Gears of War: E-Day is a great game launching at a terrible time

There are few blockbuster games that are as confident as Gears of War: E-Day. A prequel to one of Xbox’s most transformative titles, E-Day knows exactly what it wants to be: a brutal, tense, and self-aware action game, one that is stronger because it doesn’t deviate from that premise. Twenty years since the original Gears of War, there’s still nothing like its particular brand of up-close cover shooter gameplay, and E-Day shows that it still hits hard two decades later. As Xbox moves into a messy new era focused on its biggest franchises, E-Day could be an early glimpse at the future of the platform. But it’s also launching during one of the most tumultuous periods in Xbox history.

Set 14 years before the original Gears, E-Day tells the story of a pivotal point in the franchise’s sci-fi lore: “emergence day,” the moment when an alien collective known as the Locust Horde revealed itself with a surprise attack designed to wipe out the entire human race. You play as a slightly younger, but still gruff and experienced, soldier named Marcus Fenix as he and his squad attempt to fight back against the subterranean extraterrestrials. Marcus is part of an elite group known as “gears,” which are basically really buff guys and gals that wear massive armor and are thrown into action when things get really bad.

Things don’t get much worse than the events of E-Day. The human planet Sera is absolutely annihilated by the horde, which launches attacks from holes in the ground and has carved out a labyrinth of underground tunnels that allow them to strike anywhere. Marcus and his squad are thrown into the fray, tasked with doing everything they can to fight back and help where they’re able. Missions have you attacking enemy strongholds, escorting important supply caravans, and searching for survivors amid the rubble. Over the course of the game you see the planet turn from a retrofuturistic paradise to the ruins of a lost civilization.

E-Day is reminiscent of a James Cameron film: Absolutely every element is in service to creating a thrilling sci-fi spectacle. It’s as close to a playable Aliens as you’re bound to find. The cover shooter action remains visceral; everything has a weight to it, from Marcus’ slow movements to the chunky feel of reloading a shotgun. E-Day nails the sense of being pinned down in the middle of a war, surrounded on all sides, being terrified you’ll run out of bullets before the enemy does. There’s an unparalleled sense of tension.

E-Day does an excellent job of mixing things up so that you aren’t spending the whole game hiding behind chunks of concrete or burned-out husks of cars. There are huge set-pieces where the world crumbles around you as gigantic aliens lay waste to the city, and eerily quiet moments where you wander through a dark tunnel or foggy cemetery, unsure of what terrors await. E-Day has some side missions, but its world is largely linear, pushing you through one sequence after another with pacing that never really lets up. It’s all rendered with a lavish attention to detail on everything from the way blood splatters on the camera after a particularly gruesome kill to the outline of a leather wallet in the back pocket of Marcus’ jeans as he’s forced into combat in civilian clothes.

This conceit also means that, much like Avatar and its sequels, E-Day’s story is to the point and straightforward. Cutscenes give you just enough detail to care about the characters when dramatic things happen, but don’t get in the way of the action. No, the series hasn’t reached the emotion promised by the memorable “Mad World” commercial, but it doesn’t need to. In fact, much of the writing feels intentionally stupid, driving home that this is, at its very core, a dumb action game. The amount of ridiculous one-liners in the game approaches an art form, with pivotal moments punctuated by lines like “A giant floating ballsack with glowing eyes is trying to kill us!” or “Hold on to your dicks!” The true spiritual energy of E-Day can be found in its barks, those lines tossed out by Marcus and his comrades as they mow down alien bad guys. Here are a few examples:

• “Too ugly to live.”
• “Where are you going? I thought you wanted some of this.”
• “Rest in pieces.”
• “It ain’t your day, asshole.”
• “Looks dead to me.”
• “Lights out, fuckface.”
• “How do you like that, you stupid-ass spider bitch?”

Image: Xbox Game Studios

That’s just a sampling. There’s a strangely joyous nature to the dialogue. The game is violent, the story is dire, but you’re still meant to enjoy the action of firing big guns and using a chainsaw to cut aliens in half. It feels good to play, and the campaign puts you through a range of emotions — at points it even approaches horror, with pitch-black tunnels teeming with bloodthirsty creatures — while never letting go of its action core. E-Day is a 2006 version of Gears rendered with the technology of 2026, which I mean as a total compliment: It’s a pure action game that isn’t saddled by modern trends.

It is also launching at an especially challenging time. Xbox is in the midst of “reset,” in which new CEO Asha Sharma is gutting the division, slashing around 3,200 jobs, and dramatically shaping how its current studios operate, with the ultimate — and perhaps unattainable — goal of focusing entirely on Xbox’s biggest franchises to reach a billion players. In a certain light, E-Day is indicative of this new approach, even if it predates Sharma’s time in charge. After launching tentpole franchises like Forza and Halo on the PlayStation 5, E-Day appears to represent a shift back to Xbox console exclusives. In essence, it’s a big, boisterous return for an iconic series, one that you can only play on Microsoft platforms. If you wanted an idea of what the future of Xbox could look like, E-Day offers an enticing vision.

I’m not entirely confident that the future will play out like that. Xbox’s strategic plans shift constantly, and E-Day developer The Coalition was hit with at least one layoff before launch, and staff fear more are coming. Xbox’s new leadership says that it wants to “focus on higher priority projects,” which on the surface sounds a lot like a bold, confident return for Gears of War. That’s exactly what you get with E-Day, but it might not be enough for whatever comes next for Xbox.

_{Gears of War: E-Day launches on October 6th on the PC and Xbox.}

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