After 2 Hours, Gears of War: E-Day's Campaign Goes BRRRR In All the Right Ways | Preview

Published Aug 25, 2026, 4:00 PM EDT The boys are back in town Image: The Coalition/Xbox Game Studios Every character I’ve been introduced to in Gears of War: E-Day so far is kind of a dick. The muscle-bound army colonel who puts the city under martial law? Total dick. The squad captain who treats her crew like a gaggle of disposable tools? You bet. Marcus Fenix? I mean, look, if you have to ask… This is not meant as an admonishment. If anything, it’s praise: Gears of War: E-Day, at least based on a two-hour Xbox Series X build of its campaign I recently played, seems to have fully understood the Gears of War assignment. After all, this series — myopically, where each game is about a group of soldiers engaged in a testosterone contest to see whose mountainous biceps can save humanity the most — is heralded as the progenitor meathead shooter of the 2000s. Why is everyone such a dick all the time? Doesn’t matter! Never has! Go point. Go shoot. Hoo-rah. Out Oct. 6 for Windows PC and Xbox Series X, Gears of War: E-Day is the first Gears of War game in seven years. It’s a prequel, detailing the events of “Emergence Day,” or “E-Day” — the titular event where a horde of locust-like creatures, called the Locust Horde, emerge from the core of the planet and start wreaking bloody, brutal havoc, killing 25% of the human population overnight. You play as Marcus Fenix, the protagonist of the original trilogy, and are joined by Dominic Santiago, also a key character from the original trilogy. Image: The Coalition/Xbox Game Studios At face value, Gears of War: E-Day is Gears of War. As I detailed in a July preview of its Horde mode (where you fight against waves of increasingly challenging enemies), the core mechanics here are quintessential Gears of War. The lumbering gravity. The conveniently waist-height architecture seemingly designed for ducking behind. The satisfying brrrr of landing a chainsaw melee attack. That reloading minigame! It’s all here. Building on its excellent work with Gears of War 4 and Gears 5, developer The Coalition has once again captured the classic Gears essence in a bottle. My preview covered the first two missions in E-Day’s second act. An introductory cutscene showed Marcus in the tanned suede jacket he wore during gameplay footage aired during the 2026 Xbox Games Showcase, suggesting the game’s entire first act will feature Marcus and Dom in civilian mode. The mayor of Kalona, the city where E-Day is set, enters what appears to be a military command center with Marcus, Dom, and squad in tow. A military commander tells her, in no uncertain terms, to get the hell out of his way, then barks at Marcus’ squad to “report for duty and get some goddamn armor on.” It is unclear why the general is picking a fight with people who are both working toward the same goal (saving civilians) but hey, doesn’t matter! Armor on. Go point. Go shoot. The first mission, “Bravo Squad,” was fairly straightforward. (A collectibles menu showed five items could be discovered, implying not much room to go off the beaten path.) Marcus and company move their way down a highway and cross a bridge to reach the army’s forward operating base in the fight against the emerging Locust threat. Throughout the mission, I ducked behind cars and barricades, fired off shotguns and assault rifles, and stomped on lots of grubs (those are the little Locust). It culminated in a shootout against several larger Locust variations wielding rocket launchers that could take me out in one shot. Despite playing solo, I was struck by how involved my NPC teammates seemed to be. Whenever I was brought down, they’d revive me. They seemed to legitimately kill enemy NPCs too, proving their worth beyond mere set dressing. Partway through the mission, my squad encountered another squad that was pinned down on a bridge. We shot enemies from above to clear their path. Later, as we proceeded down the bridge and found ourselves pinned, our comrades returned the favor. Moving through “Bravo Squad” felt reminiscent of those E3 previews of yore, where developers would script intentional sequences (and dialogue) to give the impression that NPCs were actual real people — only this legitimately felt like I was playing alongside actual real people. With apologies to my IRL friends, the E-Day NPCs have way better aim. They also care more about reviving more. Image: The Coalition/Xbox Game Studios The second mission, “Hold the Line,” structurally opened things up a bit. (Total collectibles, according to the menu: 27.) After liaising at the forward operating base, Marcus and his squad are sent forth into Kalona, to accomplish various strategy objectives meant to push back the Locust invasion. Kalona is a miniature open- world unto itself. You get a map. You can customize your weapons. You can explore alleyways and abandoned buildings, finding more upgrades for said weapons. Side objectives abound in Kalona. One had me defend a car dealership from waves of Locust foot soldiers. Another had me rescue a family trapped in a collapsing midrise. Completing these side quests led to rewards, like weapon mods, which I could use to upgrade weapons at various drop points located throughout Kalona. While the preview did not cover the entirety of “Hold the Line,” what I played was similar to the open sandbox stages of Gears 5, albeit way larger, and way more dense with things to do. These side objectives offer a look at the world you’re defending from the Locust horde, suggesting that all the war you enact throughout the Gears of War games really is in service of creating a better life for people. “Hold the Line” also revealed the origin of the infamous chainsaw lancer assault rifle, which is a bit of lore I’m not sure needed any explanation beyond “it’s cool as hell.” I’ll be honest: When I learned the new Gears of War game was going to be a prequel — and about a canonical event that’s pretty well-documented in the existing fiction — I was skeptical. But Gears of War: E-Day has improbably become one of my more-anticipated games of the fall. In its first preview of the game, Coalition proved it nailed the gameplay. In this second one, it showed mastery of tone. Now the studio just needs to stick the landing on a worthwhile narrative, one that’s worthy of bringing back beloved characters. If The Coalition can pull off the hat trick, we might be looking at one of the best Gears of War games yet.