I haven’t played any kind of Gears of War multiplayer since Gears 5 back in 2019. I briefly hopped onto the servers and had my share of fun playing its Horde mode, where players fend off waves of enemies in a desperate fight for survival, but I eventually set it aside for new games.
As a casual Gears fan, I was excited to see what the next installment, Gears of War: E-Day, would bring. As a prequel, you’d think that developer The Coalition would scale back. But that’s not the case, as the studio is making its multiplayer bigger than ever. I spent five hours playing E-Day’s newest iteration of the franchise’s Horde mode, called Horde Siege. It feels like a natural evolution, as it has expanded to include 12 total players, up from five in Gears 5. It’s also got approachable options that respect your time.
Natural progression
In Siege Horde, your goal is to complete both primary and secondary objectives and then evacuate. The primary objective usually involves defending a machine from waves of Locust enemies. They’ll drop Energy, which you can collect as currency to spend on ammo reloads and other power ups. Simple enough, but what makes each Horde Siege a bit different are the secondary objectives. They range from collecting documents around the map to transporting machine parts to another location, while mowing down enemies who’ll try to stop you.
Secondary objectives are entirely optional, as you’ll need to activate them at certain parts of the map. However, they’re well worth doing as they’ll unlock Squad Perks that’ll help boost your team’s capabilities. Some that I unlocked were increased Critical Damage and Ammergy, the latter of which resupplies your ammo when you pick up Energy.
Initially, these Squad Perks don’t really feel like they’re making much of an impact. But if you or your teammates have enough Energy, you can spend it to upgrade them to Level 3. At that level, you can actually feel the difference. Horde Siege is ultimately a group effort, so when I had enough Energy to spare, I’d go to the terminal to upgrade one of the Squad Perks, only to see that someone else already had. Considering a majority of the games had no voice comms between teammates, this was a small way that I felt the camaraderie through the screen.
Despite the jump from five players to 12, I didn’t really notice that much of a difference. While there were clear markers showing where my teammates were, there were also some other people running around the map that weren’t. I just assumed there were NPC allies helping out, but perhaps they were the other eight players? It was really hard to tell as they all just had dots above their heads. I hope that the full release makes it more explicit.
After successfully defending yourself against waves of enemies, the mission typically ends with an extraction. You’ll have to fight off more enemies as the clock counts down for when the helicopter arrives. It’s a fun way to close things out, giving you a real heroic finish.
Outfitting the squad
There are four distinct classes to choose from. The Assault class focuses on frontline damage, while the Breacher tanks enemy attacks and breaks formations. The Marksman class stays in the backline for more precision fire, and the Medic supports the squad with healing and revives.
They all have different Tactical Gear abilities, such as the Breacher using a self-injecting stim to decrease damage taken, and the Medic having an area stim that automatically heals and revives fellow squadmates nearby.
But what’s really impressive is the customizability within these classes to make them feel different, even if there are players with the same class on your team. As you play more matches and gain XP, you’ll unlock both class mods and armor mods. Class mods augment the Tactical Gear. For example, the Marksman’s Tactical Gear summons a radar drone that pinpoints enemy locations. One of the first class mods you unlock for it is the Retention Battery, which makes the drone last longer. Another mod lets the drone collect nearby Energy when it pulses.
Armor mods are more universal. The Assault class has one called Cover is Life, which improves health regeneration while in cover, as well as Hardened Cover, which improves cover defense. It looks like you can have three class mods and five armor mods in total, so there’s a ton of variability to customize towards your preferred playstyle.
So little time
Like Gears 5, Horde Siege has missions varying in length depending on how much time you have to play: Blitz, Siege, and Horde. Blitz is the shortest one, usually throwing two to three waves of enemies your way before extraction. If you’re looking for a quick game, then these 15-20 minute skirmishes are a fantastic way to get some fun in.
Siege is the standard-length mission, which takes about 20-30 minutes to complete, and then Horde lets you face off against seemingly endless waves of enemies. Unfortunately, during my time with the multiplayer preview, I couldn’t find a Horde match. It seemed like most other players picked Blitz, as that was the easiest to find matches in, but I did also play a few Siege ones.
Surprisingly, Siege matches are a noticeable bump in difficulty. While defending our post, my squad almost got wiped, an issue that we didn’t encounter in Blitz. That’s because there were more waves—in our case, five of them instead of the usual two or three. Additionally, each subsequent wave adds “Poisons,” which make enemies increasingly harder. The most common one I came across was that enemy damage and health were bumped up by 15%. So compound that over five waves, and these enemies can be relentless, mowing you down in no time without proper team coordination. Still, my team came through in the end, and the victories were satisfying.
There are also three different difficulty modes: Rookie, Infantry, and Commander. I had only played on Rookie difficulty since I didn’t get to level up much. Commander difficulty is definitely endgame material when you’ve got a majority of your class unlocks and mods equipped, so for this preview, Rookie just felt right.
So far, Horde Siege is a ton of fun, and I had a blast playing it. I love the customizability of each of the classes. There’s a lot to unlock, which feels like a carrot dangling in front of you while you’re running on a treadmill. I can’t wait to hop back in for the full experience when Gears of War: E-Day launches on October 6 for PC and Xbox Series X|S.
