Gears of War: E-Day Launches This Week on Xbox and PC as Prequel to Series

Gears of War: E-Day released this week for Xbox and PC, marking the latest entry in the long-running shooter franchise from Microsoft's studio The Coalition. The game serves as a prequel set on Emergence Day, the moment when Locust armies erupted from beneath the surface of Sera to attack human cities.

The campaign opens in the city of Kalona as citizens go about an ordinary evening. Series protagonists Marcus Fenix and Dominic Santiago, heroes of the recent Pendulum Wars, are joined by two new allies to form a four-character squad. Players guide the group through a desperate scramble across Kalona's streets as the Locust invasion begins.

Gameplay retains the series' signature heavy-footed cover-based squad combat. The reviewer from Game File notes that E-Day does not significantly alter the established formula, describing it as familiar moment-to-moment action that made the early Gears games a pleasure to play.

Among the collectibles scattered throughout the campaign, a can of tomatoes reveals new lore for Dom. The War Journal entry includes commentary from Dom himself: "Dom here. I always ignore this supermarket crap. My mother always says, 'If you want good tomatoes, you have to grow them yourself.'" The detail extends a series-long running gag about the character's tomato preferences.

The prequel structure limits narrative surprises for Marcus and Dom, whose fates are already known from later games. The review highlights that E-Day does not address the major cliffhanger from 2019's Gears 5, which ended with a player choice determining which character would die. The reviewer calls it "the least-satisfying follow-up to a major cliffhanger since season 2 of the 1980s TV show Sledgehammer."

Despite those criticisms, the review frames E-Day as a "Return to Gears" in a year described as a "Return of Xbox." The writer notes the adventure has several appealing elements, though specifics are not detailed in the excerpt. The game marks a return to Marcus Fenix as the player character after he appeared as a gray-bearded elder in recent entries.

Gears of War: E-Day is developed by The Coalition and published by Microsoft. The launch on Xbox and PC continues the franchise's platform exclusivity within the Microsoft ecosystem.