Following six hours of playtime with E-Day's multiplayer modes, it's clear that The Coalition is bringing back the Xbox 360 era juice.14:00, 30 Jul 2026We go hands on with three of Gears of War E-Day's multiplayer modes, including the all-new Horde Siege, which feels absolutely massive in scale and ambition.‌It feels like only yesterday that I was peppering away at Swarm hordes whilst hunkered down behind cover as The Terminator’s Sarah Connor. This wasn’t a fever dream I had, but rather my last lingering memory of Gears 5’s multiplayer which, while not extremely poor, still found itself plagued by a particularly odd movie crossover in a bid to stay relevant.‌Fast forward seven years later, though, and the brand of Gears multiplayer I recently found myself entrenched in as part of a preview session for E-Day appears determined to revive the franchise’s old-school heart by bringing back classic modes and just a splash of the new. It results in a mix where some gameplay hallmarks feel creakier than others. But even after just six hours of playtime, there’s certainly promise that E-Day’s ‘all killer, no filler’ approach will do justice to the weighty multiplayer fans have been craving for too long.‌Being my first time getting hands on with Gears of War: E-Day at all, there were a couple of things that struck me about how this upcoming prequel actually feels to play. For instance, while I thought I’d hate the roadie run now being mapped to L3 (more aligned with modern multiplayer shooter greats) as opposed to the A button as is classic, it’s a change I quickly grew to love.Pushing the thumbstick in while trying to evade a scrap or when wanting to quickly slam into a piece of nearby cover in classic Gears fashion made too much sense, as does the franchise’s active reload bar now being placed behind your character as opposed to the top-right of the screen.From these two design changes alone, even before I jumped into the likes of Horde or Conquest modes proper, Gears of War: E-Day made a great first impression purely via the slight changes made to trademark design elements. Most of which here feel fresh yet familiar. It’s exactly the kind of approach you’d expect from an entry intended to onboard newcomers while welcoming back veteran players wanting to scratch that competitive Xbox 360 era itch, and it seriously didn’t take all that long to get back in the flow of things.‌Getting into E-Day’s multiplayer proper, then, and the first modes I got to try both related to classic PvP. Team Deathmatch, as is probably evident, plays out in traditional fashion, with the uniquely Gears-tinged twist in that both teams of four pull from the same pool of 15 lives upon death. It’s a small change to a game mode so prevalent in other games, true, yet one that had me more determined than ever to revive my fellow teammates as soon as they were downed, if only to retain the most lives possible in order to beat the rival team.Speaking of which, it wouldn’t be Gears of War without the tentpole downed mechanic, wherein being pummelled by endless fire is never quite enough to finish your character off. Therefore, as per, E-Day makes it so your best chance of survival is to crawl closer to a member of your squad before an enemy team member’s prototype Lancer can come ripping and sawing its way into your neck or head.‌These contextual finisher kills looked brutal back in 2006 and they look even more so now thanks to the serious step up in graphics. Gears of War has always been Xbox’s grittier series, and despite the series’ timeline clock being wound back to before the first entry, the same still stands true in E-Day.A slightly more tactical take on Gears of War multiplayer in E-Day is Conquest. It works extremely similarly to something like Call of Duty’s classic Headquarters multiplayer mode, where both teams of four duke it out across the map wrestling for control of an ever-changing control point.This is the main way E-Day looks to throw back to the era of classic Gears of War PvP while looking slightly to the future. Because while the same cover-shooting principles from Team Deathmatch transfer over, both teams piling into an extremely small point of the map is a recipe for chaos. The kind that had me yearning to utilise every available shortcut, vantage point, and Vulcan minigun that would spawn on the map.‌Back in gearOverall, in terms of PvP, Gears of War E-day’s multiplayer always kept me engaged and extremely determined to fight back regardless of how down-and-out it seemed for my team. Better yet, the two maps I got to play on, Market and Outpost, both felt unique in both tone and layout. Market’s inner, undercover section was always a hotspot for carnage compared to the outside’s more lane-based structure, for example.Meanwhile, Outpost, although visually a little stifled due to its reliance on brownish murkiness, kept me on my toes with its various vantage points and uneven ground. Both maps showed a different side of Kalona as the game’s new planet setting during a time before Locust forces fully took hold.Arguably what’s hoped to be the new star for Gears multiplayer in E-Day is called Horde Siege. This is a large-scale PvE mode where three squads of four must work together across a single map, completing objectives like killing a specific enemy target, defending a point, or capturing a cache, in order to take the fight back to the incoming Locust hordes.‌While it’s true that it shares some semblance with classic Horde mode in that it’s a ‘you versus them’ type of setup, in pretty much every aspect Horde Siege feels totally new - to the extent that I really have no idea why the ‘Horde’ moniker is even attached to it.While I was only able to play Horde Siege across one map, the main and side objectives available to undertake upon it were all varied and interesting from the little time I had to play. It’s clear the team over at The Coalition have been paying close attention to more modern multiplayer offerings such as Helldivers 2 for inspiration for Horde Siege. Except here the far weightier shooting mechanics of COG soldiers means it’s easy to find yourself outflanked and the length of these missions can easily stretch upwards of 30 minutes.‌I also got the impression that communication with your teammates is key in this mode more so than in others purely due to how easy it is to get distracted. Multiple times while heading to my squad’s next main objective did a member of the group veer off to try and help another, for instance.That’s fine to do in more casual modes, but not in Horde Siege where coordination and timing can be key to excavating from the map alive. Either way, there’s plenty of meat on the bone that is Horde Siege, particularly since everything you do and the optional objectives you’re able to complete further feeds into the multiplayer suite’s wider class system, which lets you unlock further weapons and gadgets for your bespoke COG character.From heading in with lingering memories of shifty-looking T800 skeletons and not knowing quite what to expect, I came away from my short time playing Gears E-Day’s selection of PvP and PvE modes optimistic that The Coalition is bringing back the juice.Article continues belowThe sheer satisfaction that comes from regularly slamming into cover and slicing off the head of a downed enemy with a Lancer knows absolutely no bounds, and it’s these simple gritty pleasures I can’t wait to get stuck into more when E-Day releases in October. Even with solely the promise of Horde Siege’s sheer scale and level of variety alone, my time playing multiplayer well and truly left me feeling revved up.Gears of War: E-Day is scheduled to launch on PC and Xbox this October 6, 2026 .