Gears of War: E-Day Reviews Hit 87 on Metacritic as the Game Goes Live on Game Pass

Gears of War: E-Day reviews have put The Coalition’s prequel at 87 on Metacritic from more than 50 critic reviews, the series’ best average since Gears of War 3 in 2011, and the game went live for everyone at 4pm Nigerian time on Tuesday, 6 October. It’s out on Xbox Series X|S and PC through the Xbox app and Steam, and it’s playable from day one on Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass.

Players who bought the Premium Edition or the Premium Upgrade have been in since 1 October, but Tuesday’s global unlock is the one that matters for most Nigerian players, since the standard edition and the Game Pass version only became playable then. The game is an Xbox exclusive, so there’s no PS5 version, and the official Xbox store page lists it as an Xbox Play Anywhere title, which means one purchase covers both console and PC.

How Gears of War: E-Day reviews stack up against the rest of the series

The score matters because The Coalition has been chasing Epic Games’ original trilogy for a decade. Gears of War Judgment sits at 79 on Metacritic, while Gears of War 4 and Gears 5 both landed at 84. The original three games scored 94, 93 and 91, so E-Day doesn’t quite reach that level, but it’s comfortably the studio’s best-received Gears game since it took over the series.

Critics mostly praised the gunplay and the reworked cover system, and several reviewers gave the game full marks. The common complaints were about pacing in the more open sections of the campaign and a story that some felt gave the early Marcus Fenix and Dom Santiago relationship too little room. A handful of reviews landed in the “mixed” range, but the overwhelming majority were positive.

Those scores only cover the campaign, because the competitive Versus modes weren’t available to critics before launch, so the verdict on E-Day’s 4v4 multiplayer and the Horde Siege mode will only become clear once the servers fill up this week.

What’s in the box once the download finishes

E-Day goes back to Emergence Day, the moment the Locust Horde first broke through the surface of Sera, with a young Marcus and Dom at the centre of the story. The Coalition rebuilt the game from scratch in Unreal Engine 5, and it targets 4K at up to 60fps on console. The campaign can be played solo, in two-player split-screen on console, or with up to four players online, while multiplayer is split between Horde Siege and 4v4 Versus.

Online play on console requires Game Pass Ultimate, and Game Pass Premium and Essential subscribers don’t get the game on day one. Our earlier breakdown of the Gears of War: E-Day PC requirements and Game Pass tiers explains which plan covers it and why a ray tracing graphics card is compulsory on PC.

Is it worth the data for Nigerian players right now?

For anyone already paying for Game Pass Ultimate or PC Game Pass, the reviews make E-Day an easy download to justify, even with a PC install that needs at least 115GB of SSD space. Players on capped mobile or fixed wireless plans should queue it overnight and pause it when cheaper data windows close, since both the Xbox app and consoles let you resume a download later.

Multiplayer is the part to watch over the next few days, especially from Nigeria, where the distance to the nearest servers can make a big difference in a fast cover shooter. Our guide to lowering gaming ping on MTN, Airtel, Glo and T2 is worth reading before you jump into Versus, and E-Day sits alongside Modern Warfare 4 in a crowded month covered in our October 2026 game releases roundup.