Hi, I just finished the game and I had a good time playing it, i liked it, but it wasn't the big return to form I expected, nor the one they themselves promised. Little disclairmer: I like all the Gears games, even 5 and Judgment.
In GOW1, everything felt darker and harder. Each Locust was a huge obstacle. They were scary mofos, and fights were tense and unforgiving. This was due to the amount of damage they dealt, how hard they were to kill, the restrictive level design (while still giving you some room to maneuver) and, to be honest, the occasional clunkiness of the controls and early UE3 engine. This hardcore feeling was gradually watered down over the course of the series, with the transition from GOW2 to GOW3 probably being the biggest shift. I like all of them, but I've always missed GOW1's smaller scope and tougher enemies.
Apparently, The Coalition thought the same, since during E-DAY's announcement, they talked about wanting to bring back that sense of fear, both in the world and in its enemies. They discussed it in this interview, they gave emphasis to the importance of bringing back that GOW1 feeling.
They described the Locust as the "monsters under the bed". They even specifically talked about making the Drone "fearsome, physically intimidating, and utterly brutal", adding that "getting the drone right was crucial; everything else with the Locust we're scaling up from there."
The extremely nostalgic and sad Mad World trailer, which they referenced in the E-DAY reveal, was also discussed in the article. They wanted to use it as a foundation for the overall tone of E-DAY:
"The original Mad World commercial resonates because it portrayed a heroism rooted in vulnerability, not invincibility. We wanted to explore all the elements that made that ad memorable and impactful."
Using the Mad World trailer as a sort of foundation for the series is a decision i aplaud, this is how they put it, "Our goal was to explore and reinvigorate the foundational ideas of the series."
So I was really hyped. I really vibed with what they were doing with E-DAY. I loved the idea of making the Locust scarier and bringing back the sad, dark atmosphere of the first game.
But apparently, they only meant it from a narrative perspective???? Regular Locust Drones in E-DAY are extremely weak. I think they're the easiest to deal with in the entire series, and the gameplay overall feels more forgiving, more freeform and more frictionless than in any other Gears game. It feels like the game wants to tell a gritty, sad and dark story about tragedy and brotherhood, but the gameplay doesn't convey those same ideas in the slightest.
This comes down to a whole bunch of factors:
- The maps are HUGE. None of them feel claustrophobic, and they make it extremely easy to keep your distance from enemies. You can almost always flank them, and the levels generally feel designed to make encounters easier, comfier and "accesible" rather than put you in a tight spot. This really takes away from the oppressive presence of the enemies and the tension of the encounters.
- There is almot no decisionmaking in your loadout, E-DAY follows a "play however you want 👍" philosophy that I'm not a huge fan of. Let me explain: in older Gears games, you had to work with whatever the map and the enemies gave you. If you wanted to use weapons like the sniper rifle or explosives like the Boomshot or Torquebow your opportunities were limited by what you could find. In E-DAY, you can basically use whatever weapon you want whenever you want. There's no friction, no meaningful limitations on what you can use, and this makes fights feel underdesigned and bland. There are no encounters that feel like the developers designed them around specific weapons or strategies. Everything is designed to be completed with whatever loadout you choose.
- Buildcrafting and active abilities trivialize a lot of situations and take away from the risk-reward aspect of surrounding enemies and putting yourself in a difficult position. Some builds are severely overpowered and strip away much of the tension from fights.
- The co-op mechanics are a joke. For a game so focused on your teammates, your bros, cooperation and the idea of being overwhelmed by insane reptilian mofos, you barely need to interact with your squadmates at all. You never need to revive them or save them when they're in trouble. They'll ALWAYS, ALWAYS, ALWAYS save you when you're in a bad spot when dealing with those awfully designed enemies that pin you to the ground. E-DAY is a game without any friction, and that goes against the very message it's trying to convey.
- The constant spam of collectibles and upgrade boxes scattered around the maps makes the game feel extremely videogamey, and not in a good way. It doesn't help that most of these upgrades are worthless while some of them are stupidly OP as previously mentioned. There's also an INSANE amount of resources everywhere: You can refill your ammo reserves at any weapon locker, but it feels like every single piece of cover needs to have two grenades, a weapon and two small ammo boxes nearby, it feels like they don't trust the player with managing their resources at all.
- The game features a lot of semi-open-world content that really messes with the pacing. On top of that, encounters in these open-world sections are pretty underwhelming compared to those in the more linear parts of the game.
They wanted to create this gritty and desolate experience while at the same time creating the friendlist and most welcoming game in the series from a gameplay point.
I really liked the story they were going for, and I loved the main characters, Marcus, Dom, Mags and Reyes, as well as the recurring background characters. I think they did a good job of portraying the sheer insanity of the Locust invasion, even though I wish the game had more quiet moments. More Halo 3: ODST moments where you simply walk around an abandoned city, taking in the tragedy of the invasion.
The game is pretty fun, the game is solid and a good new release for the Xbox brand, and i feel most people are really enjoying the campaign but personally im a bit worried this is the basis for the next games.
Honestly, ODST captured the feeling of the Mad World trailer better than either Gears of War 1 or E-DAY ever did.
