08/08/2026
Yo, do you have Gears of War knowledge?
Let me know your thoughts about Gears of War: E-Day!
-Dad
I'm brand new to the Gears franchise, so I want to make that clear right off the bat. I'm definitely not trying to tell veteran players what Gears is supposed to be lol. A lot of you have been playing these games for nearly 20 years, while I've only recently started digging into them.
Most of what I know so far comes from researching the older games, watching gameplay and tournament footage, playing a little myself, and now having about two days with E-Day.
One thing that stood out almost immediately while learning about Gears was that it had its OWN thing going. The roadie run, heavy movement, cover-based combat, wall bouncing, Gnasher fights, tight over-the-shoulder camera, active reloads, ridiculously bulky characters, etc. Even being completely new to the franchise, I could watch older gameplay and immediately think, "Yep, that's Gears."
That's why some of what I'm seeing in E-Day has surprised me.
There's more new-age traditional sprinting, a dedicated jump, sliding and slide canceling, changes to wall bouncing, projectile-based gunplay instead of hit scan, a wider FOV, UI changes, slimmer characters, class/perk systems in certain modes and probably other things I'm missing.
I'm not saying any of that is automatically bad. I'm WAY too new to Gears to make that call. Some of it might end up being great for the game. It's more all of it combined that has me wondering..
From a new player's perspective, it feels like Gears already had this really unique formula, but some of E-Day's changes seem to push it toward the same general design choices we see in a lot of modern shooters. That's a little strange to me because one of the things that actually got me interested in Gears was how different it looked and felt compared to Call of Duty, Battlefield, & any other fps shooter I've played to date.
Gears didn't seem like it needed to chase the modern shooter niche because Gears WAS its own niche.
Again, I'm brand new here. I'm basing this on research, older gameplay, tournament footage, a little time with the previous games and now a couple days playing E-Day. I'm not pretending I understand Gears better than people who have been playing it for years.
That's actually why I'm curious what you guys think.
Are these good changes that Gears needed to modernize and bring in new players? Or are we slowly watching some of the things that made GEARS... GEARS in the first place get leeched away?
Especially those of you who've been playing since the older games, what do you like so far? What don't you like? And what are the things you absolutely DON'T want to see Gears lose?
-Dad
