5 huge Gears of War: E-Day features missing, upsetting fans
“We started E-Day with an empty hard drive,” The Coalition wrote in a developer blog published as early access for the Xbox prequel opened Oct. 1. That clean start, the studio said, is why several Gears of War: E-Day features fans know from older games are missing at launch.
Rebuilding the sandbox from scratch gave the team “a more unified gameplay experience across Campaign, PVE and PVP” and room to rethink cover, combat and enemies, according to the post. “The trade-off being that including every legacy feature from Gears of War was not possible for launch,” the studio added, as quoted by IGN.
5 Gears of War: E-Day features left out of the launch build
- Meat shields, which let players grab an enemy and use the body as cover
- Chainsaw duels between Lancer assault rifles
- Select weapons from earlier games in the series
- Private lobbies
- Leaderboards
The missing Gears of War: E-Day features “are not gone from the franchise,” The Coalition wrote, Kotaku reported. The studio said it is deciding which ones to deliver after launch and which to hold for its next game.
Players push back on the wait
Some players were frustrated and confused by the absent Gears of War: E-Day features, Kotaku said, especially private lobbies and the late arrival of ranked play, long a pillar of the series’ multiplayer. E-Day is the first new mainline entry since Gears 5 arrived seven years ago.
Not everyone was critical. Former pro player Guy “Blaze” Spencer wrote that the studio had “taken the feedback well” and that he was curious to see how E-Day evolves.
Ranked play, 5 seasons and a reworked Gnasher
Ranked play is among the Gears of War: E-Day features arriving after early access, with Versus Ranked going live Oct. 13. Season 1 began with early access and runs eight weeks, through Dec. 1, with three limited-time events: Halloween, 20 Years of Gears and Thanksgibbing.
Season 2, Legacy and Beyond, will celebrate the franchise’s greatest hits, Kotaku reported. Season 3 (Infiltration), Season 4 (Pendulum) and Season 5 (Devotion) follow.
The blog also covered balance changes made after the beta, including tweaks to core Gears of War: E-Day features. The headline tweak hits the Gnasher shotgun. In past games, a hip-fire shot went wherever your character was facing. E-Day now accounts for both where the camera points and where the barrel sits, which should make close-range shots easier to control, according to IGN.
Who can play before the Oct. 6 release
Early access is limited to buyers of the Premium Edition, Premium Upgrade Edition or Collector’s Edition on Xbox Series X|S and PC. The standard release arrives Tuesday, Oct. 6, when the game also joins PC Game Pass and Game Pass Ultimate, Pure Xbox reported.
The launch lands at a tense moment for Xbox. IGN noted that the company laid off another 268 employees last month, including E-Day’s story director. For more context, see Microsoft gaming chief Asha Sharma’s comments that Xbox is not for sale, our earlier Gears of War: E-Day release coverage and the latest gaming news.