My brother and I first got an Xbox 360 on Christmas Eve 2006. Unfortunately, we didn't get a memory card. Over Christmas break, we rented Gears of War from Movie Gallery and took turns with our cousin playing the campaign in split-screen co-op, and since we had no way to save our progress, we played the whole thing from start to finish. It's one of my favorite gaming memories, and it's an experience that made me a lifelong Gears of War fan. With Gears of War: E-Day taking the franchise back to its narrative roots, I've been even more excited to play the latest entry in the series than usual. Now that I've completed the campaign and spent some time with multiplayer and Horde, it's safe to say that Gears of War: E-Day is yet another excellent addition to the franchise.
Gears of War: E-Day is a prequel to the original game, showing what happened on Emergence Day when the Locusts first started their brutal invasion of the surface world. Fresh off the Pendulum Wars, Marcus, Dom, and their fellow Gears spring into action and waste no time arming themselves to fight off the grotesque invaders. What proceeds is a generally exciting campaign with action-packed set-pieces, jaw-dropping visuals, and classic Gears of War cover-based-shooter gameplay elevated by the new movement system.
The most important changes to the Gears of War formula are the upgrades The Coalition has made to the movement. Whereas previous Gears of War games sometimes felt overly restrictive, E-Day gives players the ability to jump, climb on top of objects they normally wouldn't be able to, and slide across the battlefield. These may seem like small changes on the surface, but in practice, they can dramatically change the way players approach any given combat scenario. Sure, the tried-and-true method of staying behind cover and shooting at a Locust from afar still works, but in E-Day, players can give themselves a shot of adrenaline to reduce incoming damage, charge straight for the enemy, slide, and then blow them to pieces on the way by with the Gnasher shotgun.
E-Day's movement changes combined with Injectors allow players to play far more aggressively than ever before. Injectors effectively give players cooldown abilities that they can use strategically to get the advantage in various situations, with new ones discovered throughout the campaign. Beyond Injector Mods, players can also find mods for their weapons, which can also change things up quite a bit. For example, players may find the long-range Locust weapon known as the Breechshot, but when they first find it, it doesn't have a scope. With the right mod, players can add a scope and make the weapon significantly more useful.
Mods are often found in Hard Cases sprinkled throughout E-Day's levels. The mods themselves are definitely useful and worth seeking out, though there are times when it feels like the game is perhaps a little oversaturated with collectibles. Hard Cases are seemingly everywhere, as are the more routine lore collectibles. Still, it's certainly possible to completely ignore these things and play the game like an old-school Gears of War title if that's what you want, so it's not a big deal.
Most levels in the E-Day campaign are brilliantly designed, linear levels with impressive set-pieces and exciting encounters. The game does feature some large open areas that are effectively mini-open worlds, though, and these are more of a mixed bag. Players can complete side quests in these stages (in exchange for mods) and search for more Hard Cases, and it can be fun doing these activities with friends, but they definitely hurt the pacing of the narrative. Luckily, these open world sections are not the bulk of the E-Day campaign and like the mods, can mostly be ignored if players want a more traditional Gears of War experience.
In general, E-Day's story is somewhat of a letdown when compared to other games in the series. While there are certainly cool moments and shocking developments, E-Day's narrative suffers from prequelitis. We know the ultimate fate of most of the characters in the game, so it's hard to get invested when something happens. The emotional story beats simply don't land in E-Day like they do in other Gears of War titles.
The two new playable characters, Lucas Reyes and Mags Carter, do not add anything meaningful to the story. They spout some of the worst, MCU-style cringe dialogue in the campaign, and neither have a compelling arc. It seems they were added for the sole purpose of making the campaign 4-player co-op, which is fine, but don't expect to get attached to them like you may have other Gears of War characters in the past.
سەرچاوەی فەرمی بە زمانی ئینگلیزی: https://gamerant.com/gears-of-war-e-day-review/
