The Coalition has said it wants to return to its Gear of War horror roots with its next game, Gears of War: E-Day.
Speaking to IGN in a new interview, brand director Nicole Fawcette and creative director Matt Searcy discussed how E-Day will differ from its most recent titles in the sci-fi shooter franchise, saying that it wants to return its focus to the “scary” aspects of the series.
“For us, it’s like a what-if story,” Searcy said. “What if the ground opened up and monsters came out? Yeah, it’s set on a fictional, other planet, but there are very human reactions and stories we get to tell. To do that, we need to be able to tell a story that feels like a horror story.”
Searcy continued, saying, “We looked back at what people felt like when they played Gears of War or any of the Gears – Gears 4 included. But when people tell you what they remember playing, the things that stood out to them, the feelings, a lot of it is about these, kind of dark, almost horror-esque, scary moments.”
The creative director explained that the team took this vision and said: “That’s the game we’re going to build.”
“We’re going to build that game with all the skills we’ve learned, with all the technology we’ve built, and sort of go hard at that,” he adds. “So definitely part of the story is about reintroducing the locust to Gears as scary monsters from the ground come up. And then you realize as it goes on, this is not just monsters, there’s an army here and it’s bigger than anybody thinks it is.”
The game will be developed in Unreal Engine 5 and Fawcette explained that this will allow The Coalition to lean into the “horror vibes” that fans remember and show the Locust – Gears‘ alien antagonist – at a “visual fidelity that is believable as scary creatures from the subterranean”.
Gears of War: E-Day, which was officially revealed during the Xbox Games Showcase, will be set 14 years before the events of the first game and feature younger versions of the series’ original heroes, Marcus Fenix and Dom Santiago, during the start of the Locust invasion.
Unfortunately, we don’t have a release date just yet, but the game is expected to launch on Xbox consoles and PC.