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Why Gears of War: E-Day?
"By the time we were done with all that, we were well into the pandemic," Searcy recalls, "A lot of folks were reflecting. We knew we were going to Unreal 5, we knew this big tech update was coming. We wanted to build a bunch of stuff from the ground up again, and reflect on the franchise and what it meant to us at The Coalition. That's why we had elements of the Mad World trailer in here, those kinds of vibes are what we love about the franchise."
While stripping Gears of War down to its constituent parts in research, The Coalition realized that so much of the story and even gameplay all comes back to E-Day, an event which takes place 14 years before Gears of War 1.
"E-Day is an origin story," Nicole Fawcette continued, "it's the origin story of the bond that defines the franchise, which is Marcus Fenix and Dom Santiago's friendship. When you first meet them, they're not the same Marcus and Dom you know. In Gears 1, they've already spent 14 years fighting the Locust."
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How will Gears of War: E-Day differ from its predecessors?
"I would say, this is the next mainline Gears game," Searcy emphasized, "Gears has a pretty clear DNA for gameplay modes, so you can probably anticipate where we'll be going with E-Day."
"I agree, there's a lot of stuff we can do. On the story, there's a 14 year gap between E-Day and Gears 1. Even Gears Tactics was a few years into the war. E-Day isn't a world that's destroyed. It's a beautiful world, with people who are in a time of peace. We see the Locust introduced through the eyes of people who have never seen them before, and don't know what's going on," Matt explained. "We're also going to change up gameplay stuff as well. We've worked on the franchise for ten years so we've got experience with revisiting enemy types, but also adding new weapons, and maybe even new enemies as well. We'll do all that stuff."
Nicole chimed in with hints about the evolution of Gears' most iconic weapon, the Chainsaw Lancer. Which, indeed, was a product born of necessity in the E-Day era. "E-Day is the origin story of many things, including the Chainsaw Lancer. We'll see the Chainsaw Lancer was actually built after the fact, since there were no weapons that could pierce their super thick hides. We'll tell the story of how that came to be, and yes, you will get to use it too."
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A return to Gears of War
I asked Nicole, as brand director, why they went back to 'Gears of War' after two games titled simply 'Gears.' "It's a return, right?" She says, "we're returning to our roots. That's really the answer."
I asked if Gears of War: E-Day is starting off a new trilogy. It does take place 14 years before Gears of War 1, after all. That's a lot of story you could pack into that decade and a half. "We're focused on this and pouring everything we can into it right now, what the next game is will be for us to decide in the future." Matt said, with Nicole chiming in, "We're not retreating from the stories of Gears 4 and 5, though. We just spent time thinking about the stories we want to tell, and we can flex the franchise from both sides. We're excited about telling this story, and hopefully, fans will love this story too."
Integral: Will Gears of War: E-Day have multiplayer? What about Gears 6? The Coalition gives us some hints at the future. | Windows Central