In the late 2010s, Xbox’s flagship franchisesGears of WarandHalodiverted their game series’ trajectory following widespread fan outcry. In late 2015, 343 Industries releasedHalo 5: Guardians, which turned out to not be reflective of the game’s marketing and featured a story wherein Cortana was revealed to be alive, bent on galactic domination.
In late 2019, The Coalition releasedGears 5, which continued the Swarm’s story but focused less on the Fenix family with Kait Diaz as the main protagonist. Both of these narrative trends disappointed many fans, leading Xbox to sideline those plotlines first withHalo Infiniteand now with the upcomingGears of War: E-Day. However, The Coalition should commit to completing the Swarm’s storyline inGears 6instead of having the conflict resolved off-screen.
The State of Sera Following Gears 5
Roughly 42 years after Emergence Day, Sera is once again engulfed in a global war with the rise of the new Swarm faction. Being made up of reborn Locust remnants, mutated creatures, and humans turned Swarm drones, the Swarm is striving to complete the Locust’s goal of destroying humanity and taking Sera’s surface world for their own. At the end ofGears 5, Diaz discovers her familial connection to the Locust Queen Myrrah and inadvertently resurrects her consciousness in her mother Reyna Diaz’s now Swarm-mutated body. COG forces, meanwhile, were able to reactivate the Hammer of Dawn satellites and temporarily push back Swarm forces, but not before Myrrah killed eitherJD Fenix or Del Walker.
As Diaz and Marcus Fenix concludeGears 5’s campaign with a renewed effort towards eliminating the Locust threat for good, the Swarm Conflict briefly continued inGears 5’s story DLC Hivebustersin 2020. Here, players followed the troubled beginnings of Scorpio Squad, made up of former Onyx Guard member Jeremiah Keegan, cousin of Locust War hero Tai Kaliso Lahni Kaliso, and former Outsider Leslie “Mac” Macallister. Together, the three were tasked by retired Colonel Hoffman and Augustus Cole’s daughter Hana Cole to find a successful way to destroy Swarm hives on the South Islands of Pahanu and Galangi. There they discovered that the gigantic Wakaatu bird’s green venom could be used to develop a gas that can destroy any and all Swarm matter in a hive.
The Eventual Gears 6 Following Gears of War: E-Day
Immediately followingGears of War: E-Day’s announcement at the 2024 Xbox Showcase, The Coalition confirmed that not only willE-Daybe the next mainline installment in theGears of Warfranchise, but that they will not abandonthe storylines ofGears of War 4andGears 5. However, sinceGears of War: E-Daydoesn’t have an official release date yet, fans might have to wait a while forGears 6to release.Gears 6may not even be the next mainlineGears of Wargame in the series, depending on howE-Dayends. The end of the Swarm Invasion may even be concluded afterGears of War 4’s 10th anniversary ifE-Dayreleases sometime in 2026.
DespiteGears 6’s release being some time out withGears of War: E-Day’s development,E-Daymay hint at possible story threads to be explored in the second trilogy’s eventual conclusion. WhileE-Daywill be set 42 years beforeGears 5, Marcus Fenix and Dominic Santiago might find a forgotten MacGuffin in the game that could be later found byDiaz inGears 6to help end the Swarm conflict.Gears 6may also be structured similarly toGears of War 3with humanity once more at the brink of extinction, desperately seeking a doomsday device to swiftly wipe out the Swarm, just as the Imulsion Countermeasure Weapon was designed to destroy both the Locust and Lambent.
Gears of War: E-Day’s Potential Gameplay Influence on Gears 6
InGears of War: E-Day,the Locust will return to being the primary antagonistsbut appear as formidable “living nightmares” compared to how players got used to grubs in the original trilogy. The Locust will essentially appear more horrific than ever before inE-Day. Based on this terrifying prospect, The Coalition may make the Swarm similarly horrifying inGears 6to make the end of the Swarm Invasion appear more like a nerve-racking apocalypse. No matter howGears of War: E-Dayis received by fans, The Coalition should finish the Swarm’s storyline properly inGears 6to properly conclude theGears of Warsaga.
Gears of War: E-Day
WHERE TO PLAY
The Story of E-DayFourteen years before Gears of War, war heroes Marcus Fenix and Dom Santiago return home to face a new nightmare: the Locust Horde. These subterranean monsters, grotesque and relentless, erupt from below, laying siege on humanity itself. New FoundationsBuilt from the ground up with Unreal Engine 5, Gears of War: E-Day delivers unprecedented graphical fidelity.
