Gears of War: E-Day is a 2026 third-person shooter video game developed by The Coalition and People Can Fly and published by Xbox Game Studios. It is the seventh main installment in the Gears of War series. Set fourteen years before the events of the first game, it takes place during Emergence Day, when the Locust Horde first emerged from beneath the planet Sera and launched a devastating surprise attack against humanity. The story follows young COG veterans Marcus Fenix and Dominic Santiago as they fight to survive the invasion in the city of Kalona alongside fellow soldiers Mags Carter and Lucas Reyes, forming Bravo Squad amid the collapse of civilization. The narrative explores the origins of Marcus and Dom's brotherhood while depicting the fall of Kalona and humanity's first encounters with the Locust Horde.
The gameplay expands upon the series' cover-based combat with redesigned movement mechanics and enhanced traversal options that allow for greater mobility and verticality. The campaign supports four-player online cooperative play and two-player split-screen co-op on consoles, while multiplayer modes include 4v4 competitive matches and a new twelve-player cooperative mode titled Horde Siege.
The game also introduces expanded destruction systems, dynamic environmental damage, and enhanced gore effects, all built using Unreal Engine 5. Development began following The Coalition's transition to Unreal Engine 5, with the studio aiming to recapture the atmosphere, themes, and emotional tone of the original Gears of War, particularly the sense of brotherhood, brutality, and tragedy associated with Emergence Day. The game was initially released for premium early access on October 1, 2026, ahead of its official launch on October 6, for Windows and Xbox Series X/S.
Upon release, Gears of War: E-Day received generally positive reviews from critics, praising its return to the franchise's darker roots, emotional weight, visuals, combat, customization, and Horde Siege mode, with some criticism on pacing in the semi-open levels, boss battles, and omitted mechanics.
Gameplay
Gears of War: E-Day is a third-person shooter played from an over-the-shoulder perspective, with players controlling Marcus Fenix. The game retains the series' signature cover-based combat while introducing a redesigned movement system built to provide greater mobility and fluidity. New traversal abilities allow players to slide from a sprint, jump across gaps, climb vehicles and structures, and use low-ground cover, enabling more dynamic movement and verticality during combat. The movement system was rebuilt from the ground up, with developers aiming to preserve the weight and feel of previous Gears of War titles while expanding player freedom.
The campaign is set throughout the city of Kalona during Emergence Day, humanity's first encounter with the Locust Horde. Missions range from traditional linear combat sequences to larger open districts that allow players to approach objectives from multiple directions. Optional encounters and side activities enable players to assist civilians, investigate events across the city, and explore areas beyond the main story path. Combat centers on battles against the Locust Horde, including returning enemies such as Drones, Boomers, Wretches, Corpsers, and Reavers, alongside new creatures originating from the Hollows. Emergence Holes return as a dynamic gameplay mechanic, allowing Locust forces to appear throughout battles. Players can destroy Emergence Holes with explosives, while destructible environments provide additional tactical opportunities and can alter the battlefield during encounters.
The game introduces several new weapons, including the Gutpuncher grenade launcher and the Incinerator shotgun. The Chainsaw Lancer also appears in an origin-story role, depicting the weapon's earliest development during the Locust invasion. The Active Reload system returns with a redesigned interface, and some weapons feature shell-by-shell reloading, allowing players to interrupt reload animations and fire before a magazine is fully replenished. Expanded execution animations and a new gore system feature localized damage, enhanced dismemberment effects, and dynamic blood, dirt, and environmental damage that accumulate on characters throughout gameplay. The campaign supports four-player online cooperative play and two-player split-screen cooperative play on consoles. All four members of Bravo Squad are playable from the beginning of the campaign. According to the developers, gameplay was designed around the theme of "Never Fight Alone", with squad-based mechanics encouraging players to support teammates and coordinate during combat encounters.
Multiplayer The game's competitive multiplayer features 4v4 team-based modes set on maps located throughout Kalona and its surrounding areas. According to the developers, the maps retain the series' traditional symmetrical design while incorporating new traversal mechanics and greater verticality. Gears of War: E-Day introduces the most significant changes to the series' multiplayer gameplay since Gears of War 3, including a redesigned control scheme in which taking cover is assigned to the A button, sprinting to the left-stick click, and vaulting and jumping to the Y button, allowing for greater mobility during combat. Returning competitive modes include Team Deathmatch and Conquest, which emphasize the series' cover-based combat, close-quarters engagements, and objective control.
The game also introduces Horde Siege, a new cooperative player-versus-environment mode supporting up to 12 players divided into three four-player squads. Set across a large interconnected version of Kalona, the mode tasks players with completing dynamic objectives, defending locations against large-scale Locust attacks, undertaking optional side missions, and extracting after surviving successive enemy waves. Unlike previous Horde modes, Horde Siege allows multiple squads to operate simultaneously across the map. Players can choose from the Assault, Breacher, Marksman, and Medic classes, each with unique tactical abilities, while earning resources to construct defensive emplacements and replenish ammunition during matches.
Plot
Setting Gears of War: E-Day is set on the planet Sera 14 years before the events of the original Gears of War, shortly after the conclusion of the Pendulum Wars. Humanity has entered a fragile period of peace, and many Coalition of Ordered Governments (COG) soldiers are being demobilized. The game takes place in the city of Kalona, a major industrial center once known for innovation and scientific advancement that was transformed by decades of wartime Imulsion production.
The story follows Marcus Fenix (John DiMaggio) and Dominic "Dom" Santiago (Carlos Ferro) as they have different views on what to do after the end of the Pendulum Wars. Marcus' old unit's member, Dom's older brother, Carlos, was killed shortly before the war's conclusion, emotionally affecting them both. Their lives are abruptly changed on Emergence Day, when the Locust Horde unexpectedly erupts from underground and launches a devastating surprise attack across Sera, plunging humanity into a fight for survival. Forced back into combat, Marcus and Dom join former Gear Mags Carter, an employee at Kalona's Imulsion Refinery, and Lucas Reyes, a young communications officer with no frontline combat experience. Together, they form Bravo Squad and battle through the destruction of Kalona over the course of the invasion's opening days.
As civilian and military defenses collapse, the squad rescues survivors, organizes resistance efforts, and confronts the Locust for the first time. Along the way, they encounter other COG personnel, including veteran warrior Tai Kaliso and Raven pilot Gil Gettner. Set during humanity's first encounters with the Locust Horde, the story chronicles the opening hours of the Locust War and explores themes of loss, loyalty, sacrifice, and brotherhood. Players witness the fall of Kalona, the origins of several key elements of the series' lore, and the early development of the chainsaw-equipped Lancer Assault Rifle as humanity struggles to survive one of the darkest days in its history.
Synopsis Six weeks after the end of the Pendulum Wars, Marcus and Dom are in Kalona for a ceremony honoring the fallen of the Battle of Aspho Fields. Afterwards, Dom reveals that he intends to retire from the service while Marcus struggles with the thought of civilian life. The two meet communications cadet Lucas Reyes and discharged Gear turned refinery worker Mags Carter.
Marcus, Dom, Mags, and Lucas are caught by surprise when a series of earthquakes strike Kalona, followed shortly by the emergence of a horde of Locust from underground that begin slaughtering everybody in sight. Marcus and his team manage to fight their way to City Hall, where the local military commander Colonel Trench takes charge of the city's defense from Mayor Shaw and organizes Marcus and team into Bravo Squad under the command of Captain Akila Grey. After Marcus discovers the ineffectiveness of the COG's bayonet, Sergeant Major Hank Rustin develops a Lancer with a prototype of the Chainsaw Bayonet, inspired by Tai Kaliso using a chainsaw against the Locust.
The next morning, Trench begins organizing the Gears to set up a defense line to ultimately push the Locust out of Kalona. In addition to securing strategic objectives, Bravo Squad is also specifically tasked to destroy a special shipment of Imulsion, as well as recover a VIP, Dr. Dalia Fabbri. However, Bravo Squad becomes increasingly more uncomfortable when they realize Trench is more concerned about prioritizing Fabbri's extraction rather than the evacuation of civilians still trapped in enemy territory, as well as the fact the Locust appear to be far more intelligent than they assumed. They end up discovering that the Locust attacking Kalona have a leader named Vraahk who has been hunting down and executing any high ranking Gears and city officials he can capture.
Trench then makes the controversial decision to pull back over half of his forces, including Bravo Squad, to the airfield to prepare for the arrival of General Iver who will take over command of the defense of Kalona. However, the Locust attack the airfield just as the general arrives, killing him, destroying the airfield, and scattering the Gear forces. Bravo Squad manage to evacuate on a Raven but crash land in the nearby forest, where they are then caught in a cave in and find themselves inside the Locust tunnel network. There, they find that the Locust have been listening in on their communications the entire time, explaining how they always knew where and when to attack, and that they are secretly marching an entire army into Kalona through the tunnels.
Bravo Squad manage to return to the surface and warn Grey about the impending Locust attack. Grey informs them that Trench has already ordered the evacuation of all Gears and surviving civilians to their final stronghold at Fort Vigil. As they cross the river, Trench deliberately strands several civilians on the bridge so that he can lure as many Locust on there before demolishing it. Bravo Squad balk at Trench's willingness to sacrifice civilians and instead help them escape. A furious Trench then goes to detonate the bridge himself, but he is killed by Vraahk. Bravo Squad manages to reach Fort Vigil and hold off a massive Locust assault, but much of the fort's defenses are left in ruins. The remaining officers determine that Kalona is lost, and their only hope at survival is reactivating the decommissioned Raven's Nest warship Resolute and escaping by sea. Lucas also suggests reactivating an old transmission tower at the port so they can reestablish communications with High Command.