Cliff Bleszinski, the American game designer known primarily for his work on the Gears and Unreal franchises at Epic, shared his positive outlook on the upcoming prequel, Gears of War: E-Day.
In a video interview with The Expansion Pass, the game developer highlights that The Coalition has made the right choice in focusing on making the Locust scary again, rather than presenting enemies like the DeeBees robots. Bleszinski added that he has high hopes for this game, which looks like a return to the original trilogy's dark tone that was a bit lost in Gears 4 and 5, and he cannot wait to play it once it comes out.
I think they're doing the right thing, going back to give the people what they want. We've talked a lot about E-Day, there's been stories written about it. But to experience that, I think the possibilities for cinematic moments are tremendous with what they're doing. I got goosebumps when I saw Marcus falling, reaching out for Dom's hand — and all the comments online, people just loved it, because they had the ultimate gaming bromance. And to go back to that, as opposed to just putting zombie Dom as a multiplayer option… come on, man.
I think they're really righting the ship. You're not going to be fighting those stupid robots or the Lambent. It's going to be about making the Locust scary again. And seeing Marcus struggle with just one Locust in that trailer, I think that was brilliant. And showing the hopelessness of life on Sera, the "Welcome Home" banner on the wall — hey, congratulations, the Pendulum Wars are over, but psych. Now you've got a bigger, scarier threat to deal with. This is what happens when humans fight too much: a third party comes in and screws everything up. I have high hopes for it, and I can't wait to see what they put out.
Gears of War: E-Day has been described by The Coalition as their most ambitious game yet. It's been in development for over six years at this point, though we recently learned that the studio briefly considered Gears 6 before committing to the prequel. Microsoft is clearly placing a great deal of stock in this release, having picked it for the yearly post-Xbox Games Showcase Direct.
As for Bleszinski, it's been a while since he worked on a new game. In the interview, he mentions having some new concept ideas, but he's also open to consulting on Gears, although no one has reached out to him so far.
About the author: With over two decades of experience in gaming journalism, Alessio Palumbo has led the gaming vertical at Wccftech since August 2015. He started working at a young age for Italian websites like Everyeye.it, Gamestar.it, Nextgame.it, and Multiplayer.it before kickstarting the indie English-language publication Worlds Factory as its founder and Editor in Chief. In the last decade, he has coordinated the overall output of Wccftech's gaming section, managed PR relations, assigned reviews, produced daily news coverage, edited gaming content as needed, and delivered game reviews. Arguably, his trademark content is the long series of exclusive developer interviews that have been cited by Wikipedia and by the biggest news media and gaming publications. His passion for technology also makes him knowledgeable when it comes to gaming hardware and tech. His favorite genres include RPGs, MMORPGs, and action/adventure games.
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