I’m back from the Xbox Games Showcase 2024 in LA with a mountain of juicy new game information.
Last week, Microsoft had its best Xbox presentation ever with the amazing Xbox Games Showcase, 2024. With amazing trailer after amazing trailer, the showcase gave us a look at the incredible Xbox map of upcoming Xbox games with titles like Perfect Dark, Fable, South of Midnight , Avowed and many more. But the main act came from one of Xbox’s most iconic, long-running franchises.
The Coalition has emerged from its slumber with Gears of War: E-Day, which aims to tell the story of the Locust Horde from the very beginning. Emergence Day is a notorious event in Gears of War history, with Gears of War 1 itself taking place 14 years ago. The game is shrouded in mystery and intrigue right now, leading to an absolutely spectacular Unreal Engine 5 trailer that showcases the gritty tone of the game.
We caught up with The Coalition’s Creative Director Matt Searcy and Brand Director Nicole Fawcette to try and find out more details. Matt and Nicole offered insight into Gears of War: E-Day’s multiplayer plans, the very essence of the game’s direction, how they’ll keep things fresh, and more.
Why Gears of War: E-Day?
For fans hoping to see the conclusion of Kaito’s saga from Gears of War 4 and 5, E-Day was a bit of a surprise. There have been rumors that Gears of War will be coming to the Xbox Showcase in some form, but I don’t think I’ve seen a single hint anywhere that it’s a Gears prequel set during Emergence Day.
E-Day is an event in the Gears canon that is often referenced, but largely unrepresented within the franchise thus far. Gears of War 1 takes place several years after civilization has been virtually destroyed by the Locust Horde. The Locust as a subterranean reptilian race that “emerges” on E-Day and consumes entire cities by sinking them underground, using gigantic creatures. The true nature of the Locust is revealed throughout the original trilogy (which you should definitely play), but E-Day takes us back to a time of panic and chaos. E-Day took humanity completely unprepared, with no proper weapons to fight this type of war, and no tactics to match the fury of the Locust. Matt Searcy and Nicole Fawcette explained to us how Gears of War E-Day came about in LA last month.
The Coalition has been working on Gears of War for ten years, and noted that before the pandemic, the team delivered Gears of War 4, Gears 5, Gears Tactics, and the Xbox Series X update for the Gears 5th frame during that time. Then Unreal Engine 5 dropped and it was time for something new.
“By the time we were done with all of that, we were well into the pandemic,” Searcy recalls, “a lot of people were thinking. We knew we were going to Unreal 5, we knew this big technology update was coming. We wanted to rebuild a lot of things from the ground up and to think about the franchise and what it meant to us at The Coalition. That’s why we had elements from the Mad World trailer here, that kind of vibe is what we love about the franchise.”
While researching Gears of War into its core parts, The Coalition realized that so much of the story and even the gameplay goes back to E-Day, an event that takes place 14 years before Gears of War 1.
“E-Day is an origin story,” continued Nicole Fawcette, “it’s the origin story of the bond that defines the franchise, which is the friendship of Marcus Fenix and Dom Santiago. When you first meet them, they’re not the same Marcus and Dom, you know, in Gears 1 they’ve already spent 14 years fighting Locust.”
In Gears of War: E-Day, Marcus and Dom are just returning from the Pendulum Wars, which was a global conflict over resources between Sera’s two primary superpowers. Millions were lost in this conflict and the development of crazy weapons such as the Hammer of Dawn orbital laser appeared during this conflict. After this war, humanity enjoyed barely two months of respite before E-Day arrived.
“Peace was declared on Sera and they had a bright future ahead of them. There is also the trauma and sadness of the Pendulum Wars, stemming from the death of Dom’s brother Carlos. Carlos was Dom’s brother, but he was Marcus’ best friend.” So Marcus and Dom aren’t the best friends we know yet.”
“So the trailer set our emotional tone as well as our visual tone,” Nicole continued. Indeed, we learned last week that the Gears of War: E-Day trailer was fully built, using in-game assets and lighting, and should represent well the kind of quality players can expect from the game. starts It should also be a good representation of horror.
“You can see that we wanted to move the Locust drone into a real scary, terrifying creature. People remember Gears of War 1 having these climactic moments of horror and being scared. We’re going back to that darker, grittier vibe.” that people have in mind when they think of a franchise.”
Nicole stressed that while they’re upping the ante, they’re not abandoning the franchise’s emotional hooks, recalling some of the game’s most painful sequences involving Dom and his wife Maria from Gears 2 or the climax of Gears 3. harrowing stories of human suffering, but also offers hope and what it feels like to have a team behind you. to have moments where you cut off the head of a Locust with a chainsaw and it feels so damn good.”
How will Gears of War: E-Day differ from its predecessors?
One question I got asked a lot on social media last week was “Will Gears of War: E-Day have multiplayer?” Personally, I found this question surprising, but we live in strange times of inverted expectations. Every single Gears of War has some form of competitive multiplayer, and more often than not, a multiplayer PvE mode in Horde. Still, I snidely asked Matt Searcy if players can once again expect the frenetic multiplayer combat of Gears to return. I say sneaky because the team really wasn’t ready to dig deeper into the weeds of game modes and such, but Matt had some reassurance for those concerned.
“I’d say this is the next major Gears game,” Searcy pointed out, “Gears has a pretty clear DNA for game modes, so you can probably predict where we’re going with E-Day.”
There are actually some things about Gears that will never change, like the competitive multiplayer, but I was also curious to see how E-Day would disrupt expectations. Granted, we never got to experience E-Day itself, but fighting a Locust in a crumbling city at least sounds pretty familiar. I asked Matt and Nicole how they find ways to bring something new while also nodding to the past.
“I agree, there’s a lot of things we can do. Story-wise, there’s a 14-year gap between E-Day and Gears 1. Even Gears Tactics was a few years after the war. E-Day isn’t a world that It’s a beautiful world with by people who are in peacetime. We’re seeing Locust through the eyes of people who’ve never seen them before, and they don’t know what’s going on,” Matt explained. “We’re also going to change the game. We’ve worked on the franchise for ten years, so we have experience revising enemy types, but also adding new weapons and possibly new enemies. I will do all those things.”
Nicole joins in with advice on the development of Gears’ most iconic weapon, the Lancer chainsaw. Which was truly a product born out of necessity in the E-Day era. “E-Day is the origin story of many things, including the Chainsaw Lancer. We’ll see that the Chainsaw Lancer was actually made later because there were no weapons that could pierce their super thick skin. We’ll tell the story of how that happened, and yes, you’ll be able to use it too.”
Duo Coalition was adamant that they weren’t ready to talk about the finer points of Gears of War: E-Day, but I couldn’t resist bringing up some of the more “experimental” elements of Gears 5. The fact that it expanded a bit with side missions in very broad linear areas, the fact that you could “upgrade” and spec Jack for additional abilities, and so on. I tried to tease them out if Gears of War: E-Day would simply return to the Gears of War game design, or if it would bring something new.
“We think we have a pretty good idea of what makes Gears feel great, but that doesn’t mean we have to take Gears back to its simplest possible version. Some things we tried didn’t work great, and some things we tried .” that actually turned out pretty well, we know there’s something linear “against everything” running through it, but there’s room for us to play around with it. Matt continued, “Gears of War: E-Day is going to feel like a fucking Gears game, like the one in people’s heads. But it’s also going to look like a new game. It’s going to have a new feel. , it’s going to feel fresh and good at the same time.’
Will Raam show up? I’m asking. “We’re not answering story questions right now…” the duo say, exchanging smiles.
Back to Gears of War
I asked Nicole as brand director why they went back to ‘Gears of War’ after two games called simply ‘Gears’. “It’s a comeback, isn’t it?” He says, “We’re going back to the roots. That’s really the answer.”
I asked if Gears of War: E-Day starts a new trilogy. After all, it takes place 14 years before Gears of War 1. That’s a lot of story to pack into that decade and a half. “We’re focusing on it and pouring everything we can into it right now, we’ll decide what the next game is going to be in the future.” Matt said, and Nicole chimed in, “We’re not backing away from the stories of Gears 4 and 5 though. We’ve spent time thinking about the stories we want to tell and we can adjust the franchise from both sides.” I’m excited to tell this story and hopefully the fans will enjoy it as well.”
At the time of writing, the Gears of War: E-Day trailer has 1.3 million views. It is many Gears fans. Gears of War is one of Xbox’s biggest and most iconic franchises, and The Coalition has taken its place as one of Microsoft’s most important pillars within its gaming organization. The Coalition joined Playground Games and effectively carried over the Xbox One generation, sending out mountains of content in a short amount of time. The Coalition was also recognized for its technical expertise, helping to elevate other Xbox studios using the Unreal Engine, from Ninja Theory to Undead Labs.
I’m incredibly nostalgic about the Gears franchise, but I’m also eager to experience a new take on the series. I loved the new features that Gears 5 explored, and have no doubt that Gears of War: E-Day will take a similar approach to changing things up. After all, we’re not exactly expert Locust hunters at this.
Gears of War: E-Day has no known launch window, but you can expect it to hit Xbox Series X|S and Windows PC via Xbox Game Pass in the coming years.