The official Xbox blog has posted an interview with Creative Director Matt Searcy and Brand Director Nicole Fawcette about the upcoming Gears of War: E-Day. The information they dropped is summarised below but what sticks out to me is the mention of destruction and animation, and not just raw graphical grunt, although I am sure this game will be truly mind boggling to behold. Combined with the trailer which is rendered using the game engine and assets I couldnt be more excited to finally get my hands on this title. It will be interesting to see how they move beyond the original Locust war for future games. From a narative point of view the series is in danger of simply repeating itself with Gears 6, given the events of Gears of War 5 which tells the story of the swarm, the Locust by another name, pushing to the surface to harras humanity. By setting its latest game during the original war The Coalition neatly sidestep this particular problem for the moment and reintroduce the Gears franchise to a new younger audience. Perhaps just in time for a Gears 1 – 3 remaster…..

Origins Story

• E-Day is an origin story depicting the horror of the Locust invasion on Emergence Day through the eyes of a younger Marcus Fenix and Dom Santiago.
• It shows the formation of their iconic brotherhood as they face this new monstrous threat for the first time.
• Players will witness the origins of elements like the Chainsaw Lancer and Emergence Holes.

Reinventing the Locust

• The Locust are being recast as truly fearsome, mysterious monsters emerging from beneath the earth.
• Their design, especially the Locust Drone, has been overhauled to be more physically intimidating and brutal.

Next-Gen Technology

• Built from the ground up in Unreal Engine 5, E-Day aims to set new standards in graphics, animation, destruction, and technical excellence.
• It features over 100 times more detail than Gears 5, ray-tracing, and cutting-edge animation technology.
• The trailer uses in-engine footage to showcase these capabilities, honoring the original “Mad World” trailer.

Continuing the Core Story

• While exploring origins, E-Day is a new mainline entry that will add context and resonate through future Gears stories.
• The Coalition is not retreating from the storylines of Gears 4 and 5, but saw an opportunity to tell this pivotal origin tale.

The original interview can be found here and is well worth a read for all Gears fans.

https://news.xbox.com/en-us/2024/06/09/gears-of-war-e-day-interview-details-xbox-games-showcase-2024

Update – 10/06/24 – More details are emerging for Gears fans. This comes via this post from Gamefile News. We learn some key information:

• Heavy themes
• Set in city of Kalona
• Game will be linear
• No open-world
• Using UE5 to rip the city apart
• Brutality of Gears
• Over the top, action spectacle

From this report it sounds like the Coalition have listened to fan feedback and tried to pare this game down to what people loved about the original trilogy, but wrapped up in a new story using familiar characters and settings.