After more than a decade steering the blood-soaked franchise, Gears of War: E-Day developer The Coalition wants to be recognized creatively for all of the things that made Gears become the cover shooter poster child two generations ago: really tight action, hefty weapons, and being best-in-class at “tearing monsters apart.”

It’s been almost 20 years since Gears of War first chainsaw-gunned its way to the surface and over 10 years since The Coalition took over the franchise from Epic Games. But the series’ stewards are still committed to delivering on what the series does best.

Speaking to GamesRadar+ at Gamescom 2026, creative director Matt Searcy says “we really wanted to be known for what Gears already is.” To him, Gears has always been “one of the probably best-in-class at cover shooting” thanks in large part to its “unabashed sort of tearing monsters apart.”

“Ultimately, we base it around the […] the pillars that made the original games great. What if we just built a modern game, a new engine from scratch around those pillars? And so, the short answer to your question, what do we want to creatively be known for? It’s all the things that made Gears resonate in the first place,” Searcy adds.

While trying to recapture the series’ signature knack for monster-crushing action, the developers still wanted “the game to feel new,” but Searcy says the team approached the challenge “by looking at ourselves and not looking outside at other franchises.” The Xbox studio recently rejected the aggressive monetization of modern shooters, for example, and promised to return to the “good ol’ days.”

“Gears is one of those franchises that’s always pushed the boundaries of visual [and] hardware, and I think [The Coalition] team shares a lot of that pedigree with Epic from from the past,” brand director Nicole Fawcette adds, explaining that the studio is full of developers who have “truly hit their stride in this game and in their career, and it shows up on screen.”

“Like, it’s just a team that like strives to do their best with a franchise they love,” she says. “Everybody [is] giving their absolute f*****g balls, every effort that they can to to bring it to life, and I think it shows.”

Gears of War: E-Day comes out on October 6 for PC and Xbox Series X|S.

We played Gears of War: E-Day’s campaign, and it’s even bleaker than we expected.