It's been just over seven years since we got a brand-new Gears of War game. Sure, the original has been remastered twice (and it's a fantastic game), but the idea of new adventures built on a modern tech stack was certainly enticing. Unfortunately, the campaign side of Gears of War: E-Day feels like a generic third-person shooter that was designed by committee. It is the weakest campaign in the series and doesn't really bring anything new to the table.

It's possible that the multiplayer aspects of Gears of War: E-Day are so good they outweigh the downsides of the campaign. Because Microsoft didn't have the multiplayer servers enabled before launch, we weren't able to test multiplayer during the review period. This review covers the campaign experience on launch day and should be considered a review in progress. We will have a follow-up review that includes multiplayer coverage and a final score after the servers are live and stable.

Story-wise, Gears of War: E-Day is chronologically the earliest game in the franchise. As a prequel set on emergence day, it even predates Gears of War: Judgment. Whereas the earlier games took some big swings (euthanasia of a loved one isn't something you would have expected an action game to tackle back when Gears of War 2 debuted), the plot is very much by the numbers. It's like the writers and producers didn't want to take any big risks, so they played it safe all the way through.

Unfortunately, playing it safe also means the core relationship between Dom and Marcus falls flat. That's not a complaint about the voice actors — they did a fine job — they just didn't have the material they really needed. This is supposedly a story of how the two friends cement an unshakable bond. Inner turmoil and guilt end up feeling superficial.

Gears of War: E-Day is no slouch on the graphics side, but it does tend to get repetitive once you dig into the details. Whereas the older games felt like handcrafted environments, when I was wandering around destroyed apartment blocks in E-Day, they all tended to look similar.

The same can be said for the encounters. Gears of War was the OG cover shooter, and it spawned a whole genre. A key element of a good cover shooter is forcing the player to think strategically and move with intention. Gears of War: E-Day tends to fall back on the approach of "throw more enemies at the player" when the developers wanted to make things more challenging, rather than have the enemy attack feel strategic. On the one hand, the Locust attack by overwhelming force, but on the other hand, they are intelligent and coordinated. It would've been nice to see that. Instead, I had encounters that would run the gamut from enemies being right behind the door I just opened and opening up on me to clearing out a construction site and seeing some enemies sit there behind cover, waiting for me to pick them off.

Then again, friendly AI wasn't much better. Given that Gears of War: E-Day is a squad-based shooter, you'd expect the AI companions to act like an intelligent squad. Instead, they often seemed to do their own thing with no rhyme or reason. During my time with the campaign, I didn't see my companions flanking or proactively trying to draw fire. I never even saw one pick up a random Boomshot or similar powered-up weapon. I think Star Wars stormtroopers might be better shots. They were useful for the occasional recovery when downed, but they were also the only AI willing to do that. At one point, I was downed and another COG Gear was nearby while my squad was on the other side of the map. That random Gear completely ignored me.

In another section, I went to clear out an open area, and my squad inexplicably stayed back in one corner. They didn't move forward or attack. After clearing out the square and surrounding apartment buildings, I still couldn't move on. When I wandered back to my squad to see what was up, a group of wretches appeared, so we killed them and moved on. Was my squad just taking a break and shooting the shit with the Locust when I wasn't around?

Overall, polish was an issue with the campaign. Even the little things didn't always make sense, such as the time I was clearing an apartment building and found a radio that was playing music. I couldn't turn it off until the fight was over, though. That doesn't make sense in the context of the world. I would often attempt to open a door to the next area, only to see a lock icon and then have it update to something I could interact with a few seconds later.

Performance-wise, the Xbox Series X offers both quality and performance options with 30 and 60 fps output. There's also a hybrid option of 40 fps if you have a 120Hz display. I played with the performance option, and while the game generally held up, there were more than a few times the frame rate noticeably dropped for no particular reason. It's something that you might expect when playing on PC given the multitude of different possible configurations, but not on the console. The Coalition has access to all of Microsoft's performance and profiling tools, so there really shouldn't have been a point where the hardware was struggling with the game.

Gears of War: E-Day also crashed on me more than once during my playthrough. I was playing, and then I was suddenly back at the main Xbox dashboard. That's not something you'd expect from a AAA title with a MSRP of $70. It felt more like a preview build that press would normally play a few months early than a fully polished review build ready for release.

One element I did like about the campaign was how it encourages you to explore and play optional side missions to find new mods for your weapons and armor. It's something that allows you to do a light bit of customization to better fit your play style. After beating the campaign, there's no New Game+ option, though — just a new save. It would've been nice to be able to play through again with my favorite mods unlocked from the start.

If you only intend to play Gears of War: E-Day's campaign, it has thus far been stunningly mediocre. Neither the story nor the gameplay takes any risks, and everything feels like it was designed by committee. That's not counting the technical issues. After the multiplayer servers are live and stable, we'll post a follow-up review that includes coverage of the multiplayer experience, so gamers can make an educated choice as we head into the crowded holiday season.