I've played Gears of War since the very beginning, and E-Day is one of my most anticipated games. It would be impossible for me to calculate how many hours I've put into the series, but there are many hundreds contributed just from Gears 2 and 3 alone. I have cherished memories of playing each campaign with friends and frantically bouncing between walls in each installment of multiplayer.
While I'm looking forward to Gears of War: E-Day, the long wait since Gears 5 does have me worried. While I think an Emergence Day prequel is a great idea, I'm skeptical of it taking precedent over a proper Gears 6, considering where 5 left off. If The Coalition wants to pull off a big comeback for the series, there are a handful of things E-Day needs to get right.
10 E-Day's Campaign Should Build On Gears 5's Open Zone Design
Don't Take A Step Backward
The series' last mainline entry, Gears 5 all the way back in 2019, brought some significant changes to its level design, mainly through the introduction of two openly explorable zones. One is a frozen tundra near Mount Kadar in the game's first half, and later you're set loose in the desert of Vasgar. It's a pretty huge departure for a series that built its reputation on cover shooter gameplay.
In Gears 5, you can follow a handful of side objectives in the open zones, and while it's not exceptionally fleshed out, E-Day has a chance to improve the idea. In Gears 5, side content adds some optional levels that reward you with resources to allocate toward character progression, abandoning which would feel like a step backward for the series. Plenty of chaos on Emergence Day could give Marcus and Dom bonus objectives to complete.
Another Gears 5 Iteration
A key component of Gears 5's open zones is the Skiff, a two-person bobsled pulled by a sail. I don't think this exact vehicle will work well in what is likely a more urban game in E-Day, but co-op vehicle gameplay similarly shouldn't be abandoned one game after its introduction.
Gears is well known for its co-op campaigns, and giving players a way to get around quickly is already a nice change of pace. The only major change I would like to see is added vehicle combat. Emergence Day offers a chance to fight unprecedented hordes of grubs, and it would be incredibly satisfying to have some sort of mounted weapon to mow them down with.
8 Maria Santiago Deserves A Big Role
Dom's Wife Lacks Screen Time
Gears of War: E-Day is set to be the triumphant return of Dominic Santiago, Marcus Fenix's beloved right-hand man who sacrificed himself to save the rest of Delta Squad in Gears of War 3. A major piece of Dom's character and story is his wife, Maria. Maria's parents and the two kids she had with Dom are all killed on E-Day, sending her into a deep depression and subsequent self-imposed exile, during which she disappears.
7 Gears Of War: E-Day Can't Forget The Pendulum Wars
Sera's Global Conflict Ended Just Six Weeks Prior
Gears of War has dealt with the Locust for almost two decades, but the Locust War is almost immediately preceded by the Pendulum Wars, a planet-wide conflict between the Coalition of Ordered Governments (COG) and the Union of Independent Republics (UIR) that lasted 79 years. Gears 5 finally started to reckon with the legacy of the Pendulum Wars, and even though the Locust Horde is the new threat, E-Day is a great opportunity to expand on the prior conflict.
For years, I've wanted a Pendulum Wars prequel game, but going back to Emergence Day instead feels like a sign that the developers aren't looking to give us a glimpse of pre-Locust Sera. Still, Marcus Fenix earned his fame in the Pendulum Wars – at the Battle of Aspho Fields, specifically, two years before E-Day. So despite the new threat, the long conflict should still loom large over the COG.
6 Multiplayer Needs To Remain Simple
Live Service Won't Do
Gears of War feels almost from a bygone era, where the multiplayer component had straightforward progression and DLC was still map packs. The industry has veered hard into live-service monetization, but E-Day is arguably too late to jump on the trend, and would be celebrated for delivering a more classic experience.
One of the great strengths of Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 is that it commits to an almost Gears-like set of modes: a campaign, multiplayer matches, and dedicated co-op missions. I'm afraid Microsoft is going to chase live-service money with Gears of War: E-Day, but all it really needs is a focused, balanced experience. It would be a disservice to drown it in monetization and overbearing progression systems.
5 Character Skins Should Be Abundant In E-Day
But Hopefully Not Monetized
Part of Gears' now-old-school appeal is that it makes character skins easily usable. It has a large cast of characters, and most of them have featured in the multiplayer and Horde modes throughout the series' history. Despite E-Day's setting, it would be great to see every version of each character be playable – let me play as E-Day Marcus, the original Marcus, old man Gears 5 Marcus, and every Marcus in between.
Some unlock requirements would be fine, but anything too involved (or expensive) would just be obnoxious. Part of the fun in multiplayer is seeing everyone's favorite characters. The second-best option would be letting me create a custom Gear and Locust to play as.
4 Don't Let The Gnasher Shotgun Dominate The Multiplayer Meta
The Two-Piece Era Is Over
I love the Gnasher Shotgun as much as the next Gears fan, but every time a new game comes out, I worry it's going to completely dominate multiplayer gameplay again. I had a great time bouncing off walls and two-piecing my opponents in Gears of War 2, but the series has since done an admirable job diversifying the viable weapons in multiplayer, dampening the Gnasher's superiority.
If Gears of War: E-Day is going to have any significant longevity, it will come through its multiplayer – and potentially Horde mode if it can compete with the many incredible co-op games on the market. Old heads might love the Gnasher duels, but more variety in the arsenal makes for a more interesting competitive scene.
3 Horde Can See Some Major Upgrades In E-Day
It Fits The Narrative Perfectly
With E-Day centering on the all-out Locust invasion, there's never been a better time for Horde to shine. It's a classic co-op game mode, but the genre has exploded since it was first introduced. Games like Helldivers 2 and Deep Rock Galactic have added significant spins to horde shooter gameplay, but with the backdrop of Emergence Day, E-Day could reclaim Gears' throne.
2 It's Time For Weapon Attachments In The Mainline Games
Gears Tactics' Biggest Contribution
It may make game balance more tricky, but mainline Gears of War seems overdue for the addition of weapon attachments. Gears Tactics brought weapon customization to the series, but there hasn't been a new release since, so attachments so far remain sequestered to the spin-off.
There's already some precedent for the idea in-game. The Retro Lancer showed that the iconic chainsaw wasn't always mounted under the barrel, and Gears 5 took this further with the Lancer GL, which sports a grenade launcher. It could be tough in a third-person shooter, since optics are common attachments, but giving players more control over their loadout would be a big step for the series.
1 You Can't Forget The Cole Train, Baby
"Nobody Plays This Game Like Me! Nobody!"
It's difficult to know if Augustus Cole will be a Gear in E-Day; he canonically volunteers for the COG Army three days after Emergence Day. Prior to E-Day, the Cole Train was a renowned player of Thrashball, a sport resembling American Football. Cole joining the COG reportedly resulted in an enormous uptick in recruitment for the war effort.
If E-Day is strict about its name and takes place over those first 26 hours (the length of a day on Sera), then Cole may be understandably absent aside from a cameo. After he joins the Army, however, there's about three months before Cole is involved in the events depicted in Gears of War: Judgment as a member of Kilo Squad with Damon Baird. Cole is among a select few characters that have appeared in every Gears game, and it would be a shame to not see any of the Cole Train in Gears of War: E-Day.
Custom Image by: Lee D'Amato
