Gears of War is such a fun series. When I initially joined the Xbox ecosystem, around the time of GoW3, I was under the impression it was a generic dumb action game. I mean ultra muscular dudes, wearing bandannas, and carrying massive guns with chainsaws on them to cut up alien locusts swarming the world… Can you blame me? Well, when I entered it, I quickly realised it was a game with all the hallmarks of a dumb fun action game, but with a shocking amount of heart below it thanks to some great writing. Since then, I have been a huge fan of the series. Well, it has been seven years since the last main Gears of War game, six if you include the fun Tactics game, and now it is back, taking us back in time to when the whole story began!
Gears of War: E-Day takes us 14 years before the first game, and importantly, two weeks after the end of a long 79-year war called the Pendulum Wars. Our heroes that we have come to know and love are dealing with the idea of life after war. This varies from soldiers wanting to stay soldiers, and others wanting to rejoin life. Well, it doesn’t take long before the ground suddenly starts shaking, holes open up, and some terrifying creatures come out of it. Marcus and Dom were enjoying a quiet beer as civilians when this all kicked off, and they quickly form a team with Mags and Lucas to go see what is happening. They kill their first locusts with pipes before getting armed again, and the story kicks off.
Doing a prequel like this isn’t easy. We already know what horrors await the characters, even if they don’t. Fortunately, the story beats are written well, so we get to see the team discover the horrors they will eventually take down. The other thing that is done well, is the deterioration of the world. We are used to Gears of War settings being cities that were destroyed by the locust invasion. Here we start with some beautiful and functional cities, and we watch as the world turns to the wreck we know.
The vast majority of the time you will be doing the aforementioned shooting and hacking. Fortunately, the gameplay is as good as ever. Murdering locusts is as satisfying as ever. I was half expecting to see the same beasties we had always seen, but the game throws some new ones in to keep you engaged. The earliest stages of the game were my favourite as the Bravo squad got their hands on new guns, so feeling that progression to get to where you normally start the game is satisfying as hell. That’s not to say that the rest of the game isn’t great, it absolutely is!
You can play the campaign in co-op, and in some ways I felt like that is probably the best way to play. When you get downed and need a revive, another player can whip over and revive you. The bots will do the same, it happened more than once, a lot more than once, where the characters will stand by you and not revive you. This is far from the end of the world, but in a damn excellent game, you have to find something to ping, right?
As always, Gears of War: E-Day is loaded with multiplayer content. I dabbled a bit, and enjoyed it enough, but multiplayer isn’t how I game much anymore. For the most part, the game has all the modes you would normally expect. There are classic PvP modes, but the most fun is in the Siege modes. Horde Siege has you work in a group to complete a mission, but there are others also in your world doing their mission, which adds some cool spice to the mode, making the world feel more lived in.
Should you check out Gears of War: E-Day?
If you haven’t played Gears of War before, then I highly recommend you check out the series. You could absolutely start here if you wanted with it being a prequel, but having played the series adds some weight to character moments knowing where it goes later. So new players and old players alike should check out this heartfelt and violent shooting game.
