For a prequel in the Gears of War series, especially one that goes as far back as Emergence Day, it seems reasonable to expect some features not to make the jump. That said, with everything that The Coalition has stuffed into Gears of War: E-Day, it feels a little odd that certain features like Meat Shields (i.e. taking enemies), dueling with chainsaws and certain weapons didn’t make the jump.
The reason for this? As reaffirmed in an official post ahead of the game’s launch, “We started E-Day with an empty hard drive, building our entire gameplay sandbox from scratch to ensure a more unified gameplay experience across Campaign, PVE and PVP.
“This new sandbox also allowed for innovation in cover, combat and enemies. The trade-off being that including every legacy feature from Gears of War was not possible for launch.” That includes private lobbies and leaderboards.
While The Coalition hasn’t committed to bringing back every single feature – especially since it’s focused on delivering the “strongest and most stable launch experience” – it is keeping an eye on “how and what” to deliver (and improve) in terms of “fan-favorite features.” These may either arrive post-launch or “in our next title.” But it assured players that they’re not “gone from the franchise.” Personally, I can see private lobbies being brought back for Versus, if for no other reason than because it feels right.
Gears of War: E-Day is out now for Premium Edition owners on Xbox Series X/S and PC. Standard Edition players and Game Pass subscribers will need to wait until October 6th. Check out our review of the campaign in the meantime – we gave it a nine out of ten, praising the action and sheer visual fidelity.
