!!READ BEFORE YOU BUY!!
I've been playing Gears of War since the original came out. Gears was one of those first real "♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥" games for me, alongside Halo 3, and I loved watching the series progress through Gears 1, 2 and 3. Each game felt like it built on the last, adding genuinely worthwhile features like Horde while keeping that gritty, testosterone-filled Gears atmosphere.
Judgment was average, and I thought Gears 4 and 5 were average as well. But somehow, despite E-Day getting a lot right, there are features from even 4 and 5 that are completely missing here.
CAMPAIGN:
Overall, I enjoyed the campaign. Acts 1, 4 and 5 were probably the strongest parts for me, along with the second half of Act 3. Act 2 and the first half of 3 dragged pretty badly.
The atmosphere is fantastic. Watching a functioning city progressively collapse into absolute destruction until you're essentially the last squad left fighting through it was exactly the sort of atmosphere I wanted from E-Day.
The game also introduces some genuinely likable characters, which I think deserves credit. And as a longtime Gears fan, seeing Tai back again was ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ fantastic. Those returning faces and connections to the original games are some of E-Day's strongest moments.
Seeing Marcus Fenix and Dominic Santiago together again was also ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ awesome. Towards Acts 4 and 5 especially, their relationship finally starts taking centre stage. We get more of Dom's history, including the beginnings of what we know eventually happens with Maria, and you start seeing that iconic Marcus/Dom bond forming.
My biggest campaign complaint is Carta.
And before people jump on this: yes, I understand her lore. I understand her background as an Imulsion factory worker and the Rustlung side of her character. My problem isn't that I don't understand why she's there, and I have absolutely no problem with female characters in Gears. The original trilogy had female characters who fit the world, were badass, memorable and played important roles.
My problem is how aggressively the game tries to put Carta in the spotlight.
For huge portions of the campaign, she always seems to be the first person to speak, the first person to question a decision or the person telling the squad, "We're doing this." At times it genuinely feels like she's giving Marcus and Dom their orders.
That's what drove me ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ insane.
We're talking about Marcus Fenix and Dominic Santiago — the two characters who are effectively the face and foundation of Gears of War — finally being back together. Yet instead of allowing those two characters and their developing relationship to drive the story, they're repeatedly overshadowed by a brand-new character.
I don't dislike Carta simply because she's a woman, and I don't dislike her because I don't understand her backstory. I dislike how she was written into the group dynamic and how much narrative authority the game gives her at the expense of Marcus and especially Dom.
Dom desperately needed more dialogue and more time in the spotlight.
Thankfully, this improves considerably towards Acts 4 and 5. Marcus and Dom finally start properly taking over as the leads, their relationship becomes more important, and we start exploring Dom's history and the beginnings of what we already know about Maria. That's when the campaign really started clicking for me.
MULTIPLAYER:
I've deliberately put a decent amount of time into multiplayer before reviewing it.
Siege is fantastic and probably my favourite new addition. Having other squads operating around the map makes the battles feel much larger and more alive, and I really hope they expand on it.
However, it desperately needs better map rotation. I've literally had the same map over and over for an entire day. It gets repetitive incredibly quickly.
Versus is solid. I don't really have anything negative to say about it. It feels like standard Gears multiplayer, which is exactly what I wanted.
HORDE:
This is easily my biggest problem with E-Day.
What the ♥♥♥♥ happened?
Horde has gone backwards HARD.
Gears 2 and 3 already had great Horde modes, and later games expanded the concept by letting players choose where they wanted to hold out. You could move your Fabricator, build barricades, place sentries and actually create a defensive position with your team.
That gave every match some strategy. Your squad decided where to make its stand and then built around that decision.
E-Day's Horde is unbelievably bland by comparison.
It's 10 waves with almost nothing to do. You can't properly choose where to establish your position, there are barely any defensive options, and the entire thing feels stripped down to the absolute minimum.
Even Gears 5, which certainly isn't my favourite Gears game, offered significantly more depth.
Worse still is the timer system.
Instead of surviving until you've actually killed the enemies, you can be in the middle of an insane fight, everything has gone to ♥♥♥♥, you're desperately trying to survive and you're about to have one of those awesome clutch Gears moments...
Then the timer ends and the game just kills the remaining enemies.
Why?
You've just taken what could have been a memorable gaming moment and ended it because a clock reached zero.
Horde is honestly terrible in its current state.
OTHER ISSUES:
I'm in Australia and I'm constantly being put into servers with roughly 100–125ms ping. In a game where shotgun fights depend heavily on reaction time, it's painful. You're basically playing around the delay rather than reacting naturally. Hopefully this improves around release.
We're also missing mechanics and features that shouldn't be missing. No private matches is ridiculous. No meat shields is ridiculous. Horde has been gutted. A lot of the things that gave previous Gears games longevity simply aren't here.
OVERALL:
This is a frustrating game to review because there are parts I genuinely really like.
The campaign atmosphere is excellent. It introduces some genuinely likable new characters, seeing Tai again was fantastic, Marcus and Dom being together again is iconic, and the later campaign finally starts delivering the relationship I wanted to see. Siege has huge potential. Versus is good old-fashioned Gears.
But I'm worried about longevity.
There's also been a lot of discussion about E-Day being "woke." That's honestly not my biggest concern with the game, but I do understand where some of that criticism is coming from.
Carta annoyed the absolute ♥♥♥♥ out of me, but as I've said, my main problem with her is how she was written into the Marcus/Dom dynamic and how much of the spotlight she takes from them.
I also don't understand the decision to include around 20 Pride-themed flags. People can disagree with me on this and that's completely fine, but personally, I don't think they needed to be in Gears. This has traditionally been a gritty, testosterone-heavy, masculine series about massive dudes with chainsaw guns fighting monsters, and that's part of what I've loved about it for nearly 20 years. To me, those cosmetics just feel completely disconnected from the tone and identity of the game.
But what frustrates me far more is the comparison with what's actually missing.
If there's development time to include around 20 different Pride-themed flags, why are we simultaneously missing core gameplay features that previous Gears games already had? Where are private matches? Where are meat shields? Why has Horde lost so much of its depth? Why can't we properly establish and build our own defensive position anymore?
That's where I struggle to understand the priorities.
The flags themselves aren't going to ruin the game for me. But seeing additions like that while fundamental mechanics that directly affect gameplay and replayability have disappeared makes the whole thing harder to understand.
My bigger concern is still the actual game underneath all of this. i HOPE the long lasting side of this game stands.
kotaku.com
