Gears of War: E-Day hits 87 on Metacritic; campaign draws doubts
Critics praise the combat in The Coalition's prequel on Xbox Series X, but Gamekult gave it 5 out of 10 and several outlets find the campaign long.
The Coalition's prequel, Gears of War: E-Day, launched on Oct. 6 on Xbox Series X|S and PC (Steam and Xbox). Four days later, Metacritic averages it at 87 for Xbox Series X, from 57 critic reviews, and 83 for PC, from 40. OpenCritic shows an 87 average and 92% of critics recommending it.
One reading keeps coming up: the combat is what critics celebrate most, and the campaign is what they question most, for a story pushed to the background and a pace some outlets find long. The game has no announced PlayStation version.
The scores, outlet by outlet
The spread is wide. It runs from 10 out of 10 at Gfinity to 5 out of 10 at Gamekult, which, according to the summary by The Shortcut, describes a franchise on autopilot and padded. These are the scores listed by OpenCritic and The Shortcut:
| Outlet | Score |
|---|---|
| Gfinity | 10 out of 10 |
| GamingTrend | 95 out of 100 |
| TechRaptor | 9.5 out of 10 |
| Xbox Achievements | 90% |
| Screen Rant, Game Rant, TrueAchievements, Shacknews, GamingBolt | 9 out of 10 |
| COGconnected | 85 out of 100 |
| TheSixthAxis, VGC, GAMINGbible | 8 out of 10 |
| PC Gamer | 77 out of 100 |
| Wccftech | 7.4 out of 10 |
| GameSpot | 7 out of 10 |
| Eurogamer | 4 out of 5 |
| Gamekult | 5 out of 10 |
The reviews from Eurogamer, Shacknews, COGconnected, GamingTrend and Gfinity are late ones: OpenCritic dates them Oct. 8 and 9. The ones from VGC, GAMINGbible, GamingBolt and Gamekult come from The Shortcut's Oct. 1 roundup.
What the gap between platforms means
Metacritic gives the Xbox Series X version four more points than the PC version. That is a difference between the averages of two different sets of reviews, 57 and 40 critics, and not a technical comparison of the versions. The page also shows a total of 72 across all platforms, which does not match that breakdown.
This piece reports what the outlets said and is not a review of its own. The averages in the first roundup reflected only the campaign: multiplayer had not yet been evaluated, so it remains to be seen whether the number moves once critics weigh in.
