Gears of War: E-Day Is Out Today to Strong Reviews, and a Cooler Welcome From Players on Steam
Critics have scored the Xbox prequel in the high 80s, its best result since Gears 3, but Steam buyers are about ten points less impressed. Here is what the campaign gets right and wrong.
Tuesday, October 6, 2026/2 min read
Marcus Fenix and Dom Santiago are back on day one of the war. Gears of War: E-Day unlocked worldwide at 8 a.m. Pacific on Tuesday, 15:00 UTC, on Xbox Series X and S and on PC through Steam and the Microsoft Store, according to KeenGamer. It is a prequel set on Emergence Day, 14 years before the original game.
Thurrott notes it is the first new mainline Gears game of the current console generation and the first Xbox exclusive released under the company's new chief executive, Asha Sharma. That makes the reviews matter more than usual, and for the most part they are good.
What do critics say about Gears of War: E-Day?
The game stood at 87 on Metacritic when the review embargo lifted on 1 October, Insider Gaming reported, fourth in the series behind the first three games at 94, 93 and 91 and ahead of Gears 4 and Gears 5 at 84 each. By Monday the score had held at 87 across 36 critic reviews, with 33 positive, three mixed and none negative, according to Kami Labs, which also reports an OpenCritic average of 88.
The spread of individual scores is wide. A Pure Xbox roundup lists perfect 10s from Pure Xbox, Day One and The Outhaven, and a 9 from IGN, which said E-Day "pulls off the tightrope act" of delivering a heartfelt prequel with strong characters even though everyone knows how it ends. At the other end, The Guardian gave it 6 out of 10 and called it "a safe and repetitive experience". VGC scored it 8 but felt the story "takes more of a back seat" than it would like. Praise clusters around the combat; the complaints are about story and pacing.
Why are Steam players less impressed than critics?
Kami Labs reports that the PC version sits at 78.5 per cent positive on Steam from about 3,000 reviews, a rating of "Mostly Positive" and roughly ten points below the press average, and says it does not look like review bombing. In its reading of 100 negative reviews, 51 objected to the role of a new character, Carter, in a story some players expected to centre on Marcus and Dom, and 12 mentioned performance. Nine missed older mechanics such as the meat shield and the Boltok pistol.
One caution applies to every number above: critics played only the single-player campaign, because the multiplayer modes were not available during the review period. Both the scores and the Steam ratings may move once Versus and Horde Siege are open to everyone.
How much does Gears of War: E-Day cost, and is it on Game Pass?
The Standard Edition costs $69.99 and the Premium Edition $99.99, with Premium owners having had five days of early access since 1 October, KeenGamer reports. It is also in Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass from day one. Season 1 runs until 1 December, and the ranked Versus playlist opens on 13 October.
That date is the real test. A campaign can win the critics, but a Gears game lives or dies on its multiplayer, and the first week of ranked play will show whether E-Day keeps the players Steam has so far only half won over.
Published in The Outspoken Digest
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