Early critics agree that Gears of War: E-Day delivers some of the series' strongest combat and set pieces, but both Kotaku and Eurogamer say its looser, open-ended sections sap the momentum the rest of the campaign builds.
Neither outlet has attached a score. Both pieces cover only the story campaign, the only part of the game reviewers could access. Eurogamer says it played the campaign locally and plans a separate scored review once it has tried co-op, PvP and Horde. Kotaku's Ethan Gach wrote his impressions a few hours short of the credits. According to Kotaku, multiplayer opens with the game's early-access period starting October 1, though private lobbies and ranked mode will not arrive until later in the month. Gamebonk's release tracker lists the game for 2026 on PC, PS5 and Xbox.
The prequel, the first new Gears game in seven years per Kotaku, is set during Emergence Day, 14 years before the 2006 original, when the Locust Horde first breaks through the surface. Marcus Fenix and Dom Santiago fight alongside the veteran Mags and a rookie named Reyes in the city of Kalona.
Both critics love the fighting
Gach suggests E-Day may be the best the series has ever looked or felt, singling out arenas such as towering bridges, ornate hotel lobbies and airfields collapsing into Locust sinkholes. He also credits the new ability to go prone behind cover with adding fresh drama to the shooting, though he found the enemy AI occasionally weak and the new Locust types unremarkable.
Eurogamer's reviewer goes further, saying the scripted set pieces put E-Day alongside the series' best and evoke the original trilogy with better mechanics underneath. The review praises how the game drip-feeds weapons, holding back the Torque Bow until the latter half, and calls the campaign relentlessly tense.
Where they split: story, upgrades and length
The outlets diverge on the writing. Eurogamer found an unexpectedly vulnerable opening for Marcus and reads the series as increasingly self-aware satire. Kotaku calls the storytelling weak, saying the characters' war traumas are only skimmed and their banter feels hollow.
They also differ on weapon upgrades. Eurogamer says the mod system, with four slots per weapon filled through lockboxes and side missions, lifts E-Day above past entries and fixed shooting that initially felt messy. Kotaku describes the collectible-fed mod system as neat but not especially impactful.
On pacing they largely agree. Kotaku calls the sandbox exploration bland and the gaps between big moments tedious. Eurogamer says the free-form sections cripple tension, send players back through the same parts of the city in varying states of ruin, and recall the weaker pacing of Gears 4 and the emptier areas of Gears 5.
Reported length varies. Kotaku puts the campaign at roughly 14 hours, while Eurogamer clocked between 20 and 25 hours on Hardcore, abandoning collectibles and side missions about halfway through.
Performance is a concern on Microsoft's cheaper console. Gach, playing on Xbox Series S in the 30fps quality mode, reports frequent stuttering, particularly around checkpoints and action-heavy cutscenes.
