"Feels like Gears, but plays new": The Coalition builds Gears of War: E-Day from scratch, without using old assets

The game will be released on October 6.

In an interview with Xbox Wire, representatives of The Coalition team said that the upcoming shooter will be the studio's first project in many years that does not use assets, animations, and code from previous installments of the series.

According to Technical Director Kate Rayner, over the past decade, The Coalition has been working almost non-stop on the Gears of War franchise, releasing Gears of War 4, Gears 5, the Hivebusters expansion, Gears Tactics, and the mobile game Gears Pop!. As a result, many technologies and developments were transferred from project to project in the form of so-called "legacy code".

With Gears of War: E-Day, the studio decided to start with a clean slate. Levels, characters, enemies, weapons, animations, sound effects, and other game elements were created from scratch. The Unreal Engine 5 played a key role in this process.

We leveraged the power of UE5 to bring Gears in line with modern gaming industry standards without losing its unique identity.
Matt Searcy, Creative Director, The Coalition.

The developers paid special attention to the atmosphere. Art Director Aryan Hanbeck said that the team actively used the MegaLights lighting system from Unreal Engine 5. Thanks to it, the studio was able to delve deeper into the frightening elements that the original Gears of War was famous for.

We wanted to put more emphasis on the darker side of Gears: the interplay of light and shadow, frightening spaces, and dynamic shadows. This technology allowed us to implement such ideas at a level that was previously unavailable.
Aryan Hanbeck, Art Director, The Coalition.

Brand Director Nicole Fawcett also emphasized the scale of the work done.

Literally everything you see in E-Day didn't exist until we created it specifically for this game.
Nicole Fawcett, Brand Director, The Coalition.

The changes affected not only the visual component. The developers also revised the gameplay. According to Searcy, the team's goal is to create a project that "feels like Gears, but plays new". The studio aims to bring back the emotions that fans of the original trilogy experienced, while reinterpreting and developing them through modern technologies.