Xbox’s upcoming Gears of War: E-Day has made a big impression with hardcore fans because it takes us all back to Emergence Day, when the Locust horde ambushed humanity. The game will have a fresh campaign and a familiar multiplayer experience.
It’s a tragic day for human history on the planet of Sera, as Locust attackers emerged from underground and attacked the entire world. But the game will also be coming with a multiplayer mode, and I got to play it in a sneak preview. For fans, it will be a familiar experience. It has none of the overwhelming sadness of humanity’s losing fight that you feel with a sense of dread in games like Halo and Gears. Multiplayer is just fun combat, and fans will be treated to a viewing of that combat starting today here.
It’s a big deal for Microsoft, which has had a mix of great news and sad news — the saddest being layoffs that will affect 3,200 members of the Xbox team. Microsoft is struggling to recapture a strong relationship with its most dedicated fans, and it’s also trying to grow beyond its traditional audience.
Multiplayer Gears of War, if pulled off right, will go a long way toward earning back the respect of longtime fans. Xbox is showing off 25 major games at Gamescom in August, and Gears of War: E-Day, coming on October 6, is a big one.
The game franchise is one of Microsoft’s most valuable properties, with tens of millions of copies sold to date for the first five mainline games. And E-Day will make it six with its debut this fall in what looks to be an awesome single-player campaign. The added treat is multiplayer.
I’ve been a fan of Gears of War since the first one came out in 2006, and I’ve known some dedicated Gears fans, but mostly for single player. But this experience reminded me of familiar online combat from years ago. I played it a bit during a press preview, and players will soon get to enjoy the multiplayer beta. I’ve never been very good at Gears multiplayer, but it has its delights and I have occasionally glimpsed greatness in other players as they use their chainsaw bayonets on me.
The Gears of War: E‑Day multiplayer beta begins on August 6, 2026 and the first test runs through August 10, 2026. After that, a second open beta weekend will happen but the date isn’t set yet.
In the playtest, we had the option of playing it on a PC or the console, and I chose the Xbox Series X/S. I just got a small taste of the multiplayer game but it felt like an old friend.
Horde Siege
Horde Siege is the newest and biggest multiplayer addition that introduces a 12-player player-versus-environment (PvE) mode where three squads defend Kalona, each pursuing their own objectives while crisscrossing large, immersive city maps as they battle relentless Locust forces.
Horde Siege expands the franchise’s iconic co-op survival experience with larger-scale encounters, squad-based coordination, and escalating threats that challenge teams to adapt, defend, and survive together. In this mode, you start out easy with a couple of teammates and an area to defend against the Locust horde in a defensible area underneath a road bridge.
You have one big gun that you can man to attack Locust soldiers from a distance, but inexplicably you cannot turn around and face the other direction in case the attack comes from behind your back. At first, the attackers are easy and they come at you in a kind of turkey shoot. But inevitably, some of them will come up close and make you earn your keep. They can close in fast and tear at you with gnashing teeth or shoot you with their weapons. You have to react fast and fire off a Gnasher shotgun blast at close range or a Lancer Assault rifle. When you reload the latter, the gun still has a mini-game where you actively reload and try to hit your bumper at the right time to make the reload go smooth and fast. If you fail, the reload is slow.
The games move fast and you can use your heavy weapons, but it’s pretty rare that you get enough time to whip out a grenade and blow up a bunch of them at once. They’re often just too fast for that. The maps are sprinkled with obstacles that you can use as cover and you can press one button to shift from cover to cover, but if you do that near an enemy, they’re take your head off. The environment looked good and there were good places to camp, but once the action starts, it feels like it’s just you against one enemy over and over again, until the horde gangs up on you and overwhelms you from all directions.
Versus mode
Gears of War: E-Day also brings back the classic 4v4 Gears PvP to all-new maps set in locations in and around the war-torn city of Kalona. Versus combines classic Gears symmetrical PvP map design with new traversal opportunities.
I enjoyed playing in a city marketplace where there were lots of long sight lines as well as rows of vegetable tables for cover. I had bots to fill out my team at one point and they did reasonably good against human opponents. That was a pleasant surprise. I often had to switch from the long-range but less damaging assault rifle to get targets on the other side of the building, but I also had to be ready to whip out the shotgun at close range.
With Gears multiplayer, it’s not lightning fast. It takes you time to change weapons or commit to a jump or grab cover or even raise your gunsights. During this time you are moving, you have to anticipate where your enemy is going to move. That’s easy if they are on a linear route. But if they are so close and they turn a corner, you may find your shotgun blast goes to where they were, not where they are. It’s almost like your movement has to be fast enough to head off the enemy, and you must judge when you are in gun range accurately.
In this way, Gears multiplayer is unique compared to Halo or Call of Duty. You have to get used to that slower pace and deal with enemies one at a time. When you’re really close, you can pull out the chainsaw bayonet. And it’s very satisfying when you are not on the receiving end.
Disclosure: Microsoft provided me with access to the multiplayer demo for Gears of War: E-Day on the Xbox Series X.