Microsoft had a "one more thing" moment during its Xbox Games Showcase presentation today, and it was a reveal from The Coalition. Gears of War is coming back, but the next entry is not a sequel to Gears 5. It’s a prequel that will follow the origins of the monster invasion. Catch the Gears of War: E-Day in-engine announcement trailer above.
The origin story will take players back to Emergence Day, the day that the Locust swarms began invading Sera's lands from below with its fearsome monsters and weapons. Only other media, like books and comics, have covered this point of the Gears of War timeline in the past, but finally, The Coalition is taking its gamers to that era.
"Fans of those mainline Gears of War games can expect to feel at home with how Gears of War: E-Day feels," says the announcement. "The Coalition is working to recreate and improve the series’ trademark third-person action, charging between cover in life-or death situations, all set within an explosive campaign that combines satisfying gameplay and emotive, character-led storytelling."
The studio says that it is tapping into new technologies that will affect the gameplay in a big way for this Unreal Engine 5-developed shooter, but it promises that E-Day will still be a Gears of War game at its core. Even the Locust Drones are being reformed to be powerful horrors instead of the cannon fodder we've seen them to be in recent entries.
"We’re telling the origin story of Marcus and Dom and their bond… this is the bond that defines the franchise,” Searcy adds. “They’re not the characters we know from Gears 1 to 3. They don’t have 10 years of fighting the Locust between them. When the game opens, there’s supposed to be peace on Sera, and they’re trying to figure out life without this person they both loved. People are going to see the formation of this brotherhood that is so iconic to Gears."
The return to the origin of the universe doesn't mean The Coalition is done with the future-set Gears storylines. It seems the studio plans to continue the Gears 5 storyline following E-Day's launch.
Unfortunately, Gears of War: E-Day did not get a release date or a launch platform announcement, but it's probably coming to Xbox and PC. Like other Microsoft first-party titles, though, it will be an Xbox Game Pass entry on day one.
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