaign co-op, Horde Siege and Versus all need a Game Pass plan that includes online multiplayer.

There's plenty of extra stuff around the game as well. Crump's post lists a soundtrack by Adam Lastiwka out on 6 October, an art book from Insight Editions, limited-edition Xbox controllers and a controller dock due on 9 October. The game's also part of Microsoft's Disc to Digital program from early access.

What the critics said

Reviews landed with early access, and they're strong. Windows Central's roundup on 2 October had the game at 88 on Metacritic and 87 on OpenCritic. All of those reviews covered the campaign only, because multiplayer wasn't switched on while critics were playing.

IGN gave it 9 out of 10. "E-Day pulls off the tightrope act of giving us a heartfelt prequel with strong characters even when we know how it ends," its review said, as quoted by Windows Central. GamingBolt gave it 9 as well, praising "some of the tightest combat and one of the series' most excellently paced campaigns in a long, long time".

Not everyone was quite so keen. GameSpot gave it 7 out of 10 and called it "a good game, propped up by combat that hasn't changed all that much over the past 20 years". VGC gave it 4 out of 5. It said that "in terms of pure gunplay, however, very little beats it this year", but wished the campaign spent more time on Marcus and Dom.

The complaint that keeps coming up is the structure. Polygon's review says the semi-open sections, which spread side objectives and collectibles across city districts, wreck the pace. "It's a slog, and there are three more of these open-world interludes still to come," James wrote. He also listed bugs on PC, like enemies running into walls and shots that didn't register. And he said getting a good mix of frame rate and picture quality on his machine was "a constant battle".

Still, he came down firmly in its favour. "Performance issues aside, Gears of War: E-Day's story and combat are both arguably the best the series has ever been, despite the pacing and structural drawbacks," he wrote.

Why this one matters for Xbox

The last mainline game, Gears 5, came out in 2019, so it's been seven years. E-Day is the sixth main entry and the first built on Unreal Engine 5. Wikipedia's entry says it's the highest-rated Gears game on Metacritic since Gears of War 3 in 2011.

The series reaches a long way across the industry, too. Bit Reactor, whose Star Wars Zero Company we reviewed, lists Gears of War among its staff's credits.

It's a busy stretch. E-Day lands six weeks before Grand Theft Auto VI on 19 November, which is console-only at launch. E-Day flips that in one way. It's on PC and Steam from day one, but it's not on PlayStation or Switch 2, and Microsoft hasn't announced plans for either.

If you're playing this weekend

If you're on Game Pass without the Premium Upgrade, you start on 6 October with everyone else. Crump's post points players to the full achievement list on Xbox Wire if they want to plan a run. If something breaks, it sends them to status.gearsofwar.com and GearsofWar.com/support.

Pre-order bonuses, an Xbox gift card plus the Exfil Dom character and weapon skins, run until 7:59am Pacific on 6 October, according to Microsoft's terms. That's 1:29am Wednesday, 7 October, in Adelaide.

Horde Siege and Versus are the big unknowns, because no critic has played them with real launch crowds yet. We'll find out how they hold up once the servers fill next week.