If The Coalition’s recent Multiplayer Beta for Gears of War: E-Day told us anything, it’s that the new movement system is going to take some getting used to. Gears 5 remains one of Xbox’s most acclaimed shooters, packed with phenomenal action sequences, tight gameplay, and gorgeous visuals. It’s a top-shelf banger, despite its somewhat shaky step towards semi-open level design. Now, the team is looking to nail that vision by starting completely from scratch and squeezing every last drop of performance out of Unreal Engine 5 to deliver a truly unforgettable Emergence Day.

I recently got around two hours with Gears of War: E-Day’s campaign, and whilst I was blown away by what I played, I did wrap up with a few lingering questions.

Straight from the off, it was obvious that the campaign is very much a prequel. The Coalition of Ordered Governments (COG) is still unaware of the scale of the threat it’s yet to face. Marcus Fenix and Dominic Santiago are in their early twenties, and I wasn’t prepared for the gut punch of ‘Private’ Santiago naming his wife, Maria, as his next of kin.

Ouch.

As the pair report for duty, gearing up in the signature blue glow of their armoured breastplates, they’re joined by series newcomers Mags Carter and Lucas Reyes. This was where I was properly introduced to the fresh faces of Beta Squad.

Gears of War: E-Day is the best the series has felt with the controller in my hand

Reyes is a by-the-book rook, as green to conflict as Sera is to the Locust. Mags, meanwhile, is portrayed as a complex and guarded sceptic who questions the COG’s logic. Both feel right at home in the Gears universe.

The demo is split into two missions, with the first beginning in the opening chapter of Act 2, inside City Hall on the morning after Emergence Day. The building is bustling with wounded soldiers, supply crates, and surveillance monitors, as Mayor Shaw and Colonel Trench argue over how best to save Kalona from falling.

Beta Squad’s task is straightforward: cross the river, link up with Charlie Squad, and secure the city’s Thrashball stadium, repurposing it as the COG’s primary forward operations base.

Going into the demo, I’d say I was already quite comfortable with The Coalition’s new movement system. For me, the real question was seeing how it handled in the Campaign.

After mantling toppled buses, cars, and railings, chaining knee slides into Gnasher blasts, and curb stomping pretty much every Locust grub who dared cross my squad’s path, I realised an hour had passed and I’d only made one note:

“Hell yeah, this is f***ing insane! No notes”

As it turns out, I did have a few notes. But the main takeaway is that Gears of War: E-Day is the best the series has felt with the controller in my hand, even if my initial reaction to the Beta was to reject it.

E-Day doesn’t force you to play as the primary squad member in single-player. I picked Mags for my first playthrough, and found most of Gears’ brutal, cover-based combat felt fresh yet grounded in familiarity. Before long, all hell had broken loose, and I was ramming the pointy end of my Retro Lancer into any unfortunate Locust lad who got in my way.

Kalona's streets are vast and dense with an astonishing level of detail that’s so easy to get distracted by

Slamming into cover gets the attention it deserves in Campaign, something I felt was minimised during Versus. Transitioning from cover to cover felt great, as did dropping into prone whenever Hammerburst fire chipped bits and pieces off my rapidly crumbling cover of choice.

When it comes to firing back, E-Day’s guns look, sound, and feel great against the Locust hordes. If you’ve played a Gears of War title before, you’ll likely know the drill when it comes to swapping between the series’ iconic arsenal with the d-pad. Active reloads also return, with a perfectly timed RB press providing a damage boost that can make all the difference when you’re trying to pop some heads.

The first mission follows a familiar Gears formula. I crossed the bridge, blasted Locust into bits, lowered platforms, and eventually secured Oria Stadium. It’s the sort of linear, objective-based mission delivered by previous Gears titles, and that familiarity was comforting.

It gave E-Day a chance to show off its verticality. As with most bridges, there are only one or two paths forward, but thanks to the new mobility, mantling up cars and trucks offered a fresh sense of freedom to these missions.

Following my arrival at the makeshift FOB, Dom opens up to his squad about his deceased older brother. He shares an anecdote from when Carlos served alongside Marcus, including the time the two ate some bad meat and got the runs.

It’s a charming diarrhoea story that grounds E-Day’s immense action in the humans fighting it.

That human element is so effective during the campaign’s cinematics. We get to see the conception of Sera’s very first Chainsaw Lancer, whilst Unreal Engine 5’s character models really come to life. The new-look Gears wear cheeky smiles, flashes of grief, and determined looks that are beautifully realised.

Ugh, it kills me every time tinkly-eyed Dom asks about his family back home in Ephyra.

Up until this point, Gears of War: E-Day followed the linear, objective-based missions I’ve come to expect from previous entries. But as soon as I stepped foot outside Oria Stadium and gazed upon the massive city of Kalona in all its glory, things got a lot more interesting.

I understand how The Coalition landed on its new iteration of Horde Siege now. Campaign reintroduces Supply Caches, allowing you to adjust your loadout and equip weapon mods, whilst both primary and side missions appear across the district map I’d just picked up.

The Skiff missions from Gears 5 were criticised for slowing the pace with their barren wastelands of ice and snow. Kalona feels like the complete opposite. Its streets are vast and dense with an astonishing level of detail that’s so easy to get distracted by.

Once I’d geared up at the Supply Cache, I modded my Snub Pistol to fire a double shot then headed into Kalona and stumbled upon a used car dealership. There, I activated a side mission to help nearby Gears fend off whatever came crawling out of a couple of Locust emergence holes, and was rewarded with a couple of extra mods for my effort.

Typically, I’d be a little wary of large open mission spaces. I tend to prefer the on-rails approach I’d just experienced crossing the bridge, where every scripted encounter pushes you closer to a defined objective. But there’s something absolutely captivating about Kalona City.

From the district I was able to explore, The Coalition has built a city that feels rich, lived-in, and on the brink of collapse. Destroyed vehicles line the streets, buildings crumble around you, and a towering Corpser reshapes the landscape as it tears through the city.

“Hell yeah, this is f***ing insane! No notes”

My main objective was to secure Octus Way Station, and whilst I had the means and know-how to book it straight there, I really enjoyed exploring all the streets and tight alleys the district had to offer. I stumbled across collectibles, hard cases containing weapon mods, and even some bog roll that did absolutely nothing once picked up.

The side missions also have benefits beyond new mods too. After saving a couple trapped inside a convenience store under siege by a horde of juvenile wretches, I got to spend more time talking to Gears 2 returnee Tai Kaliso and his humorous squadmates.

Preview: Gears Of War: E-Day 25

Whilst the demo was spent with Beta Squad mostly chainsawing, curb-stomping, and plugging emerge holes, it was actually exploring Kalona City that ended up being my favourite part of the whole thing. I’m grateful that the earlier mission gave me a taste of the traditional Gears experience, but I was also impressed by how much The Coalition elevated its larger, open levels since its last effort.

The campaign’s new structure is similar to Horde Siege, and whilst it worked well during the two hours I played, I’m still wondering how it’ll hold up across the entire campaign. The demo ended midway through the second mission, making it clear that The Coalition is holding plenty back in terms of the game’s full grandeur.

E-Day’s movement and combat have found their stride in Campaign. What initially felt alien in the Multiplayer Beta now feels like a natural evolution. But I’m left wondering whether the open missions can continue to deliver over the course of the entire campaign.

For now, we’ll just have to sit tight and wait for Gears of War: E-Day to release for Xbox Series X|S on October 6.

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