E-Day Could Start a Fire By Imitating a PlayStation Franchise

November 3, 2024

The Coalition — developer of the Gears of War series — announced Gears of War: E-Day at the Xbox Games Showcase earlier this year. The game will be a prequel placing players in the boots of Marcus Phoenix and Dominic Santiago at the outbreak of the Locust War. While Gears of War: E-Day doesn’t have an official release date, it is confirmed to be coming to both Xbox and PC.

Gears of War: E-Day quickly became a highly anticipated title for many Xbox players. Not only will E-Day hopefully be a return to form for the Gears of War series, but it will be providing the Xbox with a major new first-party game. Xbox has been trailing behind the competition when it comes to exclusive releases, but a trend set in motion by a recent PlayStation property could serve as excellent inspiration for an E-Day game mode.

Gear of War E Day Marcus Dom Dark Moments

Gears of War: E-Day May Be Caught Between a Rock and a Hard Place With Its ‘Dark Moments’

Gears of War: E-Day taking the series back to its darker roots is a step in the right direction, but it creates another problem it needs to avoid.

Bringing a New Multiplayer Experience to Gears of War

The Gears of War series is no stranger to multiplayer. Dating back to the original Gears of War, many games in the franchise have featured objective-based PVP modes. The Coalition’s Creative Director, Matt Searcy, already implied that E-Day will likely feature online multiplayer during an interview with Windows Central. However, rather than the series’ typical PVP focus for multiplayer, The Coalition should consider hopping on the Helldivers 2 bandwagon.

The Success of Helldivers 2

Helldivers 2 launched on PlayStation 5 and PC this past February and quickly became one of the most popular multiplayer games of the year. The game’s Starship Troopers-esque premise features a cooperative mode where four players take on wave after wave of alien bugs and automatons in the name of Super Earth. Helldivers 2 won players over with its high-octane hijinks and community-centric live service model.

Helldivers 2 set in motion a desire for more PVE experiences where friends can hop into a queue and fight off a bloodthirsty horde of enemies together. This helped Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2‘s multiplayer gain traction when it was released. It shared a similar premise and finally gave Xbox users a taste of the action that they had been missing out on.

Why Gears of War: E-Day Should Borrow from Helldivers 2

Considering the success of Space Marine 2 on Xbox and the continued campaign to bring Helldivers 2 to Xbox, The Coalition has the perfect opportunity to capitalize on this new trend in multiplayer gaming. The plot of E-Day already follows a handful of human soldiers as they fight back against a seemingly endless onslaught of bug-inspired enemies. Though Gears of Wars‘ gameplay may differ from that of Helldivers 2, Space Marine 2 — whose level design and bulky, chainsword-wielding soldiers have been compared to the Gears‘ series on many occasions — has proven that E-Day could easily slot into this format.

Adding a similar game mode to E-Day would not only help to fulfill the desires of many Xbox players, but it would make the game a much more enticing package. A PVE mode like Helldivers 2 would give E-Day a unique gimmick and help it to stand apart from other entries in the Gears series. The PVE mode would also be partnered with a substantial story mode, which should be fairly accessible to new fans since the game is a prequel. E-Day‘s narrative focus could make it more appealing to players interested in Helldivers 2 but unsure about paying for a multiplayer-only experience. Helldivers 2 might never come to Xbox, and Space Marine 2‘s content is fairly limited. Rather than wait around to see how either of those pan out, Xbox and The Coalition should seize the moment themselves.

The Story of E-Day
Fourteen years before Gears of War, war heroes Marcus Fenix and Dom Santiago return home to face a new nightmare: the Locust Horde. These subterranean monsters, grotesque and relentless, erupt from below, laying siege on humanity itself.New Foundations
Built from the ground up with Unreal Engine 5, Gears of War: E-Day delivers unprecedented graphical fidelity.

Systems