Gears of War E-Day campaign review: An absolute blast, even if it focuses on commotion over emotion

There are some series that thrive on innovation, and some that are at their best when they stick to what works. Gears of War very much sits in the latter camp.

Xbox’s action series has never really dipped to the point where it’s ever had a truly bad game, but on the rare occasions where players have pointed out things they weren’t so sure about, it’s been when the game strayed away from the tried-and-tested formula.

One of the most notable examples of this is Gears 5’s open-world sections, where players drive through large expanses in the Skiff, a sort of wind-powered sled. While some liked the change of pace, others found these open areas lacking in content, and felt they distracted too much from the more linear combat Gears is usually known for.

With Gears of War: E-Day, developer The Coalition is mostly trying to bring things back to basics. While it does still try to tinker with the formula to some extent – there are still open-world sections, but they’re not as extreme, which I’ll get to – the majority of the game sticks to the classic Gears action fans of the series expect.

As the name suggests, E-Day is a prequel which takes place 14 years before the events of the first game. It shows what happened during Emergence Day – when the Locust Horde first attacked from under the ground – and how the recently demobilised Marcus and Dom, home after the end of the Pendulum Wars, cope with the new threat.

On paper, there’s more to it than that. As has already been revealed in previous Gears games, Dom’s brother (and Marcus’s best friend) Carlos died right as the Pendulum Wars ended, and because this is a recent event in this game – rather than something that happened a decade and a half ago – Dom and Marcus are still coming to terms with their loss.

Xbox previously hinted that the game would show Marcus and Dom being emotionally distant from each other due to Carlos’s death, and that the Emergence would force them to reluctantly team up again.

In my brief hands-on with the game last month I wrote: “As much as Gears of War: E-Day is going to be about the arrival of the Locust, it’s also going to be about how these two emotionally distant soldiers, joined by grief for the same person but also kept apart by it, will eventually form the bond we see in later games.”

In practice, that doesn’t really come to fruition much. The relationship with Marcus and Dom really doesn’t get explored much throughout the majority of the game, and there’s only really one scene in the final act – and it’s not about Carlos – which really delivers a solid payoff.

In fact, most of the character development is instead focused on the two new characters in the four-person Bravo Team you control throughout the game. Joining Marcus and Dom – purely because they were nearby when the Locust first attacks – are rookie COG cadet Lucas Reyes and 15-year COG veteran Mags Carter, who was dishonorably discharged but finds herself reluctantly picking up a gun again to do her duty when the attack comes.

It’s Lucas and Mags who have the more interesting backstories, both of which actually lead to some of the locations you visit in the game. Marcus and Dom instead spend most of the game putting off sharing their feelings, which is understandable from a character development point of view but a tad underwhelming from the view of a long-time fan who wants to see them interacting with each other more.

Indeed, the plot is generally the weakest part of E-Day, which is particularly disappointing given it’s literally named after a key plot point. A lot of the first half is basically “what are these things”, and the rest is rammed with clichés and action movie tropes – I shook my head when one NPC actually said, “tell my family I love them”.

“A lot of the first half is basically ‘what are these things’, and the rest is rammed with clichés and action movie tropes – I shook my head when one NPC actually said ‘tell my family I love them’.”

Of course, action movie tropes do make sense when what you have here is basically a 10-15 hour action movie anyway. As with the other Gears games, this is a mix of Rambo, Starship Troopers and Predator, with the attention focused squarely on emptying endless rounds of bullets into big ugly monster faces the vast majority of the time.

In that respect, E-Day is a success. The classic cover shooter gameplay of past Gears games returns here, but adds new tweaks to give the player more flexibility. Now you can jump whenever you like, meaning you can climb up surfaces (adding more verticality to some gunfights) or leap across gaps.

You can also now slide across the floor while running, and lie down to take cover behind lower shelter. Obviously, there are numerous action games (especially FPS titles) that have been doing this for years, so it’s not as if E-Day is breaking new ground in the grand scheme of things by adding these features, but it does have a brilliant impact on how the combat feels – moving around from position to position during gunfights feels a lot more dynamic and less like trying to move a truck around.

Gunplay is also still deeply satisfying, which is a good job because it’s what you do 90% of the time. Using your Prototype Lancer to take out the legs of a charging Locust grunt is a treat, and using your Longshot to pop enemy heads from across the length of the battlefield is still as gratifying late in Act 5 as it was early in Act 1.

There’s a decent variety of enemy types too, from returning baddies to newcomers like the Bilefrog (which can be killed quickly by tossing a frag grenade into its mouth) or the massive Flayer, who uses his Gorehook grapple weapon to pierce your skin from a distance. The optimal way to kill each one is varied enough that when you find yourself in a big stand-off with a bunch of different enemies, it becomes a brilliantly gory ballet of machine guns, exploding heads, chainsaws, and grenades.

As brilliant as the combat is, there’s no escaping that it leads to a bit of a one-trick pony situation. Dispatching enemies may remain satisfying right up until the final kill that rolls the credits, but it would be a lie to say it didn’t feel repetitive during some stretches of the game. There are moments where it does feel like you’re just running from one open area full of things to hide behind, to the next one, to the next.

“Using your Longshot to pop enemy heads from across the length of the battlefield is still as gratifying late in Act 5 as it was early in Act 1.”

It also certainly doesn’t help that one location, a large bridge section, is visited on three separate occasions throughout the game, and each time the story involves getting to the control room and either raising or lowering it. By the time you find yourself doing it for the third time, the ‘fool me once’ rule comes into effect, and you start wondering if the game is just recycling the same location and set-piece to extend the length of the campaign.

To help lessen the feeling of simply running from point to point, some of the chapters in Gears of War: E-Day are presented in a semi-open world style instead, allowing you to explore part of the city and bring up a map to look for points of interest.

While these stages still have a marker showing you where to go to continue the mission, numerous side quests are also dotted around the map. Admittedly, these usually simply involve defending a civilian from a horde of enemies, but it does add a bit of variety to proceedings.

Also scattered around each chapter – both the open-world and more linear varieties – are collectibles that add more to the game’s lore, and hard cases which contain upgrades for your armor or weapons. The latter actively encourages exploration, but some will argue that the game’s perhaps a tad too eager to point you in their direction.

Any time you walk near a lore collectible, you’ll hear a chime, and it’ll appear on the map (if that chapter has one). Any time you walk near a hard case, however, a written prompt appears on the screen to tell you that one is nearby, and if you then hold LB you’ll see its silhouette showing you exactly where it is (even if it’s behind a wall).

A step too far? For some it will be. For someone like me who’s spent more than two decades scrutinizing every square inch of scenery in games to find arbitrary items for the sake of achievements or trophies, however, I’ll absolutely take it.

“To help lessen the feeling of simply running from point to point, some of the chapters in Gears of War: E-Day are presented in a semi-open world style instead”

Special mention must also go to how stunning the game’s art direction is. Back in the day, the original Gears of War was one of the games blamed for the ‘every modern game is grey’ argument often raised during the Xbox 360 and PS3 era, and yes, the nature of much of the game being set in a destroyed city means there’s still plenty of desaturated rubble to fight your way through.

On occasion, however, you’ll travel to other areas, and it’s here where The Coalition goes to town with its use of the full palette. There’s an underground section bathed in gorgeously ominous red light, a night-time forest section bathed in blue moonlight, and a hilltop trek to a radio station surrounded by lush greenery. It obviously looks great on a PC with all the settings on max, but run it on Xbox Series X, and it’s certainly no slouch either.

In all, Gears of War: E-Day delivers a campaign that delivers what fans expect in terms of pure gameplay – the action is constant, the gunplay is deeply satisfying, and in terms of visual spectacle it regularly shoots off the charts. As an interactive action movie, it effortlessly nails the remit.

It’s this focus on action which leads to the game’s downsides too, however. The plot often takes a back seat, especially when it comes to the relationship between Marcus and Dom, who spend most of the game sharing knowing looks and don’t actually have the heart-to-heart fans have been waiting for until right near the end. The pay-off scene is one of the most emotional in the entire series, but it’s still just 45 seconds of Marcus and Dom showing their hearts, after 10 hours of them showing their balls (not like that).

Too much of a good thing is possible, and as the game starts delivering gunfight after mindless gunfight in a city which has a conveniently large number of open areas full of cover, no amount of exciting combat can stop things from feeling a little repetitive over time, especially when previously visited locations are recycled later on.

Make no mistake, though: this is still a game worth playing. Gears of War has been a deeply important series for Xbox for more than two decades, and as the first entirely new entry in seven years it’s clearly a crucial new marquee release for the company at this tumultuous time. It’s a good job, then, that what E-Day lacks in emotion it more than makes up for in commotion.