As a prequel to the previous Gears of War games, Gears of War: E-Day is a great place to jump in and get your hands dirty. And believe me, they will get dirty.

The story starts off on a quiet note, though. Everything seems peaceful on this far-flung planet, as two fan-favourite heroes share a quiet beverage, reminiscing about their fallen comrades from a recent galactic war.

Of course, this peace lasts for about five minutes. It's not long before giant red holes tear open the street outside, with slimy monsters emerging from within.

As these relentless enemies rip the city to bits, it's down to your squad to protect human life and try to hold the line. (And remember to take cover whenever you can!)

Huge action set-pieces await, as do brutal hordes of foes and an array of customisable weapons to face them down with.

That is, basically, all you need to know about the set-up of Gears of War: E-Day’s surprisingly long 28-mission campaign.

If you’re already a Gears fan, you’ll know that E-Day stands for Emergence Day, and that it marks a dark chapter in the overarching lore.

This is bad news for the city that you’re in, but it’s great news as a player, as you’ll get to witness spectacle on a scale that games can rarely achieve.

At one point, as a gaggle of flying foes attacked the helicopter we were in, and as the city’s ruins-in-progress smouldered in the background, I was reminded of the Battle of New York from the first Avengers movie. That’s the level of epic action we’re talking about here.

That said, the game does have something of a slow start – as the campaign tutors you on every weapon type, every enemy type and every mechanic you’ll have to reckon with, the first act somewhat outstays its welcome and does get frustrating at points.

However, when the game finally starts to unleash you with a full arsenal of weaponry into its impressive open-world segments, the power fantasy of blasting through slobbering hordes really does sing.

One thing I will note here is that I have both an Xbox Series X and an Xbox Series S at home, and I found that the Series S did struggle somewhat with the more wide-open complex parts of the game.

When a sizeable group of enemies is spread over a particularly wide area, I did find that there was some stuttering going on, and sometimes enemies would vanish out of existence just as I was trying to get them in my sights. On the Series X, however, there were no such problems.

It does feel like the game was optimised best for Xbox’s most powerful hardware, which makes sense, but that will result in pain for people who chose the cheaper option. Now, as we reach the latter stages of this console generation, the Series S seems to be becoming even harder for developers to support. Even developers that are owned by Xbox.

Eventually, I opted to keep my play on the Series X, and that nullified all my tech complaints. Not all players will have that options, though. Future updates could make the Series S version run better, of course, but only time will tell on that front.

Regardless, the gunplay felt great throughout, and I didn’t find that the new movement additions (like jumping) detracted from the experience at all. The game feels immersive, and the kills feel so satisfying. You will need your buddies on hand to revive you, but thankfully (for players without a squad of humans to call on), the game's AI bots felt pretty good to me.

The performances from the cast were also great, and the musical score was noticeably good when it got going, bringing thumping momentum to your gruesome actions on the battlefield. The story and the tone was pitched just right – you're watching an apocalypse play out in real time, but there are still flashes of humour to help you stay sane.

On the multiplayer side of things, the game has two modes: Horde Siege mode is PVE, allowing you to take on missions in a nice big map, with your squad competing against other groups; Versus mode is PVP, with the standard of players already feeling very competitive during early access.

Only having two multiplayer modes at launch feels a little bit stingy, but I did enjoy both of them. I've seen people online calling for an all-out Horde mode and, to be honest, that would be cool!

Of the current options, Horde Siege is much more my jam – it’s easy to imagine groups of pals playing this mode together for a long time after launch. No two runs are identical because there’s lots of variation in objective types and some decent intelligence in the enemy AI.

Versus mode seems punishingly difficult if you’re new to this type of game, but that could well be music to the ears of returning fans. Certainly, the battles here feel absolutely brutal, with the unforgiving match-ups playing into the game’s apocalyptic tone pretty well.

Overall, I’ve really enjoyed my time with E-Day. Series S players have got the raw end of the deal, but everyone else should buckle up for a properly epic showcase of enemy brutality, impressive world-building and jaw-dropping spectacle.

Gears of War: E-Day is out now in early access for players who pre-ordered. It'll drop on Xbox Game Pass on Tuesday 6 October for PC and Xbox Series X/S.

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