Ultimately, we managed to extract and prepare for the next round.
With shotguns and saws to victory
One day later, we gathered again on the servers of Gears of War: E-Day to shoot each other in the face this time. In Versus mode, we are split into two teams of four and play familiar PvP classics like Team Deathmatch and Domination – the latter being a version of King-of-the-Hill.
In Versus, we are equipped with a fully automatic assault rifle and a shotgun, but can also pick up other weapons at designated spots on the maps. However, in my first match, it became clear that especially the shotgun would play a crucial role. Many fights were not decided by the tactical use of cover, but by who skillfully executed the dodge roll at the right moment or did not and blasted the opponent with a load of shotgun shells.
And I took quite a few loads of buckshot.
The Domination mode pleased me significantly more than TDM, because the teams automatically positioned themselves somewhat more tactically. I immediately felt that well-known principles like crossfire and refrags would be important here.
Nevertheless, I occasionally found myself engaged in 1v1, 1v2, or even 1v4 battles. One of those duels ended with a bemused “What the….” from me, as an opponent suddenly sawed me through the body with the chainsaw attached to his rifle.
Yep, I did not see that effective finisher coming at that moment.
Conclusion: Underutilized potential and subjective aversion
Gears of War: E-Day was a strange experience for me. On one side, I am convinced that Coalition can appeal to long-time fans. It is rough and gory, plays heavily and sluggishly, and strongly reminds me of its predecessors. On the other hand, I see missed potential and a PvP mode that might not appeal to the mainstream.
The idea of playing a horde mode with 12 players is extremely exciting, but the whole principle gets lost through the division into squads. At least that was my impression so far. The four-player teams fought in completely different locations. You could have probably helped each other, but your own squad has its own enemies. Only at the end do all fight for a common extraction, but that did not particularly convince me.
Horde Siege was fun, but I feel that this 12-player gameplay could have contained much more potential than I was conveyed through the preview.
And then there’s the PvP mode. I quickly made my personal conclusion about it and can say that I won’t be playing it much – probably not at all in private.
- Third-Person
- Sluggish movement
- High time-to-kill
- Strong shotguns/shotguns in the default kit
The PvP in E-Day is pretty much how I know it from the series, and why I haven’t played it for years. Those are all elements I do not like in PvP shooters. I would rather go to the dentist than spend my leisure time in it. Nevertheless, I am convinced: For fans of Gears PvP, it could be cool, but it was not my personal case. I prefer in PvP first-person, agile movement, a relatively low time-to-kill, and I HATE shotguns. In PvE games, all of that doesn’t matter to me, which is why I will continue to play the horde mode and am already looking forward to the campaign.
The question is whether the PvP can find great appeal among mainstream gamers. I would currently lean towards “no,” but I highly appreciate that the developers remain as true to the series and its gameplay as possible, instead of desperately trying to attract new audiences and disappointing long-time fans in the process.
Ultimately, we managed to extract and prepare for the next round.
With shotguns and saws to victory
One day later, we gathered again on the servers of Gears of War: E-Day to shoot each other in the face this time. In Versus mode, we are split into two teams of four and play familiar PvP classics like Team Deathmatch and Domination – the latter being a version of King-of-the-Hill.
In Versus, we are equipped with a fully automatic assault rifle and a shotgun, but can also pick up other weapons at designated spots on the maps. However, in my first match, it became clear that especially the shotgun would play a crucial role. Many fights were not decided by the tactical use of cover, but by who skillfully executed the dodge roll at the right moment or did not and blasted the opponent with a load of shotgun shells.
And I took quite a few loads of buckshot.
The Domination mode pleased me significantly more than TDM, because the teams automatically positioned themselves somewhat more tactically. I immediately felt that well-known principles like crossfire and refrags would be important here.
Nevertheless, I occasionally found myself engaged in 1v1, 1v2, or even 1v4 battles. One of those duels ended with a bemused “What the….” from me, as an opponent suddenly sawed me through the body with the chainsaw attached to his rifle.
Yep, I did not see that effective finisher coming at that moment.
Conclusion: Underutilized potential and subjective aversion
Gears of War: E-Day was a strange experience for me. On one side, I am convinced that Coalition can appeal to long-time fans. It is rough and gory, plays heavily and sluggishly, and strongly reminds me of its predecessors. On the other hand, I see missed potential and a PvP mode that might not appeal to the mainstream.
The idea of playing a horde mode with 12 players is extremely exciting, but the whole principle gets lost through the division into squads. At least that was my impression so far. The four-player teams fought in completely different locations. You could have probably helped each other, but your own squad has its own enemies. Only at the end do all fight for a common extraction, but that did not particularly convince me.
Horde Siege was fun, but I feel that this 12-player gameplay could have contained much more potential than I was conveyed through the preview.
And then there’s the PvP mode. I quickly made my personal conclusion about it and can say that I won’t be playing it much – probably not at all in private.
- Third-Person
- Sluggish movement
- High time-to-kill
- Strong shotguns/shotguns in the default kit
The PvP in E-Day is pretty much how I know it from the series, and why I haven’t played it for years. Those are all elements I do not like in PvP shooters. I would rather go to the dentist than spend my leisure time in it. Nevertheless, I am convinced: For fans of Gears PvP, it could be cool, but it was not my personal case. I prefer in PvP first-person, agile movement, a relatively low time-to-kill, and I HATE shotguns. In PvE games, all of that doesn’t matter to me, which is why I will continue to play the horde mode and am already looking forward to the campaign.
The question is whether the PvP can find great appeal among mainstream gamers. I would currently lean towards “no,” but I highly appreciate that the developers remain as true to the series and its gameplay as possible, instead of desperately trying to attract new audiences and disappointing long-time fans in the process.
Ultimately, we managed to extract and prepare for the next round.
With shotguns and saws to victory
One day later, we gathered again on the servers of Gears of War: E-Day to shoot each other in the face this time. In Versus mode, we are split into two teams of four and play familiar PvP classics like Team Deathmatch and Domination – the latter being a version of King-of-the-Hill.
In Versus, we are equipped with a fully automatic assault rifle and a shotgun, but can also pick up other weapons at designated spots on the maps. However, in my first match, it became clear that especially the shotgun would play a crucial role. Many fights were not decided by the tactical use of cover, but by who skillfully executed the dodge roll at the right moment or did not and blasted the opponent with a load of shotgun shells.
And I took quite a few loads of buckshot.
The Domination mode pleased me significantly more than TDM, because the teams automatically positioned themselves somewhat more tactically. I immediately felt that well-known principles like crossfire and refrags would be important here.
Nevertheless, I occasionally found myself engaged in 1v1, 1v2, or even 1v4 battles. One of those duels ended with a bemused “What the….” from me, as an opponent suddenly sawed me through the body with the chainsaw attached to his rifle.
Yep, I did not see that effective finisher coming at that moment.
Conclusion: Underutilized potential and subjective aversion
Gears of War: E-Day was a strange experience for me. On one side, I am convinced that Coalition can appeal to long-time fans. It is rough and gory, plays heavily and sluggishly, and strongly reminds me of its predecessors. On the other hand, I see missed potential and a PvP mode that might not appeal to the mainstream.
The idea of playing a horde mode with 12 players is extremely exciting, but the whole principle gets lost through the division into squads. At least that was my impression so far. The four-player teams fought in completely different locations. You could have probably helped each other, but your own squad has its own enemies. Only at the end do all fight for a common extraction, but that did not particularly convince me.
Horde Siege was fun, but I feel that this 12-player gameplay could have contained much more potential than I was conveyed through the preview.
And then there’s the PvP mode. I quickly made my personal conclusion about it and can say that I won’t be playing it much – probably not at all in private.
- Third-Person
- Sluggish movement
- High time-to-kill
- Strong shotguns/shotguns in the default kit
The PvP in E-Day is pretty much how I know it from the series, and why I haven’t played it for years. Those are all elements I do not like in PvP shooters. I would rather go to the dentist than spend my leisure time in it. Nevertheless, I am convinced: For fans of Gears PvP, it could be cool, but it was not my personal case. I prefer in PvP first-person, agile movement, a relatively low time-to-kill, and I HATE shotguns. In PvE games, all of that doesn’t matter to me, which is why I will continue to play the horde mode and am already looking forward to the campaign.
The question is whether the PvP can find great appeal among mainstream gamers. I would currently lean towards “no,” but I highly appreciate that the developers remain as true to the series and its gameplay as possible, instead of desperately trying to attract new audiences and disappointing long-time fans in the process.
Gears of War brings the fight between humans and the Locust Horde back with E-Day. MeinMMO editor Dariusz Müller has played the multiplayer mode of the third-person shooter and shares his experience with you.
Big guns, ugly reptilians, and lots of red soup – that’s what Gears of War is known for. On October 6th, E-Day, the latest installment in the iconic shooter series, will be released. The game is set 14 years before the first Gears of War and tells the story of the day when the nasty Locust Horde first crawled out of their holes and began their fight for the subjugation of humanity.
As is customary, E-Day comes not only with a story campaign that you can play in co-op with up to three friends, but there will also be a multiplayer mode where the COG and the Locust Horde can truly engage in a firefight. And it is this multiplayer mode that we took a look at.
A first look at 2 multiplayer modes of E-Day
In the multiplayer preview of Gears of War: E-Day, we took a look at two different game modes:
- Horde Siege – a PvE mode where a total of 12 players in three squads of four must survive a siege against the Locust Horde on a map and then escape
- Versus – the classic PvP mode of Gears of War, where two teams of four compete against each other; we played Control and Team Deathmatch
My first minutes in E-Day were, of course, spent in the tutorial, but shortly after, we jumped into Horde Siege. Before we get to the Horde mode, it’s worth discussing the game’s introduction, as E-Day’s tutorial serves as a successful first test for new players of the “Gears of War” series to see if they might enjoy the game or not.
Gears of War is a third-person cover shooter that relies on brutality and gore. There are heavy shotguns that shred enemies and rifles with chainsaws attached that… well, shred enemies. However, despite the powerful weapons, the time-to-kill in Gears of War is quite high. Enemies don’t drop after just a few bullets, and the controlled characters are heavily armored, moving correspondingly sluggishly.
If you prefer agile first-person shooters with fast movement like Destiny, Call of Duty, or Titanfall, you might find the tutorial already off-putting.
Of course, that didn’t stop me, and just seconds after I was back in the main menu, I found myself in my first round of Horde Siege.
Gears of War, you can be beautifully ugly, so dirty and gray
There we were, my four unknown teammates and I, waiting in a small room for the start of our mission. Soon after, our squad was assigned a location to which we were to proceed and defend against the attacking Locust Horde.
Upon arrival, each of us chose suitable cover and an access point to guard, ready to rain down lead. It becomes clear from the very first second that Gears of War does not intend to scale back its usual graphic depiction of raw ruthlessness in its latest installment. E-Day is definitely not suitable for children, should not be played near them, and even adults who are sensitive to the portrayal of blood will not be happy here.
If Peter Fox had to talk about Gears of War, he would probably rap: “The red soup drips onto the asphalt. I feel sick, I close my jacket because it’s cold.”
After just a handful of waves, our mission was complete, and we received a radio message telling us to head to an extraction point. So we set off and ran through the destruction-plagued city to our new objective.
Gears of War can be beautifully ugly, dirty, and gray. But also somehow atmospheric. And imposing. The buildings in E-Day reminded me of a mix of Classicism and Neo-Baroque, and as we walked through the city, I caught myself stopping to admire the rather intimidating structures.
Upon reaching the objective, we had to “liberate” the landing zone of our pickup from roaches – or in other words: rain down lead again.
Now finally came the moment when the description of the mode as a 12-person experience began to make a bit of sense. We actually shared the mentioned landing zone with the other two squads who were fighting at distant ends of the map and also repelling their waves of the Locust Horde. Let’s remember:
Horde Siege is designed for a total of 12 players, and at the grand finale of the operation, we finally gathered in one spot and fought together in relative open space in a chaotic battle for survival. Chaotic because countless different enemies crawled in from all directions.
Horde Siege was fun, but I feel that this 12-player gameplay could have contained much more potential than I was conveyed through the preview.
And then there’s the PvP mode. I quickly made my personal conclusion about it and can say that I won’t be playing it much – probably not at all in private.
- Third-Person
- Sluggish movement
- High time-to-kill
- Strong shotguns/shotguns in the default kit
The PvP in E-Day is pretty much how I know it from the series, and why I haven’t played it for years. Those are all elements I do not like in PvP shooters. I would rather go to the dentist than spend my leisure time in it. Nevertheless, I am convinced: For fans of Gears PvP, it could be cool, but it was not my personal case. I prefer in PvP first-person, agile movement, a relatively low time-to-kill, and I HATE shotguns. In PvE games, all of that doesn’t matter to me, which is why I will continue to play the horde mode and am already looking forward to the campaign.
The question is whether the PvP can find great appeal among mainstream gamers. I would currently lean towards “no,” but I highly appreciate that the developers remain as true to the series and its gameplay as possible, instead of desperately trying to attract new audiences and disappointing long-time fans in the process.
Ultimately, we managed to extract and prepare for the next round.
With shotguns and saws to victory
One day later, we gathered again on the servers of Gears of War: E-Day to shoot each other in the face this time. In Versus mode, we are split into two teams of four and play familiar PvP classics like Team Deathmatch and Domination – the latter being a version of King-of-the-Hill.
In Versus, we are equipped with a fully automatic assault rifle and a shotgun, but can also pick up other weapons at designated spots on the maps. However, in my first match, it became clear that especially the shotgun would play a crucial role. Many fights were not decided by the tactical use of cover, but by who skillfully executed the dodge roll at the right moment or did not and blasted the opponent with a load of shotgun shells.
And I took quite a few loads of buckshot.
The Domination mode pleased me significantly more than TDM, because the teams automatically positioned themselves somewhat more tactically. I immediately felt that well-known principles like crossfire and refrags would be important here.
Nevertheless, I occasionally found myself engaged in 1v1, 1v2, or even 1v4 battles. One of those duels ended with a bemused “What the….” from me, as an opponent suddenly sawed me through the body with the chainsaw attached to his rifle.
Yep, I did not see that effective finisher coming at that moment.
Conclusion: Underutilized potential and subjective aversion
Gears of War: E-Day was a strange experience for me. On one side, I am convinced that Coalition can appeal to long-time fans. It is rough and gory, plays heavily and sluggishly, and strongly reminds me of its predecessors. On the other hand, I see missed potential and a PvP mode that might not appeal to the mainstream.
The idea of playing a horde mode with 12 players is extremely exciting, but the whole principle gets lost through the division into squads. At least that was my impression so far. The four-player teams fought in completely different locations. You could have probably helped each other, but your own squad has its own enemies. Only at the end do all fight for a common extraction, but that did not particularly convince me.
Horde Siege was fun, but I feel that this 12-player gameplay could have contained much more potential than I was conveyed through the preview.
And then there’s the PvP mode. I quickly made my personal conclusion about it and can say that I won’t be playing it much – probably not at all in private.
- Third-Person
- Sluggish movement
- High time-to-kill
- Strong shotguns/shotguns in the default kit
The PvP in E-Day is pretty much how I know it from the series, and why I haven’t played it for years. Those are all elements I do not like in PvP shooters. I would rather go to the dentist than spend my leisure time in it. Nevertheless, I am convinced: For fans of Gears PvP, it could be cool, but it was not my personal case. I prefer in PvP first-person, agile movement, a relatively low time-to-kill, and I HATE shotguns. In PvE games, all of that doesn’t matter to me, which is why I will continue to play the horde mode and am already looking forward to the campaign.
The question is whether the PvP can find great appeal among mainstream gamers. I would currently lean towards “no,” but I highly appreciate that the developers remain as true to the series and its gameplay as possible, instead of desperately trying to attract new audiences and disappointing long-time fans in the process.
Ultimately, we managed to extract and prepare for the next round.
With shotguns and saws to victory
One day later, we gathered again on the servers of Gears of War: E-Day to shoot each other in the face this time. In Versus mode, we are split into two teams of four and play familiar PvP classics like Team Deathmatch and Domination – the latter being a version of King-of-the-Hill.
In Versus, we are equipped with a fully automatic assault rifle and a shotgun, but can also pick up other weapons at designated spots on the maps. However, in my first match, it became clear that especially the shotgun would play a crucial role. Many fights were not decided by the tactical use of cover, but by who skillfully executed the dodge roll at the right moment or did not and blasted the opponent with a load of shotgun shells.
And I took quite a few loads of buckshot.
The Domination mode pleased me significantly more than TDM, because the teams automatically positioned themselves somewhat more tactically. I immediately felt that well-known principles like crossfire and refrags would be important here.
Nevertheless, I occasionally found myself engaged in 1v1, 1v2, or even 1v4 battles. One of those duels ended with a bemused “What the….” from me, as an opponent suddenly sawed me through the body with the chainsaw attached to his rifle.
Yep, I did not see that effective finisher coming at that moment.
Conclusion: Underutilized potential and subjective aversion
Gears of War: E-Day was a strange experience for me. On one side, I am convinced that Coalition can appeal to long-time fans. It is rough and gory, plays heavily and sluggishly, and strongly reminds me of its predecessors. On the other hand, I see missed potential and a PvP mode that might not appeal to the mainstream.
The idea of playing a horde mode with 12 players is extremely exciting, but the whole principle gets lost through the division into squads. At least that was my impression so far. The four-player teams fought in completely different locations. You could have probably helped each other, but your own squad has its own enemies. Only at the end do all fight for a common extraction, but that did not particularly convince me.
Horde Siege was fun, but I feel that this 12-player gameplay could have contained much more potential than I was conveyed through the preview.
And then there’s the PvP mode. I quickly made my personal conclusion about it and can say that I won’t be playing it much – probably not at all in private.
- Third-Person
- Sluggish movement
- High time-to-kill
- Strong shotguns/shotguns in the default kit
The PvP in E-Day is pretty much how I know it from the series, and why I haven’t played it for years. Those are all elements I do not like in PvP shooters. I would rather go to the dentist than spend my leisure time in it. Nevertheless, I am convinced: For fans of Gears PvP, it could be cool, but it was not my personal case. I prefer in PvP first-person, agile movement, a relatively low time-to-kill, and I HATE shotguns. In PvE games, all of that doesn’t matter to me, which is why I will continue to play the horde mode and am already looking forward to the campaign.
The question is whether the PvP can find great appeal among mainstream gamers. I would currently lean towards “no,” but I highly appreciate that the developers remain as true to the series and its gameplay as possible, instead of desperately trying to attract new audiences and disappointing long-time fans in the process.
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