// PC GAMER — GAMING
Gears of War: E-Day multiplayer is so old, it feels new again
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Getting older means you might wake up one day and realize you've missed Gears of War. I never counted the cover shooter that birthed a thousand copycats among my favorites, but the seven year break between Gears 5 and E-Day has reminded me how rarely a grungy, uncomplicated third-person shooter comes along these days, and just how good The Coalition has gotten at making them.
Last week, I played a few hours of Gears of War: E-Day multiplayer split between Horde Siege—this game's expanded take on its long-running PvE co-op—and standard Versus PvP. Both modes were unexpected, but not because Gears is venturing into uncharted territory. It's actually the opposite: There is no surprise battle royale, no extraction elements, not even Call of Duty loadouts.
E-Day is The Coalition saying loudly, and proudly, that multiplayer as it was 20 years ago was good for its own reasons, and I'm inclined to agree.
Take the sampling of E-Day Versus I had access to, which could've been plucked out of 2007: We've got 4v4, classic modes, and Locust v. COGs. My first round of team deathmatch couldn't have had a more perfect beginning: four meaty grunts sprinting toward the center of the map, immediately equipping the gnasher shotgun, and hipfiring wildly for an instagib. E-Day is appropriately gorey, though I noticed sustained damage doesn't produce the volume of blood it used to—perhaps an allowance to readability, or a consequence of hitmarkers now serving as the primary damage feedback.
Speaking of sprint, yes, the iconic roadie run is gone. The thick combatants of prequel Gears now run upright like normal people, which makes sense for E-Day's new emphasis on mobility, but is sad nonetheless.
Instead of pulling the camera in, sprinting now zooms out so you can survey surroundings and improvise where to go next. It's pretty much the inverse of the roadie run—which scrunched you down so you wouldn't get shot running in a straight line to the next piece of cover.
The Y button (on controller) is a dedicated jump (more of a heavy hop) that will also vault up or over cover, and you can also slide out of a sprint. It speaks to the consistency of Gears that the ability to hop on top of a waist-high planter is a newsworthy change. I'm not sure that's a big deal for combat, as cover is still the place to be in Gears, but it will let you easily take shortcuts across maps.
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Movement struck me as the single biggest mechanical shift of E-Day, and it'll take more time than I had to fully judge it, but first impressions? Gears feels a little faster now, but still hefty. I like it.