PROS + The campaign is far better than those of Gears 4 and 5 + One of the best visual showcases for Unreal Engine 5 + Gameplay changes add more depth to combat, since you can customize your weapons and gear + The story nails the portrayal of the Locust Horde's brutality and humanity's desperation in the face of this new enemy + The new weapons feel great to use + Bosses are tough and require strategy to defeat + The game now features open areas with secondary objectives and a map CONS - Solo play has some drawbacks, as the squad AI isn't as smart as it should be - There are some technical bugs that need fixing; one related to Frame Generation was patched today at launch - Open areas are much more demanding on performance than linear ones; I recommend enabling Frame Gen when playing in them Overall, it’s a great return for Gears, featuring its best campaign since the original trilogy, which, imo, is still better. I can't comment on multiplayer or Horde mode, as they were unavailable until today.
Gears of War: E-Day
Playing now
Developer / Publisher
The Coalition / Xbox Game Studios
Release date
Oct 6, 2026 (Coming soon)
Genres
Action, Adventure
Russian language
Text only, no voice-over
Price
$69.99
Steam recommendations
809
Tags
Features
Veterans
10+ hours at review91%
positive · 56 reviews
Newcomers
Under 2 hours at review76%
positive · 152 reviews
Most criticized
Best argument for
The most helpful review from a veteran (10+ hours at review)Community reviews
74 matching
Based on the 671 most recent Steam reviews · updated 2 Oct 2026
- English reviews: 641, 1 Oct 2026 – 2 Oct 2026
- Russian reviews: 30, 1 Oct 2026 – 2 Oct 2026
- ▲ Recommended0.4 h at review6.5 h total1 Oct 2026
The vibes/gameplay and graphics are all top tier, they actually cooked with this one. They optimized the heck out of this from the beta, runs great on Steam Machine now at 1440p with FSR4
78 found helpful · 4 found funnyPerformanceGraphicsGameplayReviews written: 82On Steam - ▲ Recommended17 h at review17 h total1 Oct 2026
PROS + The campaign is far better than those of Gears 4 and 5 + One of the best visual showcases for Unreal Engine 5 + Gameplay changes add more depth to combat, since you can customize your weapons and gear + The story nails the portrayal of the Locust Horde's brutality and humanity's desperation in the face of this new enemy + The new weapons feel great to use + Bosses are tough and require strategy to defeat + The game now features open areas with secondary objectives and a map CONS - Solo play has some drawbacks, as the squad AI isn't as smart as it should be - There are some technical bugs that need fixing; one related to Frame Generation was patched today at launch - Open areas are much more demanding on performance than linear ones; I recommend enabling Frame Gen when playing in them Overall, it’s a great return for Gears, featuring its best campaign since the original trilogy, which, imo, is still better. I can't comment on multiplayer or Horde mode, as they were unavailable until today.
32 found helpfulPerformanceGraphicsGameplayStoryReviews written: 31On Steam - ▼ Not recommended6.4 h at review6.4 h total1 Oct 2026
The game intermittently freezes every 10-25 minutes. Performance was very laggy, inconsistent, even with frame generation on. It stutters/hitches during gameplay. Furthermore, input lag was noticeably bad too. Also, the game suffers memory leak due to Unreal Engine 5 optimization. Hence, The Coalition dev team needs to release a patch as soon as possible.
20 found helpful · 3 found funnyPerformanceGameplayReviews written: 278On Steam - ▼ Not recommended5 h at review7 h total2 Oct 2026
great gameplay loop, 6 million girl bosses. chud six, going dark.
19 found helpful · 3 found funnyGameplayReviews written: 22On Steam - ▼ Not recommended1 h at review1 h total2 Oct 2026
runs like ♥♥♥♥ just like in the beta nothing was fixed, no carmine brothers no cole train no baird no dizzy, bunch of new characters i dont give a ♥♥♥♥ about. I get its a prequal but come on man. Gears 5 has more customization then this. Marcus has 2 skins not counting his default and the premium skin and they suck who wants ceremony marcus or civilian marcus. They shouldve just kept everything from gears 5 and implemented the new horde mode and movement mechanics. There is nothing to work towards here, hell ranked isnt even available on release.
9 found helpful · 3 found funnyGameplayStoryReviews written: 6On Steam - ▲ Recommended12 h at review12 h total1 Oct 2026
Gears of War E-Day has been the best addition to this franchise since the first game. As Xbox is shaking up everything, the Coalition studio is coming out with their revving chainsaw and, except for the feeling where the story was a bit stretched out just to get more gameplay stacked in, which I can forgive because the gunplay and the combat level were well designed. But yeah, at some places they could’ve picked up the pace. This is the E-Day that we have been hearing about throughout the rest of the games that came in the franchise before, and you actually get to live through this. There is a moment in the beginning where people are not sure what is happening and trying to figure it out, but as a gamer, because we have seen the aftermath, you would think that you know everything that is gonna be thrown at you, but the game does an excellent job of presenting it to you to experience it fresh. It was kind of a survival combat at the beginning, well, depends a bit also on what kind of difficulty you play at, but also seeing how you first get the chainsaw attached to the Lancer and the struggle to survive this sudden attack by the Locust is really impactful. They managed to put in great boss fights along with semi-open levels where, if you choose to engage, you can get more out of this shooting combat mechanism which they perfected this time with verticality. All the levels where you have to fight an onslaught of hordes, you can run around, get a higher ground to use the vertically designed presentation to you in this game and get an edge over your opponent, and there are some phases where you get to feel the genuine horror of people finding out what they’re up against. The game has some good narrative of all the characters thrown into it, and they do present it to you in a moment of calmness, which I felt was a good way to take a small break between all the fights, as you should be. I also think that storytelling through cut scenes in in this game is way better than what I can recall from the previous game. There is a heart to it, the performance is very touching, and this game actually looks like a current Gen game so other than it being a bit stretched out while trying to ride its highs and mark my words, the highs are super good highs, It sometimes stretches itself a bit thin, but then it picks right back to the highs, which sadly hasn’t been the case with most Xbox games or the previous game of this franchise. There is less reliance on tech this time around. It’s mostly guns, bullets, bombs, grenades, and at times boom guns, which are really loved. so yeah, the new guns make a lot of sense. You have armour mods, you have injector mods, and you have the ability to add mods to your weapons, which greatly help if you’re playing on harder difficulties and makes the combat so much more worth the struggle. What else? The collectibles that some are complaining about, yeah, there is a lot of them, but I did not hear any constant pinging noise. There was maybe just a small vibration on my controller, which indicated that they’re around. Sometimes they are marked if you press the scan button, and sometimes they’re not, and you just have to find them out. and the city changes over the course of the three in game days. So you have to explore a bit and you do get to get some side quests which do have some thoughtful touch to them of how a war affects everyone. so give this game a go if you have a chance. I really feel that they did an excellent job of bringing back a shooter game which kind of combines the survival and at times horror factor in it from my side. It’s a genuine good game and at times felt a 9. but only because it gets stretched out gets an 8.5 out of 10
9 found helpful · 2 found funnyPerformanceGameplayStoryReviews written: 10On Steam - ▼ Not recommended2.5 h at review2.5 h total2 Oct 2026
Campaign is good, gameplay is great.... but they had to Microsoft it and add a ton of "Girl Boss" characters all throughout the game. At lease 20 pride flags for no reason while only 1 American flag. Can we can some screaming bald eagle flags or some more patriotic flags. Its always flags for people who hate America. Keep the wokeness out of games. This is why Microsoft games are failing non stop. We need games made for gamers by gamers, not DEI hires with woke agendas.
8 found helpful · 2 found funnyGameplayStoryReviews written: 14On Steam - ▲ Recommended0.1 h at review0.1 h total2 Oct 2026
A phenomenal comeback for the "Gears" franchise. I played the Open Beta and it completely exceeded my expectations with just how polished and responsive the gameplay already felt. Brutal, fast-paced combat, insanely satisfying chainsaw finishers, crisp next-gen visuals, and absolutely killer sound design. Compared to the recent "Gears of War: Reloaded", this genuinely feels like a true next-gen Gears experience. Gears is so back.
8 found helpfulGraphicsGameplayGames owned: 2,613 · Reviews written: 337On Steam - ▼ Not recommended0.5 h at review1 h total1 Oct 2026
Hope you dont wan a play with keyboard and mouse because the controls are absolutely atrocious. The fact that I cant have my space button be sprint and evade is the most insanely asinine thing ive ever encountered in a video game. What a complete and total whiff.
8 found helpful · 5 found funnyGameplayGames owned: 332 · Reviews written: 10On Steam - ▲ Recommended1 h at review2.3 h total1 Oct 2026
It feels surreal to see Gears of War back. I'm only about an hour and a half in, but the gameplay is fantastic and it runs smoothly on SteamOS. I haven't felt this hyped since Gears 2/3 days and cannot wait to finish the game off.
7 found helpfulGameplayReviews written: 2On Steam - ▼ Not recommended5.1 h at review5.8 h total1 Oct 2026
The multiplayer mode. -Regarding gameplay, I was a fan of parts 4 and 5. I think the gameplay there was perfect. I’m still getting used to the gameplay in E-Day; it definitely has interesting new features, and while I like some aspects, I also find it clunkier and less precise in some places. -My current "major" issue is the fact that Gears apparently can't manage to offer a decent matchmaking system. Not only are great modes like Dodgeball, Execution, or Leader missing, but they’ve also kept that terrible "playlist system." I’m constantly forced to play modes I have absolutely no interest in simply because I don't like them; after every match, I have to hope the next mode is one I actually enjoy. I want to choose exactly which mode I play, rather than having to live with a random, mixed bag! When Ranked mode is added, as a solo player i don't want to face the same dilemma as in recent entries: having to search for a new match every time or playing in playlist lobbies where I might get stuck with bots on top. That system already divided the player base in Gears 4 and 5. -The skin system needs an overhaul, too. Either they need to drastically adjust visibility so I can clearly distinguish between friend and foe, or they need to let me disable the display of enemy skins. The Campaign so far: Act 1 of the campaign is stylish and epic in its presentation, but it feels like it's pushing DEI a bit too hard... When every "biological woman" is portrayed as more masculine than any man, with more balls and an exaggeratedly tough persona, the classic Gears characters start to look like wimps by comparison... Come on, that’s unnecessary, and it’s not how things actually work in the military. The game has potential, and I hope it finally becomes a multiplayer title with a future, one that gets its issues under control. If that happens, the review will deservedly be positive.
6 found helpful · 1 found funnyGameplayStoryReviews written: 9On Steam - ▼ Not recommended1.7 h at review1.7 h total1 Oct 2026
What a great idea to change the core mechanic of movement that people loved for a clunky one. What a great idea to make the bullet come out of the center of the screen instead of the gun for the first time in gears history. What a great idea to remove meatshields and planting grenades. Limited weapons list. Performance barely improved from the beta. Already has a beautiful shop in game to spend money on, i guess they didnt last long on their promises. When aiming you have a zoom of a 25x optic for some reason and Boltok is gone. TC has a perfect score of 3/3 games that missed the point.
6 found helpful · 9 found funnyGameplayGames owned: 533 · Reviews written: 10On Steam - ▼ Not recommended2 h at review2 h total1 Oct 2026
Just more gears...... nothing new, nothing innovative. The game looks incredible, gameplay is the same since 2006. Pls devs that do not have brains or game, pls make new ip's not reskinned ip's.
6 found helpful · 7 found funnyGameplayGames owned: 213 · Reviews written: 2On Steam - ▼ Not recommended1.1 h at review1.1 h total2 Oct 2026
Absolutely horrible, removes roadie run which was literally in SIX gears games including judgement. Makes the reloading time for most guns abysmally slow compared to gears 3 for example, including time to ready your weapon. Adds a completely useless ability to jump which completely breaks moment to moment gameplay since you literally go into cover with A and in literally ALL games before you vault over cover using the same A button, very intuitive and yet now for god knows why you have to press Y? who the hell playtested this? lmao I literally would rather play a remake of gears of war 2 or gears of war 3 than this garbage. And here I thought gears was making a comback after how absolutely mid gears 4 and 5 were but nope, this is the nail in the coffin regardless if they managed to do the story well all longetivty from gears came from versus and you literally destroyed 5 core elements that made a gears of war game a gear of war game, actually insane.
5 found helpful · 4 found funnyGameplayStoryGames owned: 759 · Reviews written: 84On Steam - ▲ Recommended2.5 h at review4.3 h total2 Oct 2026
Это....просто....ах*****. Рад вернуться в серию Gears. Честно говоря не ждал чего-то взрывного или мощного от игры, но еле заставил оторваться посреди ночи, точнее утра....это просто мастхэв среди сюжетных шутеров. Xbox наконец-то родила годноту. Графонище, дизайн мира ( ещё не мёртвого из прошлых частей ). Понравилась так же механика во время боя - укрытия, перелаз, перекаты, атака из укрытия или ближний бой. Есть небольшая разрушаемость. Весьма здорово выглядит и ощущается. Сложность сразу выбрана БЕЗУМИЕ. Разработчикам The Coalition респект.
5 found helpfulGraphicsGameplayStoryReviews written: 42On Steam - ▲ Recommended0.4 h at review0.4 h total1 Oct 2026
E-Day is the Gears game I have wanted since the original trilogy. Fourteen years before Gears of War, Marcus and Dom are in Kalona when the ground opens up, and you live through the city falling apart in real time. It is the darkest, most horror-driven Gears has been since 2006, and it works. Movement is the big upgrade. Sliding, vaulting, mantling and climbing feel fluid in a way Gears never has, while the weight and crunch of the combat are fully intact. Firefights turn into scrappy, fast-moving fights across multiple levels instead of static cover trades. The campaign mixes tight linear set pieces with semi-open stretches of downtown Kalona, and the balance is right. Special enemies show up often enough to keep you on your toes, so no encounter plays out quite how you planned. Visually it is stunning on PC. Lighting, city detail and character work are some of the best I have seen in any game, and the squad gets real time to breathe between the big moments. Marcus and Dom's relationship carries a lot of weight, especially knowing where Dom's story goes. Campaign runs roughly 15 to 16 hours and supports one to four players in co-op, which is the best way to play it. If you love Gears, this is a must. If you are new, this is the place to start.
5 found helpful · 1 found funnyGraphicsGameplayStoryGames owned: 281 · Reviews written: 3On Steam - ▼ Not recommended3.6 h at review3.6 h total2 Oct 2026
first impressions kind of stink ngl. game gave me many performance issues and i'm a bit annoyed with many things at the start of the campaign. It being a four player focused campaign - they immediately shove characters in the way of dom and marcus that feel a bit troupey/dated, take it or leave it cuz its a 4 player coop game. writing makes me feel dumb for even remotely trying to engage with it and the AI stinks on solo insane and is like no help/broken. combat for some reason gets stagnant/bullet spongey. so yes, It's a gears game and its pretty but I experienced bugs, long rendering shaders, a freeze/long loading screen before i closed it as well in multiplayer that caused a reboot. I was forced to update my drivers just to get the game to boot. so the experience i had in the first 3.6 hours if it was actually that for my playtime: kinda stunk.
2 found helpful · 1 found funnyPerformanceGameplayStoryGames owned: 561 · Reviews written: 49On Steam - ▲ Recommended5.1 h at review11 h total1 Oct 2026
After Gears 4 and 5, this was a really refreshing return to the franchise. The gameplay is amazing, and the optimization is surprisingly good on an RTX 3080. Just make sure your drivers are updated before crying about performance issues. There’s also a lot to do and grind for, which should keep you busy for quite a while. While some of the OG versus modes aren’t available, I don’t really see that as a major issue since there are a couple of new modes to try out. Overall, a great return to what makes Gears fun. Definitely feels like the franchise is back on the right track.
2 found helpful · 1 found funnyPerformanceGameplayReviews written: 5On Steam - ▲ Recommended1.4 h at review1.4 h total1 Oct 2026
Alright! Here we go. Eighty minutes deep as of this review. No issues with video, FPS runs around 90 without DLSS, flipped DLSS onto dynamic mode and my PC puts out 144 FPS rather constant. Noticed quite a few reviews early on ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ about video glitches or poor performance, I'm not getting any of that. I did make sure my drivers were up to date and that the only things I am running in the background is Discord of which I am streaming to friends. Gameplay is quite the Gears of War I recall, I only really played GoW 1, 2 and a little of 3. I've gotten through the first chapter of the game and it feels good, this is what I expected from a Gears game and even moreso from a starting point where Marcus and Dom are fresh from the recent war and their friend's death. There isn't much time to get emotional, however, as it starts off with swinging a melee weapon against the crawlers and then ramps up quickly to pistols, shotguns and rifles - in that order. I played during the open beta and smashed the hell out of the Seige Mode. While it wasn't exactly the same as I remember it from the older days, I did enjoy the three teams of four and how objectives could converge. As far as PvP goes, yet to dabble into it. If you aren't flush with cash or a massive simp for early-access, just wait until the game properly releases. So far I am enjoying what they've put out and things are running fine. Will give a fuller review once I complete the campaign.
2 found helpfulPerformanceGameplayGames owned: 504 · Reviews written: 35On Steam - ▲ Recommended1.4 h at review1.4 h total1 Oct 2026
I'm happy seeing Xbox's comeback with this title! Just played 80 minutes and I enjoyed every second if it! Having nostalgia + new gameplay makes this game a must. Enjoy!
2 found helpfulGameplayGames owned: 234 · Reviews written: 23On Steam