Gears of War: E-Day adds four-player campaign co-op

The Coalition confirmed Gears of War: E-Day will include four-player campaign co-op, returning the series to a four-person squad structure. The game launches Oct. 6 on PC and Xbox Series X|S, and players can access the campaign in co-op from day one.

Players can play as any member of Bravo Squad: returning veterans Marcus Fenix and Dominic Santiago alongside newcomers Mags Carter and Lucas Reyes. The campaign is set entirely in the city of Kalona during Emergence Day, with Bravo Squad at the frontline of the city’s fall.

The last main-series title to offer four-player campaign co-op was Gears of War 3, released 15 years ago. Matt Searcy, creative director at The Coalition, described the choice as a return to the series’ four-person focus: “Our stories are almost always about a four-person squad, right?” He compared the campaign’s structure to wartime films: “It’s kind of like Band of Brothers or Saving Private Ryan, where you’re following this group and they aren’t always going to be in the right place at the right time.”

The studio adjusted level design and encounter scaling so the campaign works whether a player is alone or joined by up to three allies. The team sized arenas and combat encounters to perform across single-player, two-, three- and four-player sessions.

The Coalition said it has implemented four-player co-op in other modes before and concentrated E-Day’s development on scaling campaign encounters to support different team sizes and play styles. The studio also emphasized single-player accessibility, noting core mechanics were developed with solo play in mind so the full campaign can be experienced by a lone player with the squad present.

Players can join friends in co-op at launch, and those who prefer to play alone can complete the same campaign content with the squad accompanying them.