Gears of War: E-Day Multiplayer Preview

It's almost hard to believe it's been seven years since the last new mainline Gears of War game, and as one of Xbox's marquee franchises, it seems a lot is riding on the upcoming Gears of War: E-Day.

I recently played about 10 hours of its revamped multiplayer, and yup, it sure is Gears of War. Even with that long gap, it feels both extremely familiar and refreshing for reasons you may not exactly anticipate. The meaningful changes I've noticed so far are perhaps more subtle – specifically, the refined control scheme which shined in both the Versus and new Horde Siege modes I played. There's a lot to dig into, so gear up for my breakdown on how the big, chunky COG boys are back.

I'm going to mostly dive into Horde Siege mode, since that's where I spent most of my time – and it's also the most exciting thing that'll carry Gears E-Day's multiplayer component. But first thing's first, Gears E-Day features some important changes to how the series has traditionally controlled. The A button is fully dedicated to taking cover and moving around cover now, while sprinting (aka The Artist Formerly Known as Roadie Run) is now mapped to a left-stick click (LS) by default, and the Y button is dedicated to vaulting – and you can actually jump in this game! It took quite some time for me to rewire my brain since we've all been so used to the A button controlling all of these actions depending on the context you press it. But once I acclimated with the new controls, I couldn't really go back.

The PvP Versus portion of the beta was pretty standard fare with two modes on two maps. Team deathmatch works like it usually does in Gears games, where two teams of four (COG vs. Locust) have 15 cumulative lives to live, and once a team hits zero, their respawn gets disabled as each player gets one more life before elimination in that round. Conquest is the normal control point-style mode where two teams battle for marked territory that moves across the map as each point gets held down until one team holds it for long enough. The two maps in the beta, Market and Outpost, reflect the traditional symmetrical map design with close quarters shootouts dictated by lanes, sightlines, and cover spots to take advantage of and flank opponents.

Playing your angles and corners and exploiting the stickiness of the cover system is still very much the bread and butter of Versus, as is the usual shotgun meta – basically, sprint then go into a slide as you hip-fire a Gnasher into opponents before dodge-rolling out of danger. It's not exactly interesting anymore, and hasn't been for a while, but it's still decent fun to give a whirl for a bit, and let’s be honest: it wouldn't be Gears PvP without it, huh?

However, what my time with PvP highlighted is that despite still feeling like you're controlling big-ass dudes slamming into cover, you're a lot more nimble thanks to the new movement system. I can pop in and out of cover quicker, vault over cover spots easily, and get into a sprint without much friction, loosening up the flow of Gears without losing its identity. Whereas before, I found myself fighting the control scheme itself where the A button would too often not do the thing I intended to do, especially in tense firefights and panic-induced situations where split-second decisions matter. There's also a bigger emphasis on verticality since you have a dedicated jump and mantle action with the Y button; it may not sound like much, but in a game all about positioning and angles, it adds a dimension to the Gears combat formula for both what you can do as a player and how maps are designed when they don't have to be as flat.

Horde Siege Carries the Multiplayer

Okay, now let's get into the star of the show: the brand-new Horde Siege mode. The series pioneered the wave-based PvE multiplayer formula with its Horde mode back in Gears of War 2 and it’s been a staple ever since. But instead of loading into a confined singular level specifically built for a Horde mode, Horde Siege matches spread objectives and enemy waves across a much bigger map where everything happens at once. This is the city of Kalona where Gears E-Day's story takes place, and these are the ruins left in the wake of Emergence Day when the Locust attacked. So, right off the bat, there's a thematic coherence between the campaign's story and the multiplayer mode itself.

Your team isn't alone, either; three teams of four queue into a Horde Siege match, and each team is given their own starting point and objective locations. The main task seems to always be defending a R.I.G. from waves of Locust, but teams have optional side objectives they can complete beforehand. These usually involve destroying a set of Locust assets as they spawn into the area surrounding it, and you'll get additional rewards and in-match currency for gear and defenses. For the main objective, your team will decide when to initiate the fight, and once you do, you're locked into defending the position until you fend off all waves.

You have three types of Horde Siege missions to pick from – Blitz gives you one main objective against three waves, normal Siege gives you three objectives against three waves each, and standard Horde gives you one objective against a full 10 waves. Regardless of mission type, you'll need to extract after the final wave to get the full set of match rewards – a helicopter will fly-in and land at different locations while you try to survive an indefinite wave of even more Locust, which heightens the stakes and keeps you fighting until the very end of the match.

It's almost open-world-ish, and has the slight vibe of a persistent world as multiple teams are playing in any given instance in parallel. While you don't necessarily share objectives, you'll often see them fighting off their own waves of Locust in the distance or next door. It's cool to see, but it can be a nuisance when they drag their set of enemies toward you, especially when you're in betw