Gears of War E-Day's near-perfect intro feels designed for Xbox Game Pass

Published Oct 6, 2026, 1:00 PM EDT

Tomas Franzese is the Weekend News Editor at Polygon, following and reporting on the latest goings-on in the gaming and entertainment spaces. During the week, you can find him working on Remastered, his newsletter about video game history and retro gaming, or contributing to GameSpot and other publications. Previously, Tomas was the Gaming Segment Lead at XDA and a Staff Writer at Digital Trends.

Developed by The Coalition, Gears of War: E-Day is a prequel about the Locust’s initial attack on Sera. Most of the game consists of the brutal, bloody shootouts the series is known for, but it does not start that way. By taking cues from horror games and slowly easing players into the wild world of Gears of War, Act 1 of E-Day is hard to put down until you’ve seen it through. It’s exactly the kind of opening that a flagship first-party release on Xbox Game Pass needs to get people to keep playing.

For how over-the-top Gears of War games usually are, E-Day starts out with a sense of creeping horror. Rather than being immediately introduced to longtime protagonists Marcus or Dom, we see a worker investigating a disturbance underground, only to be killed by the Locust hours before emergence. Then the stakes for the series’ iconic duo are established, as we learn that Dom’s days in COG would’ve been numbered had Emergence Day not happened.

Then, apocalypse strikes. I initially expected E-Day to fall into the standard Gears of War gameplay loop here. Instead, we see Marcus, Dom, and two other COG soldiers who were at the same bar as them essentially act as first responders to an inexplicable and horrific crisis as earthquakes shatter the city and the Locust terrorize its people. I didn’t immediately have a gun with a chainsaw on it; I had a pipe that I could whack small enemies with, which made each new weapon Marcus and co. scavenged feel like a relief.

Image: Xbox Game Studios

Because I was not the fully equipped super soldier I usually am in Gears of War games, there was a real sense of horror as each new enemy type was introduced. Not only is the main crew terrified by what they’re seeing, but I’m also constantly wondering what they’ll stumble into next. This subversion of the standard Gears of War formula peaked as I investigated a decimated police station, Resident Evil 2-style, and encountered the grunts I’ll be fighting for most of the game for the first time.

From there, the action keeps ramping up as more characters are introduced. (One even gets the idea to use a chainsaw against the Locust.) The crew looks for survivors, helps them take shelter at the police station and City Hall, unaware this will be the start of a decades-long war. It all culminates with a fight against a hulking Brumak in front of City Hall, and that was the first time I felt that E-Day really crossed the threshold into the standard Gears of War formula.

The Coalition recognizes that too, as from here on out Gears of War: E-Day is mostly comprised of repetitive shootouts, only occasionally introducing a new enemy type to shake things up. That’s not to say it’s bad, it’s just less interesting than that horror-infused first act of the game. Still, because that first hour got me so invested in the characters and overall narrative tone of E-Day, I wanted to keep playing.

Image: Xbox Game Studios

The first impression is everything for a game, especially when it’s primarily being distributed on a subscription service like Xbox Game Pass. The team at The Coalition clearly understood this, and designed the first hour of Gears of War: E-Day to be the strongest part of the game, easing players into this universe in a way that made me not want to put the controller down.

I wish the rest of E-Day could’ve maintained the gameplay variety and narrative heft of this first act. Still, I have no qualms recommending Game Pass Ultimate subscribers play through Act 1, as it’s one of the best opening hours of any game this year. And when a game is sitting alongside several similar titles and games in the same series in a vast subscription service catalog, a strong opening is a very appealing quality to have.