Gears of War: E-Day is out: day one on Game Pass, Xbox Series X/S, PC and Steam

One of Xbox's biggest releases of the year, Gears of War: E-Day, went live worldwide today, Tuesday, October 6, at 8 a.m. Pacific (18:00 GMT+3). It is out on Xbox Series X|S, PC (Microsoft Store) and Steam, and Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass members can play from day one at no extra cost. Premium Edition owners have been in early access since October 1.

What is it about?

E-Day goes back 14 years before the first game, to Emergence Day, when the Locust Horde first broke through the surface. You follow Marcus Fenix and Dom Santiago across three days and nights in the city of Kalona. The campaign can be played solo, in online co-op for up to four players, or in two-player split screen on console.

Modes

• Campaign: Marcus and Dom's story; four players online or two-player split screen on console.
• Horde Siege: four-player PvE against waves of enemies, with four classes: Assault, Marksman, Medic and Breacher.
• Versus: 4v4 competitive play with social and ranked playlists.

The game is built in Unreal Engine 5 and, according to Xbox, targets 4K resolution and up to 60 FPS in both campaign and multiplayer. It is an Xbox Play Anywhere title: progression and achievements are shared between console and PC.

Languages and PC requirements

According to the Steam store page the game supports 22 languages, including Turkish, Arabic and Russian interface and subtitles; full audio is available in languages such as English, German, French, Spanish and Brazilian Portuguese. Cross-platform multiplayer is supported.

PC requirements listed on Steam:

• Minimum: Windows 10 64-bit, Ryzen 5 2600X / Core i5-10400, 12 GB RAM, GeForce RTX 2060 or Radeon RX 6600 (a GPU with hardware ray tracing is required), 115 GB free space, SSD required.
• Recommended: Windows 11, Ryzen 5 5600 / Core i5-11600K, 16 GB RAM, GeForce RTX 3060 Ti or Radeon RX 6700 XT, 115 GB, SSD.

Plan for the 115 GB download; pre-loading has been open since September 29.

What the reviews say

The review embargo lifted on October 1 and covered the campaign only; multiplayer was not available to reviewers. At the time of writing the OpenCritic top-critic average was around 87 with roughly 90 percent of critics recommending the game, and GamesRadar notes this makes it The Coalition's best-reviewed Gears game on Metacritic so far. Praise centres on the characters and the feel of combat; criticism on parts of the story and the collectible system. The Guardian broke the embargo early with a 3 out of 5, focusing on the collectible alert sound that interrupts emotional scenes.

What players are saying

• In the ResetEra review thread players broadly agree the campaign is "the best since Gears 3". The biggest debate is multiplayer being left out of the reviews. Many appreciate that the game ships as a complete package of campaign, Horde and Versus without a battle pass.
• On the Steam discussion board day-one topics are the concurrent player count (Steam numbers look low because most people play through Game Pass), performance complaints in Horde Siege, and when ranked Versus opens.
• On Technopat Sosyal Turkish players are mostly discussing The Guardian's review; no separate launch-day performance thread has been opened yet.

How to play

• With Game Pass: if you have Game Pass Ultimate or PC Game Pass, install the game from your library and play. See our Xbox Game Pass page for memberships; the code's region must match your account.
• By buying it: top up with an Xbox gift card for the Microsoft Store or a Steam Wallet code for Steam. Prices vary by region; the current price is on the store page.
• Premium Edition contents: the Bravo Squad Signature Weapon Pack and five seasonal customization packs, starting with the Emergence Pack at launch. An upgrade from the Standard Edition is available.

For other platforms see our gift cards page. The rest of October's releases are in this week in games.

Sources: Xbox: Gears of War: E-Day official page, Xbox Wire: launch-day guide (October 6), Xbox Wire: gone gold, pre-install and PC specs, Steam store page, OpenCritic, GamesRadar, ResetEra review thread, Steam discussions, Technopat Sosyal. Scores are as of the time of writing and may change.