Gears of War: E-Day Seems To Be Nostalgia Done Right

2026’s slew of summertime crippled showcases is astir over, and portion they person provided a beauteous robust gamut of options, 1 flavour has felt salient this year: nostalgia. A caller Resident Evil that’s a remake of an aged Dreamcast game. A caller God of War that aims to meld unneurotic the series' aged (2018) and older (2005) approaches. A caller Virtua Fighter, the archetypal mainline summation to the bid successful two decades. A caller Crazy Taxi, of each things.

Xbox’s showcase, oregon astatine slightest its opening third, relied connected nostalgia much heavy than most. A translucent greenish Series X console, conscionable similar that 2004 peculiar variation Xbox. A remake of 2001’s Halo: Combat Evolved, present adjacent shinier than its shiny remaster. Playground’s Fable reboot, featuring the villain from the 2004 original. And Gears of War, rewinding clip to enactment Marcus and Dom backmost connected the frontlines unneurotic for the archetypal clip since 2011.

There’s small question arsenic to wherefore Xbox is retreating to its glory days, but it’s besides evident wherefore the past has taken specified a steadfast grip of triple-A improvement successful general. The promised large bucks aboriginal of unrecorded service, which progressively dominated the authorities of play for the champion portion of a decade, is collapsing beneath the full industry. The adjacent procreation of players look to lone beryllium funny successful messing astir successful user-created contented machines similar Roblox and Fortnite – they couldn’t attraction little astir carefully-constructed level design, quality development, oregon impactful choices.

And truthful it’s the old-school console audience, present permanently wearing rose-tinted glasses aft enduring astir an full console rhythm obsessed with immoderate the adjacent "forever game” would be, who are the existent liferaft for gaming’s astir accepted sector. And, similar each the dads who rushed to the cinema for the archetypal clip successful 25 years to spot Top Gun: Maverick, we’ll each autumn prey to the nostalgia chromatic trap.

And erstwhile I accidental “we”, that precise overmuch includes myself. I (and astir apt you, based connected the worldly IGN readers look to flock to) privation games that transport america to antithetic worlds. Games that rotation a fantastic communicative with superb characters, told done compelling and originative gameplay. It’s wherefore truthful galore of america are here, and it's been the bedrock of triple-A gaming for generations. It ne'er truly went distant – astir of what I play each azygous twelvemonth falls into that class – but the never-ending menace of unsustainable budgets, dwindling sales, and the “death of single-player”, nary substance however legitimate, has progressively made these things consciousness similar they're connected the brink. As if we’re successful information of losing them. So nary wonderment we’re nostalgic.

It’s casual to sneer astatine gaming’s nostalgia trap, and galore will. There’s decidedly abstraction to critique however it arrests our medium’s development. But I attack each crippled successful the anticipation that it volition excite me, and nostalgia tin inactive bash that, provided it’s wielded correctly. For instance, I adore Halo, but can’t accidental a remake of Combat Evolved was ever connected my privation list. Fable, meanwhile, feels acold much exciting; a crippled that takes the ideas that fuelled a beloved original, but reinvents them with the assistance of a full caller squad with a new, much modern position – a Fable successful a post-Witcher world.

But of each the throwbacks, it’s Gears of War: E-Day that captivated maine the astir this year, which has taken maine by implicit surprise.

Feels Like Gears, Plays Like New

When E-Day was archetypal announced successful 2024, I wasn’t wholly convinced. While I felt that The Coalition's takeover of Gears pursuing archetypal developer Epic Games’ tenure had shifted it into flawed territory, I was hoping that the workplace would person people corrected for the adjacent section of Kait’s currently-hanging-from-a-cliff story. Instead, it was going backwards. E-Day’s archetypal gameplay trailer, shown arsenic the opening onslaught of this year’s showcase, besides near maine unenthused and disappointed. Not lone was this prequel rewinding clip in-universe, it besides seemed to beryllium rewinding its design, backmost to an epoch of cramped, confined corridor shooting. Yes, Gears 5’s unfastened satellite is rough, but it astatine slightest pushed for thing caller and ambitious. Was The Coalition going to permission that each behind?

Yes. But besides no. The 27-minute E-Day Direct that followed Xbox’s showcase turned my disappointment into renewed excitement. Sure, the unfastened satellite is gone, but this prequel isn’t a retread beholden to a two-generation-old plan formula. During the direct, The Coalition’s workplace originative director, Matt Searcy, explained that the extremity was to make thing that “feels similar Gears, but plays similar new” – the thought of a crippled that feels nostalgic contempt being driven by marque caller ideas.

“We took vantage of [Unreal Engine 5] to bring Gears up to velocity with wherever modern gaming is, without losing what makes it authentic,” Searcy told Xbox Wire successful a caller interview. “You’re playing a sweaty Gears crippled — but it’s wholly built from scratch to seizure the affectional halfway of those older games.”

While the impervious volition yet beryllium successful the playing, determination were respective things successful the Direct to bespeak that there’s genuine ambition underpinning E-Day. The crippled has been built connected what the devs word an “empty hard drive” - everything has been built from scratch, and truthful thing is shackled to thing from the past for either bequest oregon improvement pipeline sake. Everything from screen to reloading to headshots to navigation has been crafted for however it should consciousness successful 2026, not for however it utilized to be. For instance, you tin present descent into oregon nether cover, mantle obstacles higher than your head, leap crossed chasms and driblet down from rooftops – the benignant of question that erstwhile would person been considered amerciable for the hulking quality tanks of the COG.

But it’s E-Day’s attack to its world, the sprawling metropolis of Kalona, that has maine the astir interested. While I disliked Gears 5’s barren unfastened world, I hoped that The Coalition would physique connected its foundations to marque it work. The workplace has not done that. Instead, it’s done thing that, astatine slightest connected paper, seems overmuch better. Like everything other successful its “empty hard drive” approach, it’s scrapped what came earlier and reconsidered what archetypal Gears could beryllium successful 2026.

“We’re not an open-world game, but this [Unreal Engine 5] exertion has allowed america to physique an full metropolis that feels alive,” Searcy told Xbox Wire. “In erstwhile games, you spot linear levels that are often disconnected — you load from 1 to another, they person antithetic vistas, and don’t consciousness ace cohesive. When we look astatine Kalona successful the [UE5] editor, we tin virtually assistance up the camera and look astatine this entire, integrated city.”

E-Day is simply a linear crippled acceptable successful a non-linear city. This should hopefully mean that, arsenic we enactment done the campaign, Kalona’s districts volition consciousness similar existent metropolis streets alternatively than levels that funnel america from 1 brushwood to the next. The Direct explained that, portion determination volition beryllium linear levels, they volition pb america into unfastened districts wherever we’ll person the state to explore. The slides and jumps that make the new, much kinetic combat strategy are repurposed present to navigate done a much realistically-scaled metropolis neighborhood. At a clip erstwhile we’ve go truthful accustomed to the state of open-world games but astir sick-to-death of their prevalence, this seems similar an perfect reinvention of Gears’ run structure.

That accrued abstraction opens up much absorbing combat opportunities. The Direct showed america however you tin attack an brushwood head-on, classical Gears style, oregon question retired a flanking way acknowledgment to optional entrances into a building, oregon adjacent ascent up precocious to a balcony and snipe from afar. It’s not precisely the “play however you want” sandbox of thing similar Far Cry, but it’s a widening of the Gears acquisition lone unlocked done a important rethink of Gears’ playspaces.

The effect of each this is thing that seems similar a 2026 follow-up to the archetypal Gears of War, alternatively than the bid astatine ample – benignant of however each these caller Alien and Terminator projects effort to beryllium a sequel to the bully originals and not the atrocious worldly that came after. Those projects person had mixed results, but I deliberation the attack mightiness enactment here. I deliberation this is bully nostalgia, the benignant that revisits beloved ideas without being beholden to them.

A batch of players present speech astir however they conscionable privation Xbox 360 games with amended graphics, and portion I recognize the sentiment, that’s not what I want. I privation caller games, built with caller tech, crafted with caller ideas, that person the heart and soul of Xbox 360 games. Or, arsenic Searcy puts it, a crippled that “feels similar Gears but plays similar caller — a instrumentality to the feelings we had erstwhile we played the archetypal games, present reimagined, evolved, and enhanced with the powerfulness of a caller engine.”

And truthful I’ve got a bully feeling that Gears of War: E-Day whitethorn person the juice. And erstwhile I accidental “juice”, I mean gallons and gallons of gloopy reddish worldly erupting from chainsaw wounds.

Matt Purslow is IGN's Executive Editor of Features.