Gears of War: E-Day Reviews
Gears of War: E-Day was a pleasant surprise for me, for XBOX, and for 2026 as a whole. While no Gears game has ever been a disaster, there's no denying that the franchise has been on a downward trajectory since Gears of War 4, struggling to recapture the appeal of the original trilogy. With E-Day, The Coalition has managed to restore the feeling that Gears is once again a flagship XBOX franchise, delivering a high-quality product packed with action from start to finish, meaningful gameplay innovations, breathtaking visuals, and a traditional multiplayer experience, even if there's still room for improvement in some areas.
Review in Portuguese | Read full review
Gears of War: E-Day is a highly solid entry in the Xbox franchise that successfully recaptures the series' core gameplay identity, horror, and visual grittiness. Although it stumbles in terms of narrative pacing, enemy variety, and certain artificial intelligence issues, its graphical performance and the evolution of its combat system more than make up for these shortcomings.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
Gears of War is back with a guns-blazing attitude. If you love the good old mechanics from previous games, now further improved, this package has everything you need. The solid multiplayer and a campaign that strives to deliver an epic experience may still be overshadowed by narrative issues that should have been handled differently.
Review in Unknown | Read full review
Gears of War: E-Day tells the story of a legendary event that has been talked about for years. It does so without shying away from grand storytelling or graphic violence. Getting almost everything right in terms of presentation, E-Day also delivers rock-solid gameplay with its fast-paced, menacing action. After taking a few hits with its recent entries, the series is back with a game that recaptures the grandeur of its glory days.
Review in Turkish | Read full review
Gears of War: E-Day’s stellar story campaign is complemented by an excellent multiplayer suite, particularly its evolved Horde Siege PvE mode.
Though there's still plenty of waist-high cover, ebb-and-flow firefighting, and braindead machismo, Gears E-Day proves that looking back can, indeed, help you look forward, too.
Great cover-based shooting with terrific multiplayer. Shame the main campaign is an exhausting, endless firefight that outstays its welcome.
Gears of War: E-Day has an opportunity to step up and take the Xbox franchise crown from atop Master Chief's helmet. It's just about good enough to. Long live Marcus Fenix.
For better or worse, E-Day is distinctly Gears, and I had a good time with it, even if the story is disappointing and the open areas are fairly dull.
Returning to the fold with some good and some bad.
Gears of War: E-Day brings the series back to its literal roots, delivering all the blood-soaked action and characters that made it a hit. Filled with expansive maps, tons of thrilling enemy encounters, a slew of weapon modifications, and a truly gripping action-movie narrative, it's the must-own Xbox exclusive of 2026.
A prequel that looks and feels far too similar to the 20-year-old original and while it’s a vastly more entertaining experience in co-op, it still feels worryingly old-fashioned and overfamiliar.
Gears of War excels when it leans into humanity versus monsters, is painted with a brush drenched in blood, and offers vicious, savage gameplay that belies surprisingly rich stories and heartfelt characters.
Gears of War: E-Day is a reminder of just how bloody good this series can be. After twenty years, perhaps Gears didn't need another revolution, it just needed another Emergence Day.
Gears of War: E-Day features an action-packed co-op campaign, intense PvP multiplayer, and an endlessly replayable Horde Siege mode.
Gears of War: E-Day hits all the right notes for veteran Gears and newcomers alike. Witnessing the fall of Kalona is terrifying, but it's filled with the level of action you'd want from a Gears title.
Gears of War E-Day's campaign offers balls-to-the-wall action and rarely lets up, but that means the story takes more of a back seat than I'd like. It's good that time is given to the backstories of new protagonists Mags and Lucas, but given that the game is literally the playable Marcus and Dom backstory fans have been waiting decades to see, more time could have been spent on their relationship. In terms of pure gunplay, however, very little beats it this year.
E-Day boasts the best combat in 20 years of Gears games – but everything surrounding it is disappointing
The story does an excellent job of bridging a gap between the Gears world before the locust invasion and after.
Gears of War: E-Day is a good entry point.