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Gears of War: E-Day Direct has come and gone, and what a show it was. From entirely new movement mechanics to a much more grounded and open campaign, the latest entry in the war on Locusts is breathtaking to look at, and hopefully just as breathtaking to play.
Here’s every highlight I was able to catch during the show!
Story and gameplay areas
As we’ve known previously, Gears of War: E Day will showcase two of the most iconic characters in the Gears franchise, Marcus Fenix and Dom Santiago. What we didn’t know was that this would come without the pre-built relationship.
Coming home as wandering war veterans looking for where they fit in, Dom and Marcus are seen together celebrating the life of Dom’s brother and Marcus’s best friend, Carlos Santiago. You see, Carlos was the one who connected the two, as Dom and Marcus were never previously close. Their connection had always been someone between them.
By the time Gears of War 1 occurs, these two have been to hell and back, strengthening that lifelong knowledge of one another into a true friendship that plays at the heart of the original trilogy. Seeing these two grow into that role will be something Gears players have yet to experience, and one even my non-gamer wife is interested in playing through (points for me).
The campaign will be centered around the city of Kalona, which was built similarly to the coal towns of yesterday. Emulsion is all the craze, and Kalona was born and grew as a central hub for emulsion activity.
As the campaign progresses, players will journey across the entire cityscape over multiple days as they watch the once bright city uncontrollably fall apart. Replaying through central city areas will be different every time, as each passing will come in the face of more destruction to the homes of people around you.
Players will also have access to dynamic events that play out depending on just how interested they are in exploring the areas each level presents. From people who need rescue in a crumbling apartment, to soldiers who could use some backup at an ambush point, you’ll be able to choose what’s important to you as the mission unfolds.
To play through these new, more open areas, something else was needed. One thing I know Gears purists love is the movement mechanics. Not much has changed on that avenue for quite a few entries, but for the first time in a long while, we’re getting a hefty overhaul!
Modernized movement mechanics
First is the slide mechanic! Footage of this made the feature look like it was something that’s always been part of the series. Not only can players slide into coverage or toward an enemy, but they can also slide underneath obstacles to get a jump on someone from the other side.
Seeing this in the campaign mode was one thing, but seeing it in multiplayer will change the gameplay of the core Gears experience quite a bit. A chance significant enough that Gears just moved up to my number one most-wanted multiplayer title.
They’ve also added JUMPING IN GEARS OF WAR?! Say what? I never in all my years thought they would add a jumping mechanic to the rodeo show game. From what I can tell, this still seems a little limited.
Thankfully, I don’t think we’ll see any bunny-hopping shotgun users coming at us in multiplayer; instead, it appears that the focus is limited to jumping over gaps and up onto higher ledges than before. Rather than only being able to shuffle on top of a ledge that’s waist height, players can jump onto something above their head to pull themselves up.
In turn, this is meant to lead to greater verticality and a sense of freedom in the playable environments. I can already see a wider variety of routes being created throughout campaign and multiplayer matches, where players won’t be limited to triple-wide ramps up to the main area. Instead, they’ll be able to make use of natural environment cover, which means even more moments to use the GNASHER!
New low ground cover also signals a drastic change in combat, as players can now lie low on shorter ledges. Popping up to shoot from these cover spots means more of the player will be exposed, but getting a quick moment of relief, no matter how small it is, will create less stagnant gameplay as a result.
Customized destruction technology
Cover is not only scalable from a height perspective, but also dynamic in terms of destruction, as pillars, road blocks, and more all feature micro-destruction. You won’t be blowing up entire buildings, but rather, the world is destructible on a scale that makes sense.
The tops of cover areas won’t last forever under the stress of extended gunfire, revealing the tops of players and enemies alike. But that dynamic destruction doesn’t end there.
E-holes are no longer pre-defined, as E-Holes now come within random areas of the map. No longer will you be able to “pre-nade” oddly specific-looking places, as these holes will open near players for an added layer of challenge to the chaos of an unraveling city.
Retaining a classic look while redefining fidelity
Gears has also been overhauled visually, with higher-fidelity models featuring more detail in Marcus Fenix's eyebrows than his entire character model did in the original Xbox 360 game. Even with added fidelity, they made sure to retain the look and feel of Marcus Fenix without leaning into some sort of scary uncanny valley scenario.
All of this with real-time ray-tracing at 60 FPS. With a glorious 120 FPS target for multiplayer game modes. I am announcing that I will be shooting each and every neon sign!
All will come with great beauty under the pleasure of brand new weapons like the incinerator, an acid-burning shotgun that literally melts the flesh from enemies. Or a manually triggered grenade launcher that will be perfect for those who like to pretend a rock will protect them forever.
Multiplayer is back
From the get-go, all four characters will be available in four-player coop for the campaign. You won’t be locked out of having to complete any tutorial. You and your friend (or my wife and I) will also have the astounding pleasure of playing Gears of War: E-Day in full split-screen mode!
I cannot tell you how happy it makes me to see split-screen getting love in 2026 with brand new titles. Too often, these games and series ditch local cooperative play in favor of a dual-screen experience, but there’s just something else about setting up on a couch with your friends or loved ones to play a few hours of Gears of War that would be lost without the feature.
Hopefully, that splitscreen applies to online as well, because returning alongside the revamped multiplayer experience is a new Horde mode, called Horde Siege. The mode will feature 12-player arenas as players cooperatively battle together to take out the never-ending Locust swarms, with more information becoming available at a later date!
Players who pre-order now will get access to the beta (that will eventually become an open beta) on August 6, 2026. While true Emergence begins on October 6, 2026. Coming exclusively to Xbox Series X|S and Windows PC.
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