Summary

  • Gears of War: E-Day could benefit from weapon customization similar to Gears Tactics for added depth and variety in gameplay.
  • Introducing interchangeable attachments and components to weapons would refresh gameplay without disrupting the core experience.
  • Customizable weapons could be challenging to implement with Gears' well-known gameplay style, but even limited options could help the series evolve.

Marcus Fenix and Dominic Santiago on Emergence Day, E-Day is almost assured to include some minor timeline inconsistencies, like new weapons and enemy types that are inexplicably absent from games in the series which take place later chronologically. Adopting mechanics from Gears Tactics might contribute to such issues, but it would be a minor setback in favor of gameplay iteration.

Gears Tactics is unique among the series in that it opts for an isometric viewpoint and gives players control of multiple Gears in turn-based, tactical combat. It's a fascinating adaptation of the series' setting, and takes place roughly one year after Emergence Day, focusing on Gabe Diaz, father of Gears 4 and 5's Kait Diaz. While Gabe and a few other characters make up the core cast, a rotating roster of more generic Gears gives the Tactics squad a distinct feel. It's how Gears Tactics treats its weapons, though, that Gears of War: E-Day needs to take cues from.

Marcus and Dom in front of a cityscape in the reveal trailer for Gears of War: E-Day.
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Gears Of War: E-Day Should Adopt The Weapon Customization Of Gears Tactics

Interchangeable Weapon Attachments & Components

Gears Tactics has a skill tree for each recruited Gear to progress through as they level up, but each squad member also has a customizable loadout consisting of a helmet, chest armor, leg armor, primary weapon, secondary weapon, and a grenade type. While such control over equipment could be interesting in Gears of War: E-Day, the customization of weapons specifically would introduce some much-needed variety. In Tactics, each character's class dictates their primary weapon type; for instance, a Vanguard character might wield a Retro Lancer, while a Heavy lugs a Mulcher into battle.

As missions are completed, characters level up and earn skill points, which can be used to create more specific archetypes within that class, but the squad as a whole also accumulates a collection of weapon modifications. A Lancer, for example, can have its barrel, sights, magazine, and stock replaced, with variants changing the gun's base stats, but also potentially adding perks to slightly alter the gun's or character's behavior in combat. It's the sort of additional depth expected of a tactical strategy game like Gears Tactics, but skill trees and perks are largely beyond the mainline series, except for Gears 5's Horde and Escape game modes.

It's possible to collect supply crates in each Gears Tactics mission, which will provide randomized loot in addition to the mission's set of rewards for completion.

Weapon Customization Would Set Gears Of War: E-Day Apart

Adding Progression & Variety To Guns

Weapon customization is by no means a new concept to shooters, but the mainline Gears of War titles have never wavered from the loadouts set out by its very first installment. Each player can carry four weapons: two primaries, a secondary pistol, and a grenade type. Heavy weapons can also be picked up off the ground, but must be dropped completely to switch back to one of the equipped four. This has helped Gears' multiplayer adhere to its arena shooter-inspired niche; in Gears 5, for instance, every player gets a Lancer, a Gnasher, a Snub, and can select from either Smoke or Flashbang grenades, while all other weapons are picked up from spawn points on the map.

The lead designer on the first three Gears of War games, Cliff Bleszinski, previously worked on Epic Games' Unreal Tournament titles, which may be partially responsible for Gears' arena shooter influence.

Some degree of customization, however, could go a long way in refreshing the weapons that dedicated Gears players have been using since 2006. Adding attachments and interchangeable components also pairs well with the series' signature Active Reload mechanic, providing tactile to the often nebulous stat labeled "Handling" in many games. A Lancer would no longer have to be a reliable, mid-range all-rounder; it could instead be specialized for any number of roles.

This may also help inject new life into Gears' PvP multiplayer, which has long been dominated by the Gnasher shotgun. Bouncing off a wall and hip-firing an enemy into giblets never really gets old, but the added variety of core weapons being even slightly alterable could help establish a new rhythm without completely reinventing the series' multiplayer. Finding new attachments in the campaign could provide nice rewards if E-Day adopts Gears 5's "open-world" levels, but unlocking new components by using certain weapons in multiplayer might add a nice sense of progression.

Kait from Gears of War 5 with the city behind her.
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Customizable Weapons Do Risk Compromising The Gears Of War Gameplay Loop

E-Day Wouldn't Be The Same Without Picking Up Power Weapons

Key art for Gears Tactics, with Sid, Mikayla, and Gabe facing down a Brumak, two Corpsers, and Reavers.

There are inherent issues with introducing weapon customization to Gears of War: E-Day, however, which may require any such mechanics to essentially be half-measures. Gears' campaign gameplay thrives on constantly switching out weapons, and loading up guns with multiple hard-earned attachments would make players wary of switching things up. It's always fun to pick up a Boomshot or Torque Bow and use it until the ammo runs dry, but players aren't likely to do this if it means sacrificing their kitted Lancer or Gnasher.

A nice compromise might be making the Lancer a mandatory weapon, and the only customizable one. This way, E-Day could blur the lines between the Lancer and the Retro Lancer (the Lancer GL wouldn't have been invented by Baird yet), and let players choose between a chainsaw or a traditional bayonet. The series' signature rifle could then evolve over the course of the campaign, being built to a player's liking. It might also help incentivize the continued use of power weapons in multiplayer, while simultaneously making the Lancer more versatile and useful in the Gnasher-dominated firefights.

Customizable weaponry is one of the more interesting mechanics brought to the series by Gears Tactics, but it ittedly doesn't translate perfectly to the third-person shooter gameplay Gears is more famously known for. It works very well in a tactical strategy game designed around incremental improvement between missions, but its implementation could conceivably upset Gears of War: E-Day's gameplay too much, despite the latent appeal of swapping around components on the series' fascinating guns. Regardless, Gears Tactics bringing the concept to the series shouldn't be forgotten, and even a limited amount of customization might go a long way.

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Gears of War: E-Day
Third-Person Shooter
Released
2025
ESRB
m
Developer(s)
The Coalition
Publisher(s)
Xbox Game Studios
Engine
Unreal Engine 5
Franchise
Gears of War
Platform(s)
PC, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S