Loading...
Loading...
Campaign - Version 8 vs Version 9
Sep 27, 2026, 06:13 AM
Dated the campaign length negative to September 27, 2026
Oct 2, 2026, 08:10 AM
Added the launch known issue for long campaign sessions and refreshed the note on campaign length
11The Gears of War: E-Day campaign covers one city, over three days, as Emergence Day tears it apart. It is not an open world. The studio describes it as a linear game overall, weaving back and forth between set-piece sections such as the bridge and stretches that open up a few city blocks at a time; you are still on a mission, but how you get to it is up to you. Missions run from tight linear fights in narrow streets and alleys out into open districts that give the player access to entire neighbourhoods, and the largest arenas carry a couple of storeys of verticality with multiple routes through the same fight.22One City, Three Days44Emergence Day is a planet-wide event, but the campaign deliberately stays in the fictional city of Kalona. The reasoning the team gives is that at global scale the human impact disappears, so the invasion had to be brought close enough to feel.66The three days each carry their own tone.99PhaseWhat it coversNight oneConfusion and fear. The ground has opened and nobody knows what is happening or what the creatures are.Day twoRegrouping. The squad connects with what is left of the military, forms up properly and starts deploying on missions.Day threeDesperation. It is clear this is not an isolated incident but a world-altering event.1111The scale of the fighting changes as the days pass. It opens as a block-by-block monster attack and ends with the realisation that there is an army underground coming up after them, which is the point where an invasion becomes a war. The campaign shows a little of the before, the during, and a little of the aftermath. Enemy escalation tracks the same curve, running from the first Wretch through the first Drone up to armoured Brumaks, and it is broken down on Enemies.1212Acts and Chapters1414The campaign is divided into Acts, and each Act is split into Chapters. It runs to five Acts, a count taken from the published achievement list, which tags entries to Acts 1 through 5 and stops there. Only Act 2 has been shown in any detail, and the chapter titles read off the preview build give its first two chapters as Bravo Squad and Hold the Line.1616The beats of that stretch run in this order.1818BeatWhat happensCity HallKalona's City Hall has been converted into a COG base of operations, part medical triage and part command centre. Bravo Squad officially assembles here.The bridgeAn early objective in the act is securing access to a bridge. Wretches come across its underside on the approach. This is the stretch that was put in front of the public at gamescom.Oria StadiumA Kalona landmark turned into a forward operating base, and the setting of Chapter 2. Bravo Squad links up with Tai Kaliso and Theta Squad here.The rail stationThe objective after the stadium is securing a nearby rail station, which ends in a multi-level fight.2020Act structure, the chapter titles and the difficulty tiers are collected on Campaign Acts and Chapters.2121The Bravo Squad Rule2323The story never leaves Bravo Squad. There are no cutaways to other fronts, other units or command rooms; the player sees only what the squad sees and learns only what they learn. The team compares the framing to war dramas where a huge event is happening elsewhere and the camera stays with one group who are not always in the right place at the right time.2525All four squad members are playable from the start, so the campaign can be run start to finish as Marcus Fenix, Dominic Santiago, Mags Carter or Lucas Reyes.2727Opening Moments2929The first weapon Bravo Squad picks up is a Snub taken off a police car, which is where the gameplay demo opens. Marcus and Dom are in a bar in plain clothes when the tremors start. The four Gears happen to be in the same place when the road opens and Wretches pour out; everyone else runs the other way and these four turn and run at it, before they have even met.3131Early on the player is underpowered relative to what is happening. You cannot save everyone on that first street. You might shoot a couple of Wretches off civilians while three or four others are eating people beside you.3333Encounters and Set Pieces3535Several systems shape how fights play out across the city.3737E-holes: emergence holes come in two kinds. Systemic ones open in the middle of a fight and can be shut with a frag grenade. Spectacle ones open, dump enemies into the space, collapse parts of buildings and flood the area with smoke.The red rule: red was committed as the E-hole colour during pre-production and is deliberately avoided elsewhere, so red light in this game always reads as an E-hole or as danger.Destruction: sinkholes pull down vehicles and entire buildings, while micro-destruction chips away at cover across a range of materials.Civilians: they react, adapt and break down in real time, and later in the campaign you can run into groups trying to fight back.Bosses: towering bosses appear in the campaign, and the campaign's named antagonist is Vraahk, a Locust blight commander who leads an elite formation called the Scorched Legion. Both are covered on Campaign Bosses.3939Two campaign moments have been shown in detail. A Corpser rips through the ground when a sky train collapses, which is the first full view of one in the game. Later, at a grocery store, Bravo meets a lone Gear who has been holding the building by himself with a Vulcan and keeps running out of ammunition. That meeting is the first time the squad finds other Gears in the city and starts becoming part of a larger force. Spoken developer commentary renders his name as Maco; no written material has confirmed the spelling. The same sequence carries the reveal of Tai Kaliso and the origin of the chainsaw attachment on the Lancer.4141Off the Main Path4343The route through a chapter is set, but the wider districts are not just scenery. Act 2 carries an optional side mission where the squad can stop to help another team in need, and taking it is a detour rather than a required objective. Collectibles and other off-path rewards are there for players who go looking.4545The kinds of encounter on offer have since been itemised. Off the set route the player can come across another squad trying to fend off the Locust, or a family trapped in a building. Helping either one is a choice rather than an objective, and each carries a narrative reward.4747Off-path findWhat it givesAnother squad pinned downGears fighting to hold a position of their own. Stopping to help them is optional and pays off in story rather than in objectives.A family trapped in a buildingCivilians cut off by the fighting. Reaching them is left entirely to the player.Side objectivesOptional tasks scattered across the wider districts, taken or skipped at will.Findable casesCases found away from the main route that grant additional gameplay progression. The in-game name for them has not been printed in any written material.4949The achievement list settles how many kinds of off-path content the campaign tracks. There are three, each with its own completion achievement.5050CategoryWhat the achievement asks forSecondary ObjectivesComplete every Secondary Objective in the campaign, on any difficultyHard CasesDiscover all Hard Cases in the campaignCollectiblesFind all Collectibles in the campaign, on any difficulty5252A fourth achievement asks for every Supply Cache item to be unlocked in the campaign, which places the Supply Cache system in the campaign as well as in Horde Siege. What a Hard Case actually is, how many of each category exist and where they sit have not been described. The full list is on Achievements.5353Navigation has an in-fiction hook to match. At one point the squad grabs a tourist map of Kalona as a makeshift guide, and that pamphlet then becomes the actual in-game map rather than staying a prop.5555Presentation5757Blood and dirt accumulate on the player character and wash off again across the campaign, so the level rises and falls as you play. Performing an execution covers the performer in blood. Earlier games in the series kept armour permanently clean; here the world marks you.5959Kalona is built as one contiguous city in the engine rather than as disconnected levels. The camera can be lifted in the editor to see the whole thing, and when you look at another district from inside a level, that is the real location of that place.6262Difficulty, Saves and Assistance6464FeatureDetailDifficultyCustomizable by adjusting individual gameplay settings. Changing certain settings shifts the current difficulty tier to match. Four tiers have been observed in the preview build; the names are not in official material.Save slotsUp to five separate campaign playthroughs or states can be saved.PausingAvailable during solo play. In co-op only the host can pause.Co-op difficultyEach player chooses their own difficulty independently.Ping systemPress the Aim button to ping objects, enemies or locations. The marker is visible to the squad even through walls, and the character usually makes a verbal callout.NavigationObjective markers appear when there is a new location to travel to. Optional visual and audio navigation aids can be enabled in Settings and ControlsSquad calloutsSquad members call out the next objective, warn of danger and offer tips on fighting specific enemies.MapA map is available in Versus, Horde Siege and parts of the campaign.6666Weapon modification is available in the campaign as well as Horde Siege, and is covered on Mods and Customization. Aim assist affects the campaign and Horde Siege only; it does not apply in Versus.6767Difficulty Tiers6969Four difficulty tiers appear in the campaign preview build’s menus. The names were read off that screen rather than published, with two exceptions since: a developer referred to playing on casual, and Insane is named in two achievement requirements, which confirms the top tier outright.7171TierWhat it is forCasualForgiving, aimed at players who want to focus on the story and on exploring.NormalThe balanced challenge.HardcorePitched so that every skill gets tested.InsanePunishing, with no room for error.7373What Is Not Confirmed7474As of September 27, 2026, total campaign length has not been published. The act count is settled at five, but Acts 1, 3, 4 and 5 have not been described at all, so the beats above remain the only ones known in any detail. Three collectible categories exist by name, Secondary Objectives, Hard Cases and Collectibles, but nothing has been said about how many of each there are or where they sit. Those details stay off this page rather than being estimated.75+As of October 2, 2026, the studio has not published a total campaign length. The act count is settled at five, but Acts 1, 3, 4 and 5 have not been described at all, so the beats above remain the only ones known in any detail. Three collectible categories exist by name, Secondary Objectives, Hard Cases and Collectibles, but nothing has been said about how many of each there are or where they sit. Those details stay off this page rather than being estimated.76+Known Issues at Launch78+Two of the launch known issues the studio listed on September 30, 2026 concern the campaign. Playing through the whole game without reloading checkpoints or restarting may cause memory issues, so reloading a checkpoint is the advised fix if an encounter or objective becomes blocked. Players who join a lobby working through an existing save receive all earlier secondary objective and Hard Case progress in the War Journal and the related Forge rewards. See Patch Notes.
