Last week, Gears of War: E-Day launched into Premium Advanced Access, giving me the chance to get hands-on with the final builds of Versus and Horde Siege modes. Up until that point, my review access was strictly limited to E-Day's phenomenal campaign.

If you haven't already read my review, I said Gears of War: E-Day is a monumental triumph, one of the best-looking games I've ever seen on Xbox, and already my personal Game of the Year. It's that good.

I was confident in my rating, mostly because I'd played a lot of E-Day's multiplayer during the preview and beta weekends. I'd considered the gist of what Horde Siege and Versus was all about when scoring, but it's still worth discussing E-Day's multiplayer offering, and why I think it's already off to a great start.

Versus Makes Me Feel Like A Kid Again

Growing up on a rural island where there wasn't much else to do besides rush home from school and boot up the Xbox 360, games like Gears of War 2 became very ritualistic experiences. All teenage Craig ever wanted to do was hop into a party chat with several mates and take turns 1v1 sniper duelling each other on Canals. It made for some of the fondest memories of any game, ever.

It's hard to recapture that childlike wonder as a 34 year-old bald man with less than one or two pals who still play games. But by golly Gears of War: E-Day's Versus suite is doing all the same sorts of things to my brain chemistry as GoW2 did to me in 2008.

For starters, it probably would've been fine to just chuck Team Deathmatch, Execution, and King of the Hill modes into a playlist and let us old guard go ham. But The Coalition has introduced some really stellar games modes to Gears Versus.

Of the four modes available at launch, Conquest and Demolition are my particular favourites. Whilst it's nice to blast your foes to bits over and over again until one side runs out of spawns in Team Deathmatch, the added team-play and strategy in the previously mentioned modes is what makes Versus all sing.

Gears of War: E-Day is the consequence of a studio that irrefutably gets what makes these games so special

Conquest is an iteration of the classic King of the Hill formula, where teams fight to defend specific zones around the map. But what makes this refreshed mode such a blast is that the zones remain active until one team occupies it for long enough to claim it as a point and move on. The goal is to reach four points.

It's when I've been tied 3-3 and attempting to clutch the final zone while the opposing team is battering me with everything they've got that I'm thinking The Coalition has made a meaningful change to keep things fresh.

The same goes for Demolition, in which teams fight over a bomb, plant it at an enemy bombsite, and defend it until it explodes. The catch is that there's no respawning for the defending team until either the bomb detonates or it's defused.

I haven't seen anything like this in Gears before, and it genuinely works. Working together to strategically plant adds a welcome dynamic to the gnasherfest. First to three takes the cake, but sweeping the planting team, defusing the bomb in the final second, and then going on to win the round is the cherry on top.

I've had so many cool moments playing Versus over the weekend, from going on a 15-killstreak rampage and clutching the final zone in Conquest to surviving scraps I had no right walking out of and just generally having the best time.

Whilst I'd love to play alongside friends again, like the good old days in 2008, I think it's a testament to Versus that I'm having just as good a time by myself with randoms.

Converted To The House Of Horde

The defence-buildin' and wave-survivin' monster mode introduced way back in Gears 2 wasn't something I'd say I ever particularly enjoyed. It was cool, sure, but much more my brother's thing back in the day. I mostly stuck to Versus and never really felt that sense of FOMO from not playing it much.

But, since cracking on with around 10 hours of Horde Siege in addition to the 20-30 hours of Beta weekends, I can confidently say: I am converted. The Coalition's 12-player Horde Siege mode is absolutely top-drawer stuff.

Going into the final build, I had played an ungodly amount on the Golden Quarter, the first of three large, open-zoned maps (bigger than anything we'd seen in Gears before this), and I was slightly worried I'd feel a bit fatigued.

However, simply opting for a different class than before, this time taking on the role of Marksman, made all those worries simply vanish as the hours went by. The new mod system, enabling players to equip weapon-altering mods like scopes, barrels, and grips, really elevates the whole experience beyond wave defence.

The Coalition has absolutely cooked with its evolution of the staple co-op survival mode.

I've been dropping into Horde Siege with the Longshot as my primary weapon. It's already this high-powered sniper capable of popping heads like grapes. But mods allow you to add things like a perfect reload mod that explodes Locust, as well as having faster reload speeds, turning this gun into a satisfying loop full of customisation and experimentation.

Combine my funky new sniper with the Marksman's signature ability to scan and highlight nearby Locust, and you've got hours upon hours of duck-hunt-worthy head pops to enjoy.

I know there are people out there that want a standard wave-based Horde mode, like the classic ones they're used to. But I think introducing three squads of four, each with their own primary and secondary objectives to complete (some of which are the classic wave-defence objectives) adds a much needed lift to the game type.

I've talked at length about Horde Siege in my earlier preview, stating the mode is bigger, bolder, and bloody good fun, and that still remains the case. Not only do I now enjoy Horde Siege for probably the first time in the series' history, but I actively want to play it.

Time Is A Cost I'm Willing To Pay

Now, I want to touch briefly on the entire experience as a whole, as well as character customisation and the in-game store.

Overall, playing Gears of War: E-Day's Versus and Horde Siege modes during Advanced Access has been a relatively smooth experience. Servers have been super stable and reliable for the most part, although I did get dropped from an odd game here and there. Nothing major.

That said, something I'd like to see from The Coalition going forward is a matchmaking toggle that gives players the choice to prioritise shorter search times or lower-ping connectivity. There have been a few times when I've found myself plopped into a 130-ping server and wanted to leave immediately. It's not such an issue in Social Quickplay, but once Ranked playlists open up, I think that'll make or break a lot of players' competitive experiences.

Through its stunning locations, characters, and cinematics, E-Day is a visual powerhouse and one of the best-looking games I’ve ever seen on Xbox.

Gears: E-Day is doing some really cool things with its store too. I spoke with The Coalition's Noah Benesch about E-Day cosmetics at London FanFest last month, and he pointed out some really cool things they're doing behind the scenes.

If there's a skin in the store that I really want, all I need to do is play the game to unlock it. Just like the good old days. No bulls**t.

There are two currencies in E-Day: monetised Iron that costs real monies, and Coins that can be earned through performance and simply playing the game. It doesn't take an age to earn Coins either. I've played roughly 18 hours and I've already picked up several store items that cost around 12,000-18,000 Coins each.

But the cool part is that a weapon skin pack I snagged for 12,000 Coins was part of a premium bundle that cost 2,000 Iron to nab it outright alongside a Locust Skin, banner and other stuff. Now, because I already own a large portion of that bundle, the Iron price was reduced to reflect what I'd purchased with Coins.

So, when I said playing Gears of War: E-Day made me feel like a kid again, this had a large part in it. I don't need my wallet. I just need to spend time enjoying a game I already scored 10/10. Not a bad deal.

How have you been finding Gears of War: E-Day? Talk to us about it in the comments below.