During the Gears of War: E-Day Direct, which took place after a packed Xbox Showcase at Summer Game Fest, we got a good look at some of the big changes The Coalition is bringing to the Gears of War formula established nearly two decades ago. In short: Marcus can jump.
Gears of War has been defined by its big, brutish protagonists who look and walk like tanks. It was the series that helped define waist-high cover when cover-based shooters were taking off, and hasn’t really strayed much from that. With Gears of War: E-Day, traversal is getting its biggest revamp yet, with different heights and types of cover, a new sense of verticality afforded by jumps, and much faster movement in and out of cover.
If you were keeping an eye on the gameplay that opened the Xbox Showcase, you might have noticed that Marcus was able to take cover behind some upended tarmac on a street, nearly laying down to avoid bullets. This is one example of different types of cover you can now use. Later in the same demo, Marcus vaults over a shelf that is several meters taller than he is, again showcasing how much more choice you have when exiting cover.
In the Direct, The Coalition says that this will give you more choices to make during combat, and more ways to use the crumbing city around you to survive. Sprinting is still here, but can now be combined with a slide that can give you an advantage around corners, or allow you to slide beneath a small piece of cover (like below a truck) and surprise an enemy on the other side.
These are drastic changes to Gears of War’s standard sprint, cover, roll, and vault that have defined the feel of the gameplay throughout its history. These changes should provide more interesting ways to get around in the campaign, but will make the PvP multiplayer feel entirely new in some ways.
Gears of War: E-Day launches exclusively on Xbox Series X|S and PC on October 16, 2026.