Gears Of War: E-Day Campaign REVIEW

To quote Anthony Carmine “Something’s wrong with this thing!”

And in Gears Of War’s case, the thing that’s wrong is open zones. They were lame in Gears 5 and they’re not great in E-Day but despite this, E-Day strongly takes its place amongst the best entries in the Gears franchise. So let’s break it down, or as Marcus Fenix would say “Let’s Do This.”

Gears E-Day, if you didn’t know, is a prequel to Gears of War (2006) and in it we follow familiar faces through the turmoil of one of Sera’s most tragic events, Emergence Day. E-day was always shrouded in a tint of mystery within Gears lore, because the original game glosses right past it and joins Marcus 14 years post emergence. So that leaves a lot of space for potential storytelling within these years and, initially, I assumed E-Day would be starting from scratch but then jumping forward and filling in the gaps within this time frame. I was wrong. E-Day is what it says on the tin and the whole game takes place within the first 72 hours of emergence.

This is one of the game's biggest strengths, but also leads to one of its biggest weaknesses. More on that later.

So how is the story and does it do these beloved characters justice? My answer to that is a big fat yes! I have been playing Gears since 2006 and yes, whilst I love the multiplayer aspect, I have fond memories of playing the campaign with my dad in split screen as a kid and then moving on and growing up as this story progressed, so I feel a deep rooted connection to not only this franchise but to these characters as well. The love and passion that I have for Gears absolutely feels replicated by the devs in this game. It brings me great pleasure to say that The Coalition just get it. They nail every aspect of what makes Gears of War feel like Gears of War, and that is the biggest compliment I could give them.

The best way to describe the story of E-Day is it’s essentially a journey of discovery that takes the player through an escalating version of greatest hits moments that are connected by brotherhood and loss. But these moments don’t feel cheap or cheesy in the sense that it’s the meme of Leo pointing at the TV, each moment feels earned and the deeper respect that the devs have shown to the lore amplifies both the incredible set piece moments and also the quiet desperation that’s present on E-Day.

So kicking things off we join Marcus and Dom at a military event as they celebrate the victory over the UIR whilst remembering the fallen. One of those fallen heroes is Dom’s brother, Carlos, who Marcus fought alongside in the Pendulum Wars. If you’ve read the novel Aspho Fields by Karen Travis then you’ll know all about Marcus and Carlos’ relationship. They were brothers but tragically Carlos lost his life and in this game we constantly feel the weight of losing a brother, both by blood and by experience, that Marcus is still experiencing. This is also where I’d highly recommend checking out Aspho Fields as it amplifies the E-Day experience heavily because of how much the events from that novel have a looming presence over this story.

The set up is this: whilst Marcus and Dom are celebrating Carlos with a beer, tremors begin to erupt all around the city of Kalona. Of course we know that this is the Locust horde bursting up onto the surface. But in the context of the story the Locust don’t yet exist to these characters, so we get to see the initial panic and chaos of the literal first moments of Emergence Day.

There’s something haunting about seeing normal civilians being brutalised by these monsters, because we’re so used to big hulking gears tearing through hordes like it’s nothing. But here in E-Day, for the first time we get to see how normal civilians deal with these attacks. As expected it doesn’t go well for the humans and this is where the horror aspects creep into E-Day. I loved that about this game, there are certain moments that evoke that terror and it creeps along the edge of the horror genre in a way that we haven’t seen since 2006 with the original Gears of War.

We move from set piece to set piece slowly being introduced to different locust classes and eventually the four main characters gear up and are deployed into the city of Kalona as ‘Bravo Squad’ with specific orders to complete along the way. So after they’re deployed, the city opens up and as the player, you’re free to explore large areas of the city that hold a whole host of secrets and side objectives. This is where my issues with the game mainly lie. I personally think once you’re let loose into these areas it slows down the pacing which is overall a detriment to the game.

There’s two main issues that I had with these sections. Number one: Traversal isn’t fun enough to justify a play space of this scale, I often found myself just aimlessly running around and getting slightly bored because there weren't really any fun ways to travel. Number two: The side missions are all variations of the same thing, you’ll go talk to a civilian or lone gear, then you’ll help them fend off waves of Locust and then boom you get your reward and are back down to street level aimlessly wandering around looking for the next one. It’s not that the gameplay is bad here, it’s just that the lack of variety really hurts what could have been an interesting way to add new mechanics or gameplay options.

The game is really at its peak when it’s moving at a controlled pace and I found the latter half of the campaign to be much stronger than the first half. There’s a moment where you’re thrust into a situation and then from that point onwards, it’s just one moment of greatness after another until you hit the credits.

Another gripe that I have with this game is the amount of times it re-uses areas. While it is cool to retrace your steps as you progress further into the game and can see how the locations have changed due to the destruction, E-Day leans on this heavily and it makes the city feel small. There’s a certain bridge in this game that you revisit multiple times and whilst it does play a part in the story, it kinda feels cheap. This may be an issue that’s emblematic of specifically setting the story in one contained location, but by the end it is very noticeable how many times they re-tread locations.

There are some large omissions from E-Day which was upsetting but I’m sure TC had their reasons. One notable thing is that if you played the Beta, you’ve probably seen all of the enemy types aside from a couple of main story bosses. There is that fine line between story and gameplay and it would seem like TC very much tried to stick to canon which is both a good and bad thing. Enemy variety is a slight issue especially after playing Gears 5 post updates which had a huge selection of enemy types within the multiple factions present. Would it really be so bad to just have one little Berserker in there? I guess so.

Moving on to gameplay with E-Day, there’s been a huge shakeup in terms of what these characters are capable of now. When you first load in you’ll notice that there’s heaviness to your character, your movements have weight to them and it’s unlike any previous Gears games. When you’re playing as Marcus and you slam into cover you really feel the impact and the presence of mass here. But I have to emphasise that it doesn’t feel clunky, it just feels heavy.

Then on the opposite side of the spectrum there’s now a dedicated jump button which adds a layer of verticality to gameplay. I’m indifferent on this mechanic as a gameplay feature, but visually, it looks kinda dumb and doesn’t really make a lot of sense considering how much the cog armour probably weighs! You can also slide and crawl under tight spaces which is fun. Finally on the movement, gone are the days of roadie running, that is replaced by a regular upright sprint, which I personally don’t like. Part of this is because when you go back to some early interviews with the original Epic Games developers, they talk about how important it was to include such a heavy emphasis on the fact that these characters are really focused on keeping their heads down in a gunfight. So the upright sprint is altering the original vision of the movement. Overall though E-Day plays super tightly, weapons are crunchy and whether you’re curb stomping a grub or hitting an active reload, it all feels as satisfying as ever.

On the topic of weapons, another interesting addition to E-Day is the way your arsenal now works. Early in the game you get access to supply crates which allow you to now customise your weapons with attachments. To unlock these attachments you have to either find hard cases scattered around the city or complete side objectives. Some of these attachments are certainly better than others and some are just there for the cool factor (I’m looking at you Gnasher with a bayonet) but it gives the game a slight RPG element which is quite cool. One of my personal favourite weapons to use was the Ripper - which quite literally lives up to its name. This thing shreds Locust and it almost a must have when playing on the Insane difficulty.

Finally I want to talk about the characters of E-Day. Because after all, the heart and soul of Gears of War lands on the shoulders of its characters. Of course we have Marcus and Dom at the core of the experience, and E-Day is very much Dom’s story as well as it is Marcus’ which surprised me. It was a welcome addition to have both characters play an equally large part. It does make sense after all because when you look at the main splash art for the game, both characters take centre stage. Dom’s arc is tragic as you’d expect, obviously his main objective is trying to reconnect with his wife and children and E-Day carries on the tradition of Dom experiencing unimaginable pain in the face of loss. As for Marcus, E-Day does a wonderful job at humanising him. He’s not the same jaded reluctant hero we meet in later Gears, he’s a little greener, but he’s still just as badass.

The other two members of Bravo Squad, Mags and Lucas are okay additions. I found Lucas’s dialogue to be cringe at times and at certain points it had me wishing he would just keep his mouth shut as it can ruin the tone in certain moments. E-Day does try to give these characters sympathetic backstories in order to make them more likeable but it feels forced. By the end I did come around on these two new characters but they don’t hold a candle to the other characters in Gears Of War’s Delta squad.

On the Locust side we have newcomer Vraahk who is the commander of the Scorched Legion, a brutal new faction of the Locust horde. Vraahk is particularly vicious and he seems to have a problem with the upper hierarchy of human leadership. Being straight up, Vraahk doesn’t appear a lot, his presence is felt throughout the campaign but you can probably count his physical appearances on one hand so if you’re hoping for a complex and in depth look at the main villain of E-Day then you’re probably going to be disappointed.

Back to the cog as the story progresses we’re introduced to many new characters as well as some familiar faces. Mako and Manu are both incredible new additions and they provide some much needed levity to the situation. But the stand out new face to me, is a character called Zee, who I absolutely love. We also get a lot of easter eggs, cameos and surprise characters along the way so be sure to be on the lookout!

Sadly the only portion of the game I had access to was the campaign so I can’t really speak on the multiplayer aspects but as an avid PvP fan, I’m eager to try the multiplayer on October 1st when the early access period begins.

As a hardcore fan of the series I’m going to give the Gears of War E-Day campaign 4 Stars.

Overall this whole game just feels like a love letter to Gears of War. While it isn’t perfect, it really has brought the franchise back on track after the less than stellar previous mainline entry in Gears 5. I’m excited to see where TC go next in terms of their storytelling and I’d love to explore more of this time period between Gears E-Day and Gears 1.