Gears of War: E-Day developers discuss campaign tone, Kalona setting, and new Locust threat in latest Xbox Podcast

A new episode of the Official Xbox Podcast, recorded at gamescom in Cologne, devotes its main segment to Gears of War: E-Day, with Xbox's Jeff Rubenstein joined by The Coalition's Matt Searcy, Creative Director on the game, and Raul Figueroa, Campaign Design Director. The conversation centers on the story trailer debuted during Opening Night Live with Geoff Keighley and on how the studio is framing the campaign's tone.

Searcy and Figueroa describe E-Day as leaning into what they call the horror-adjacent brutality of the franchise, and introduce a new Locust antagonist called Vraahk. According to Figueroa, Vraahk is a Blight commander who was injured in the Lambent War and whose goal, in the developers' words, is to destroy humanity. Searcy adds that Vraahk is meant to embody the brutality of the Locust, and that he leads an elite force called the Scorched Legion, whose members are visually marked by spikes and self-mutilation. The developers say that even when players are not facing Vraahk directly, his presence is meant to come through in encounters with those elite troops.

Much of the discussion is devoted to E-Day's setting in the city of Kalona. The developers describe the campaign as the story of Bravo Squad, but emphasize that it is also the story of a larger brotherhood of soldiers, citizens, and city officials responding to an unprecedented threat. Searcy notes that because previous mainline Gears titles take place in a Sera that has already been devastated, players never fully feel that loss, and that placing E-Day in a single, recognizable city is intended to make the loss more personal. Figueroa says the campaign is designed to let players experience "a little bit of the before, the during, and a little bit of the aftermath," and that landmarks built into Kalona are intended to change as the game progresses.

The developers also stress that, for protagonists Marcus and Dom, E-Day represents the first time they encounter Locust forces. Searcy outlines an intended escalation in the campaign, from the first encounter with a Wretch, to Drones, to Brumaks with armor, framing the arc as a movement from a localized monster attack to a full-scale underground war. Both developers stress themes of brotherhood, loyalty, and the search for hope in what they repeatedly describe as a hopeless situation, and Figueroa notes that two city figureheads, a mayor and a colonel, are at odds with each other during the Locust invasion.

On structure, Searcy describes E-Day as a linear campaign that opens up city blocks at a time between set-piece sections such as a bridge, and mentions that players can encounter other squads and trapped civilians if they explore. The podcast segment also references hands-on time at the Xbox booth and a pair of custom controllers made for the game, though those are mentioned only in passing.