Gears of War: E-Day is not only returning to the beginning of Marcus Fenix and Dom Santiago’s story, but also restoring four-player campaign co-op. The Coalition says this is not a throwaway extra, but a core part of Gears of War’s identity that players have gone without for far too long.
It feels as though we have gone back to the 2000s, with a new Gears of War and a new Halo releasing in the same year, even if only one of them is a completely new game. We are talking, of course, about E-Day, a prequel to the original five-game saga that will take players back to Emergence Day, when the Locust Horde first burst onto the surface. Despite being a new story that explores Marcus and Dom’s past, as well as the beginning of the war against the Locust, The Coalition is also bringing back something the series has not had for 10 years, and it was far from easy.
Just like Gears of War 3, E-Day, launching on October 6, 2026 for PC and Xbox Series X|S, will let players experience the origins of the Locust invasion in a single-player campaign, two-player co-op, or four-player co-op. Matt Searcy, the game’s creative director, has confirmed that this is not a typical online co-op mode, as players will be able to use local split-screen with friends, dividing the screen into two or even four sections.
As Searcy explained to GamesRadar+, it was not an easy decision. “I’m not going to lie, it’s a big investment. We made the decision to include four-player co-op to make it clear that this is the DNA of Gears. Our stories are almost always about a four-person squad, right? But it’s exceptionally rare for Gears to be played from this perspective, with multiple players playing simultaneously. That’s going to change with E-Day.”
In Gears of War: E-Day, You Can Control Anyone in the Squad
That is directly tied to the way the story unfolds. E-Day will let players take control of any member of Bravo Squad – Marcus Fenix, Dominic Santiago, Mags Carter, or Lucas Reyes – in a story told entirely from their perspective. The team will experience the fall of Kalona during Emergence Day, with The Coalition taking a more intimate approach: “It’s like Band of Brothers or Saving Private Ryan, where you follow this group and they’re not always going to be in the right place at the right time.”
The studio has also had to redesign its environments to accommodate the expanded co-op structure without sacrificing the coherence of the campaign’s design. Searcy says the goal is to ensure a strong experience in both solo play and four-player co-op, adjusting the size and dynamics of combat spaces accordingly. “You can try different tactics and experiment with multiple things at once on our large maps, and it’s a lot of fun,” Searcy concluded.
Source: 3DJuegos, GamesRadar+
