Summary

• Gears of War: E-Day brings back Marcus and Dom for a prequel on Emergence Day, but risks further repeating old themes.
• Gears of War 4 and Gears 5 added interesting twists to the series, but ultimately retread old ground.
• E-Day is similarly stuck trying to recapture the heights of the original trilogy by bringing players back to the Locust War, which the series never really left in the first.

series-best Gears of War 2 for me, but roadie running around and chainsawing grubs has a sort of base appeal that hasn't ceased to be entertaining. Since The Coalition took stewardship of the series' development, there have been some irable and interesting new wrinkles, but I'm worried E-Day may be treading well-worn ground that's keeping Gears of War from significant evolution.

prequel will follow Marcus and Dom on Emergence Day, the catastrophic beginning of the Locust War that resulted in the death of billions of humans roughly 14 years before the events of the original Gears of War. Much of the gameplay can be safely assumed, however, since aside from the rare spin-off like Gears Tactics, the series has stayed competently in its lane. While I'm eager for more Gears, and especially excited at the prospect of Marcus and Dom reuniting, I'm worried E-Day is only going to contribute more to the series' stagnation.

I've Been Fighting Basically The Same Enemy In Gears Of War For Nearly 2 Decades

Locust & Swarm Are One & The Same

For the series' first three games, the story of Gears of War was the story of ending the Locust War. The finale of the trilogy was satisfying, but the series, likely because of its popularity, was understandably kept alive. The difficulty of moving on narratively from the Locust War is evident in Gears of War: Judgment, which is the series' first prequel game set shortly after Emergence Day. From a macro view, the setting is difficult to work with post-Locust War – most of Sera's population has been wiped out, the Locust and the Lambent are gone; there's very little to work with for such a gory third-person shooter series.

There isn't even anything especially unique about the Swarm.

Because of this, I applaud The Coalition for introducing the Swarm in Gears of War 4 in a way that doesn't feel contrived. The series has repeatedly leaned on the idea that the Locust is a species replete with mysteries, and finding out that they've hibernated inside chrysalis shells made from Imulsion and subsequently evolved into the Swarm is a genuinely fascinating development. This clever narrative turn, however, still doesn't help the fact that the Swarm, even by another name, are just the Locust re-skinned.

New enemy units have been enough to keep adequate gameplay variety through Gears 5, but it's hard to see the series as doing anything other than retreading ground. There isn't even anything especially unique about the Swarm at large; they follow Queen Reyna just like the Locust followed Queen Myrrah, Reyna's mother, in parallel lines of succession. Perpetual war is a major theme in Gears of War, and while I've enjoyed both of The Coalition's entries, this sort of recursive storytelling has kept the series from evolving.

Queen Reyna isn't a wholly autonomous successor to Myrrah. Reyna was mercy killed by her daughter, Kait, at the end of Gears 4, but Reyna's body was reanimated by the Swarm and taken over by the consciousness of Myrrah, which survived the fall of the Locust via the hivemind. Reyna's current incarnation is one and the same with Myrrah, much like the Swarm evolving from the Locust.

Gears Of War: E-Day Won't Break Any New Ground

Emergence Day Began The Locust War

I don't really have any doubts that I'll enjoy Gears of War: E-Day. Marcus and Dom remain my favorite duo in the series, and Emergence Day specifically is such a devastating event that I think the game will be capable of delivering exceedingly sad moments like those that came to be the defining beats of the original trilogy. But taking a step back, I'm a little confused that another prequel is next on the Gears slate. Gears 5 ended with unfulfilled impetus, suggesting Gears 6 would focus on hunting down Queen Reyna. Putting the current narrative on hiatus to deliver what isn't even a radical departure is a bit of an odd strategy.

Simply bringing back the original main characters (and seemingly the series' initial, overwhelmingly gray color palette) is likely to pique the interest of those who feel less compelled by Kait's saga. Cities sinking into the Hollow is sure to deliver some drama, but I'm not convinced coming back to fight the Locust again is going to be exceptionally inspiring. If anything, it feels like a step sideways, drumming up nostalgia to attract players, rather than finding compelling new avenues for the series.

Gears 4 & 5 Hint At The Series' Unfulfilled Potential

The Pendulum Wars & The Fall Of The COG

Gears 4 gave me the slightest taste of something I have long hoped to get from the series: a Pendulum Wars game. There is only a brief mission, one-third of the Gears of War 4 prologue, where you play as Dom during a battle at Aspho Point, two years before E-Day. There are ittedly some gameplay issues with developing a Pendulum Wars game – the series has built itself on the idea of fighting monsters, and the larger Locust and Swarm creatures are often the most exciting parts of their respective levels. The Pendulum Wars is a conflict between humans, so a large leap into vehicle combat might be necessary to uphold the series' variety.

The Coalition has put an interesting spin on things, but refused to let Gears of War evolve significantly.

But a Pendulum Wars game isn't the only avenue, and alternatives I think highlight another area where the post-Locust narrative has floundered. The Coalition of Order Governments has consistently been positioned as a necessary evil on Sera: a hyper-militarized, fascist regime tolerated as the only fighting force able to oppose the Locust. Near the end of the Locust War, however, it was disbanded. Its reformation shortly thereafter isn't necessarily an issue, but it's still held on a complicated pedestal in Gears 4 and 5, despite the narrative embracing Outsiders and exploring the vestiges of the Union of Independent Republics, both of which could have informed the story more.

It's another case where The Coalition has put an interesting spin on things, but refused to let Gears of War evolve significantly. The COG has violently suppressed protests in settlements, and strong-arms Outsiders into the fold in the interest of fighting against the Swarm. The Swarm are seemingly not as ubiquitous as the Locust were, yet the COG is still regarded as a required institution, despite the main cast largely expressing disdain for the government.

Anya Stroud, Marcus Fenix's wife, became the first First Minister of the COG after its reformation, yet Marcus appears to still actively dislike it.

Some of the retread ground in Gears 4 and 5 could likely have been avoided by positioning the COG as a secondary antagonist. Fighting DeeBees in the beginning of Gears 4 wasn't necessarily exciting, but battling Onyx Guards sent by First Minister Jinn here and there could've been a nice twist had JD and Del committed to their desertion, which would be more interesting than what actually happened: a swift pardon to be added back into the ranks. JD becoming an enemy of the state only to quickly and reluctantly be pardoned is yet another parallel to the original trilogy that feels like a nice callback on the surface, but doesn't help the new era establish its own identity.

I don't want Gears of War to reinvent itself – there's really no other third-person shooters using its brand of cover-dependent gameplay – but E-Day in part feels like a continuation of an extended attempt to recapture the original trilogy, rather than build on it. It's almost the same feeling that Halo has under the purview of 343 Industries, unwilling to say goodbye to Master Chief despite a tired conflict. By its nature, Gears of War: E-Day is destined to rehash the Locust War, from which the series has yet to fully move on.