A review published October 5 gave Gears of War: E-Day’s solo campaign 8/10 after playing it on Xbox Series X. It praises the added freedom to move and the Unreal Engine 5 presentation, while criticizing some drawn-out fights and repetitive side activities. The score covers the campaign, not multiplayer.
More movement, with cover combat at its core
The campaign retains the series’ cover-based shooting but gives players more ways to move through its battlefields. Reviews describe sprinting, sliding, jumping, crawling, climbing and mantling, along with more vertical routes and room to explore.
That added mobility changes the options in a fight without replacing the familiar cover-focused rhythm. The October 5 review also praises destructible environments and weapon modifications, which can change handling, ammunition, scopes, magazine capacity or reload effects.
Exploration brings variety—and some repetition
The campaign combines linear missions with larger, explorable sections. A separate review describes five acts and a gradual expansion into districts of Kalona, the city where the story unfolds during the Locust emergence. The prequel is set 14 years before the first Gears of War, giving newcomers a chronological starting point.
The combat has rough spots, too. The October 5 assessment criticizes bullet-sponge enemies, opponents that can kill in one hit, and side content that can become repetitive. Its reviewer also finds parts of the campaign slightly bloated.
Reviewers differ on campaign pacing
A review published October 4 describes a 25-hour playthrough and says the campaign did not feel repetitive. That is one reviewer’s account, not a standard completion-time estimate. Earlier NeoTeo coverage of campaign-length estimates summarized estimates of about 12 hours for a direct route and nearly 17 hours with extensive exploration; the figures come from separate playthrough accounts.
Together, the reviews praise the expanded movement and exploration but differ on whether the campaign’s broader stretches keep their pace.
Unreal Engine 5 and a reported PC setup
Both reviews identify Unreal Engine 5 as the game’s engine. The October 4 account describes a PC playthrough using an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Ti and an LG OLED 4K television.
