Gears of War: E-Day Rebuilds the Series From the Ground Up in Unreal Engine 5

Gears of War: E-Day arrives October 6 on Xbox Series X/S and PC—or October 1 for Premium Edition owners—marking the franchise’s first new entry since 2019’s Gears 5. The Coalition has spent the intervening years completely rebuilding the experience in Unreal Engine 5, scrapping every asset and animation from prior games to deliver what the studio describes as a return to the series’ core identity: urban warfare, ruined environments, horror, and overwhelming odds.

Marcus and Dom return as protagonists alongside newcomers Mags and Lucas, anchoring a campaign that explores a pivotal period in Sera’s history. The visual overhaul includes hardware-based ray tracing, destructible environments, and reworked facial animations—work substantial enough that it appears to have driven the extended development timeline.

What’s Changed in Combat

Locust encounters have been fundamentally redesigned to heighten tension. Standard Drones now enter an “Enraged state,” rushing players, slamming them to the ground, and mounting attacks that require teammate intervention to escape. Boomers are significantly larger and carry Heavy Boomshot variants, while new enemy types like the Bile Frog function as acid-spewing artillery. Reavers gain the ability to crawl walls for firing positions and drop additional troops mid-fight.

A new Locust leader, Vraahk, heads the Scorched Legion—an enemy faction defined by spikes and a signature tactic of pouring Imulsion on foes. The campaign also features political conflict, with a Kalona mayor clashing with a COG colonel over whether the destruction necessary to save the city is justified.

Multiplayer and PvE Options

Horde Siege expands the co-op experience to 12 players across four classes: Assault (cover-focused damage), Breacher (melee-resistant frontliner), Marksman (critical-hit specialist), and Medic (team support). Each class carries unique Tactical Gear—the Medic’s Stim Vaporizer can revive downed allies regardless of squad membership. Side objectives award weapon parts needed for crafting mods, though players must extract alive to keep rewards.

Versus modes include returning favorites Team Deathmatch and Conquest, plus two newcomers: Demolition (bomb-planting with no respawns) and Crucible (a mode where players carry a Power Core through a shrinking zone). Over 80 medal tiers return with a new Diamond tier that grants player titles.

PC Requirements Are Steep

The Unreal Engine 5 rebuild demands 130 GB of SSD space and hardware ray-tracing support. Minimum specs call for an RTX 2060, Radeon RX 6600, or equivalent, paired with a Ryzen 5 2600X, i7-6850K, or i5-10400 and 12 GB RAM. Recommended setups push to a Ryzen 5 5600, i5-11600K, 16 GB RAM, and RTX 3060 Ti or better.