We have some interesting new insights on the production of Gears of War: E-Day.
We briefly need to come back to something Phil Spencer said in his interview with IGN earlier this week, as it does relate to more recent news. When asked about his reaction to the new game, Phil actually explained that the people in charge of The Coalition when they made Gears of War 4 and Gears 5 are no longer in that position.
To be specific, Rod Fergusson, who has in charge of The Coalition, recently moved over to Blizzard. Rod was in charge of Diablo 4’s release. As Phil elaborated, Rod’s departure opened up the opportunity for The Coalition for a fresh start, and that’s when they stumbled upon the idea of a prequel.
The person now leading The Coalition’s story direction is creative director Matt Searcy. In a new interview with GamesRadar, Matt explained that Gears of War: E-Day won’t just be about Emergence Day itself. He said:
“It’s not a day, it’s multiple days. But it is about the event, like it’s about sticking with these characters from the moment, you know, setting up the moment it happens, and being with them every minute, through the days that play out of the city and really experiencing it through their eyes, both what’s happening to them, and also what’s happening to the city around them, the people around them, the other characters.”
Now, it’s not that it’s impossible to make a game based on the lead character having a particularly bad (or maybe good) day. We’ll list out some examples of games canonically set to happen in a single day:
- Spec Ops: The Line
- Lollipop Chainsaw
- Portal 2
- Control
- Dead Space
- Metal Gear Solid
- Resident Evil
- Super Mario Odyssey
In this case, though, it would certainly be disappointing if players really only got to play a campaign set on a single day, even if that day was Emergence Day. It’s not so much that the campaign could be short, so much as a day wouldn’t be enough time for us to appreciate how Marcus and Dom’s relationship in light of the Locusts’ invasion.
The way Matt explains it, makes it sound like we’ll get a narrative where we join the protagonists as they tell the story of a once flourishing city under siege. There will be a lot of opportunities for great gameplay scenarios, but more importantly, it’s a setup for an emotionally resonant narrative. Hopefully, they can live up to their promises on this end.
