While we’re unlikely to see Gears of War: E-Day at tomorrow’s Xbox Developer_Direct, The Coalition has been working hard on the prequel for its release this year. Touting it as the studio’s “most ambitious game yet,” it doesn’t just take us back to the era of Emergence Day, but to the very epicenter.
Speaking to GamesRadar+, creative director Matt Searcy described it as “the story we were excited to tell, and so the process has been super energizing.” While the team has “touchpoints in the lore” to build from, there’s still “enough room that we get to bring new elements and ideas in.
“Getting to go back to the tone and vibes of the original games, exploring the details of Emergence, and imagining what would happen to a city (and the soldiers protecting it) as monsters poured out from the ground was a great starting point to reintroduce the Locust and these characters.”
And while E-Day is a pivotal event in the game’s universe, the story unfolds over consecutive days in Kalona. Why? To ultimately break your heart. “The story of Emergence Day is really about what happened to the people of Sera. It was a massive, worldwide event, and we wanted players to feel the impact – so we decided to set this game in a single city.”
Players will “become intimate with the city” and ultimately “feel the loss of what was here: the history, the people, and the lives they were living,” says Searcy. It’s a harrowing journey that could very well provide a new dimension to the characters of Marcus Fenix and Dominic Santiago.
Gears of War: E-Day is confirmed for Xbox Series X/S and PC. While Gears of War: Reloaded marked the series’ debut on PS5 last year, it’s unknown if the prequel will make the jump, either at launch or sometime after. We’ve also yet to hear about how multiplayer will return, though The Coalition has suggested it could.
Perhaps more intriguing is that The Coalition doesn’t consider it a spin-off but something that will “shape” the franchise’s future. On the technical front, it certainly looks ground-breaking with hardware raytracing, next-gen destruction, and “over 100 times” the details for characters and environments as Gears 5.
