Gears of War: E-Day

Gears of War: E-Day is as close to a complete package as it gets, effectively rivaling the series’ heyday. Minor quibbles with the story or matchmaking pale in comparison to the frightening tale of humanity’s darkest hours and the intense fallout of the all-out invasion. Seeing Marcus and Dom back in action and in their prime is an exciting prospect for a longtime fan like me, but it would be meaningless if it were just a nostalgia play; instead, Gears of War: E-Day innovates in all the right ways while keeping the core and heart of the franchise intact, stamping the series’ return with one of, if not its best, entries to date.

Great cover-based shooting with terrific multiplayer. Shame the main campaign is an exhausting, endless firefight that outstays its welcome.

Gears of War: E-Day is just fun comfort food to go back to shooter-wise; like a village hometown dish you grew up with back again in your mouth after years of abstaining. The best kind of beef rendang and hearty rice combo if we’re talking literal Malaysian comfort food.

Gears of War: E-Day is a beautiful game that delivers enjoyable old-school third-person shooting action across its campaign and multiplayer modes. Strong encounter design leads to some excellent opening and closing chapters, though the story action does lag in the middle thanks to its protracted length.

As noted at the top, reviewers were only given access to the campaign (in both single-player and co-op) ahead of release – but even if I did get to play Versus and Siege Horde, I wouldn’t want to finalize our review score until I was able to play those modes on the live servers. I did get a chance to play some multiplayer in the public beta tests, however, and I’ve loved what I’ve played of Horde Siege in particular. Stay tuned for our final, set-in-stone review score in the next week or two!

Gears of War: E-Day brings the series back to its literal roots, delivering all the blood-soaked action and characters that made it a hit. Filled with expansive maps, tons of thrilling enemy encounters, a slew of weapon modifications, and a truly gripping action-movie narrative, it's the must-own Xbox exclusive of 2026.

Gears of War: E-Day is everything I wanted from a prequel and more. It finally delivers the Emergence Day story fans have waited two decades to experience, while deepening the relationship between Marcus and Dom and returning the series to the darker, horror-inspired tone of the original trilogy. With the best gameplay the franchise has ever had, incredible visuals, excellent pacing and memorable characters, E-Day isn’t just the best Gears game yet; it’s one of Xbox’s strongest exclusives in years.

Gears of War: E-Day doesn't fit the same mold as many other prequels, and it introduces a ton of new concepts while pushing Gears' gameplay forward.