The biggest drought in series history is finally ending when Gears of War: E-Day launches later this year, and developer The Coalition is making up for the seven-year gap between new games with the franchise's longest campaign so far.
After Gears 5 fizzled out with an excruciatingly tense cliffhanger in 2019, the franchise somewhat slipped into the shadows. We got a surprisingly great strategy spin-off in Gears Tactics, a beefy expansion in Hivebusters, and a so-so remaster of the very first game, sure, but little did we know that a new mainline entry wouldn't come for years.
Enter Gears of War: E-Day, a prequel that's rewinding the clock to show us how the subterranean hordes of bug-demon-monsters revealed themselves to humanity. Spoilers: they did it with bloodshed and explosions in the longest Gears of War game yet, according to creative director Matt Searcy.
The Gears of War: E-Day lead tells IGN the game is "longer than any campaign [The Coalition has] built" and clocks in at over 14 hours. Looking at HowLongToBeat's estimates, straight playthroughs of the first five games in the series take roughly 10 hours or fewer to complete, while Gears 5 is about 11-hours-long, thanks to some open-world-ish fluff.
The upcoming Xbox Series X|S game isn't stretched out with wide open areas, though. Searcy says there's more to find, collectibles included, this time around. And while missions are mostly linear, there are apparently larger areas to explore that let players choose how they want to tackle encounters.
The Gears of War: E-Day Direct showed off some of that freedom, too. Squads can split up to flank foes or take the higher ground instead of running in with your chainsaws roaring, and you might even stumble across trapped civilians or other COG soldiers in need of help if you go off-route.
Gears 5's open areas proved to be controversial, for sure – they didn't always meet the non-stop-action criteria these games live or die by – but it sounds like E-Day's taking a smarter approach to player freedom this time around by weaving optional exploration into the game's city streets.
Hopefully it sticks the landing like Marcus Fenix sticks to cover when the game launches on October 6 for PC and Xbox Series X|S.
