Recently my best friend and I beat Gears of War E-day. I don't own an xbox anymore. I was able to play on my MacBook Air via Gamepass. It was a load of fun. I played about 40-50% of the campaign alone. I've now beaten every mainline Gears of War game and I've got to say this one was the hardest!
In this Gears game you get to see the very beginning of the war between the Cog and the Locusts called Emergence Day. It is a very dark game. Things are pretty scary especially early on. You're literally at a bar getting drinks after a ceremony when the earthquakes happen and all hell breaks loose. I found the new characters Mags and Lucas to be really good and well fleshed out.
Even tho this is a prequel there are plenty of new weapons to use like the Gut Puncher which is a grenade launcher. There's also the Ripper which was a personal favorite of mine. The Incinerator was cool too which is an imulsion firing gun. Also there is a good amount of customization to your arsenal too. You'll basically be running through areas and finding cases that have upgrades in them for a certain thing. There are cases where you can actually customize your load out too. You can actually jump too...so theres a great sense of movement and verticality in this particular Gears game.
The enemies in this game are pretty tough. Their AI is typically the best I've seen in Gears. If you hit them they'll generally move and get out of the way. The usual enemy types are here like wretches, locust soldiers, reavers, and even the fearsome Brumaks. There are some new enemies here too like the Ballon enemies that spray out these little balloons that fire at you. Those were really annoying to deal with. Also there these from enemies that spit Emulsion at you. Those are only vulnerable when they open their mouths. The big regular enemies like Boomers are also pretty tough. Some of them have a weapon called a Gore-hook which will down you instantly if it hits you.
This game is tough...also what makes it tougher than old Gears games is you only have 5 times you can be knock-downed in one fight before you lose. Before it was generally unlimited. The downs come back with each checkpoint luckily however. This makes you play really strategically. And the graphics....the game looks absolutely amazing. The war torn city looks insanely realistic. Theres blood and such everywhere in some parts.
So the game is pretty long. There's some padding here with side quests you can choose to do or not do. I really enjoyed the game. While I loved Gears 5 I've got to admit this was a better game. The enemies really felt like a threat again. The game has a really grim atmosphere too. Terrific game!
Verdict 9.2