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Outbyte PC Repair FREEClear out junk files and repair common Windows errorsFree Scan →Outbyte Driver Updater FREEFix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitchesFind Drivers →Gears of War: E-Day takes place fourteen years before the original Gears of War. Its story unfolds on Emergence Day, the first time the Locust Horde erupts onto the surface of Sera, and follows younger Marcus Fenix and Dominic Santiago as they fight through the opening days of the invasion.
That placement makes E-Day the franchise’s founding disaster and a mainline origin story, not a side adventure set in an unrelated period. It shows the event that turns a battered postwar society into a civilization fighting for survival.
| # | Preview | Product | Price | |
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| 1 |
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Gears of War: E-Day | Standard Edition | XBOX Series X | $69.00 | Buy on Amazon |
| 2 |
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Gears of War E-Day | Premium Edition | XBOX Series X|S and Windows Digital | $99.99 | Buy on Amazon |
| 3 |
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Gears of War 3 (Renewed) | $16.63 | Buy on Amazon |
| 4 |
![Xbox One - Gears Of War 5 - [PAL EU - NO NTSC]](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51duB8cYpdL._SL160_.jpg)
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Xbox One - Gears Of War 5 - [PAL EU - NO NTSC] | $16.97 | Buy on Amazon |
| 5 |
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Gears of War 3 | $11.77 | Buy on Amazon |
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The short version of the timeline
In chronological order, Gears of War: E-Day comes before every previously released mainline campaign. Humanity has just emerged from the Pendulum Wars, a conflict between the Coalition of Ordered Governments (COG) and the Union of Independent Republics (UIR). Only a brief period of peace follows before the Locust appear from underground.
The original Gears of War is set much later, after the first attack has become a long-running war. By then, Marcus and Dom are experienced soldiers shaped by years of catastrophe. E-Day instead presents them at the moment that history changes direction.
#1 Best Overall
- AN ORIGIN STORY BEGINS — Fight alongside Marcus Fenix and Dom Santiago in the gripping origin story of Emergence Day, as the Locust Horde erupts from below.
- A DARKER, GRITTIER THREAT — Face reimagined enemies and a terrifying underground invasion that restores the fear, dread, and intensity at the heart of the Gears of War series.
- MULTIPLAYER EVOLVED — Battle in Horde Siege for large‑scale PvE action or prove your skill in refined Versus PvP with greater precision and competitive depth.
- CLASSIC COMBAT, MODERNIZED — Experience signature cover‑based gameplay enhanced with updated movement, traversal, and controls that feel like Gears while playing like something new.
- CO‑OP YOUR WAY — Play online with up to four players across Campaign, Horde Siege, and Versus, or team up locally with 2‑player split‑screen co‑op on console.
| Point in the chronology | What is happening | Story function |
|---|---|---|
| End of the Pendulum Wars | The long human conflict between the COG and UIR concludes. | Leaves Sera’s governments, armies and population exhausted. |
| Emergence Day | The Locust make their first surface assault. | Turns political and military exhaustion into a fight for survival. |
| Gears of War: E-Day | Young Marcus Fenix and Dominic Santiago confront the initial invasion. | Provides the series’ origin story and establishes the personal stakes of the war. |
| Original Gears of War | The Locust War has already reshaped human society. | Continues the conflict with Marcus and Dom as hardened veterans. |
What Emergence Day means
“E-Day” is not simply a date on the calendar. It is the name given to the Locust’s first emergence onto Sera’s surface. The attack reveals that a hostile civilization has been living beneath humanity’s cities and settlements, then launches a coordinated invasion that no surface government is prepared to stop.
That distinction matters when reading the timeline. The Locust are not an enemy that the COG has been fighting for decades before the game begins. Their appearance is the beginning of the conflict that defines the rest of the series. Characters, institutions and civilians are all reacting to a threat they have never encountered.
Xbox describes the game as an origin story because it dramatizes this first contact and the “first days” of the invasion. The campaign therefore belongs at the starting point of the Locust War, even though the wider franchise was released in a different order.
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The Pendulum Wars
The immediate prehistory is the Pendulum Wars, a 79-year struggle between the COG and the UIR. It is the major human war that occupies Sera before the Locust arrive. Soldiers have spent generations fighting one another, while governments have devoted resources to a conflict that ends only shortly before the underground emergence.
The length of that war explains why E-Day does not begin with a fully prepared defensive alliance. Military forces are tired, political relationships are damaged and civilian populations have only just begun to expect peace. The Locust invasion lands on a society that has spent most of its recent history fighting fellow humans.
Rank #2
- PREMIUM EDITION — Includes Bravo Squad Signature Weapon Pack, five Seasonal Customization Packs starting with the Emergence Pack, plus 1,000 Iron to unlock additional in‑game content.
- AN ORIGIN STORY BEGINS — Fight alongside Marcus Fenix and Dom Santiago in the gripping origin story of Emergence Day, as the Locust Horde erupts from below.
- A DARKER, GRITTIER THREAT — Face reimagined enemies and a terrifying underground invasion that restores the fear, dread, and intensity at the heart of the Gears of War series.
- MULTIPLAYER EVOLVED — Battle in Horde Siege for large‑scale PvE action or prove your skill in refined Versus PvP with greater precision and competitive depth.
- CLASSIC COMBAT, MODERNIZED — Experience signature cover‑based gameplay enhanced with updated movement, traversal, and controls that feel like Gears while playing like something new.
The six-week peace interval
A dated chronology guide from Space.com places only six weeks between the end of the Pendulum Wars and the Locust emergence. This is a short interval rather than a settled peacetime era. There is little opportunity to demobilize safely, rebuild institutions or understand the new threat before the next war starts.
That compressed transition is one of the most important pieces of context for E-Day. The game is not showing a stable civilization suddenly interrupted by monsters; it is showing a war-weary civilization hit by an entirely unfamiliar invasion while it is still adjusting to the end of its previous conflict.
Where Marcus and Dom fit
Marcus Fenix and Dominic Santiago appear as young soldiers rather than the older, battle-scarred figures familiar from the original trilogy. Their relationship is central to the campaign, but E-Day places it before the experiences that define them in later stories.
The game’s premise gives both characters a different dramatic role. They are not arriving with a complete tactical doctrine for fighting the Locust, a detailed history of previous encounters or confidence that the surface armies can contain the attack. They must learn what the enemy is while trying to survive its first assault.
This perspective also changes how familiar characters can be read. In the original game, Marcus and Dom carry the authority of veterans who understand the cost of the war. In E-Day, their decisions are made under the uncertainty of first contact. The campaign can therefore show the foundations of their partnership and the experiences that turn them into the soldiers seen later, without treating the prequel as a separate continuity.
Rank #3
- Disc only. Original case and manual not included. Will come packaged in a generic case.
- This renewed game has been cleaned, tested, and shows minimal wear.
Why the fourteen-year gap matters
The interval between E-Day and the original Gears of War is long enough for an emergency response to become a permanent social order. The first game is not set during the initial confusion. It takes place after the Locust War has already reshaped human settlements, military planning and public expectations.
For players coming to the series through the original title, this gap explains why its opening assumes so much history. The ruined landscapes, defensive strategies and hardened attitudes are consequences of a conflict that began on E-Day. The prequel returns to the point before those consequences were visible.
The gap also gives E-Day room to be an origin story without contradicting the tone of the original campaign. Marcus and Dom can be inexperienced in the first days, while the later game can still present them as capable veterans. Their development occurs across the years separating the two campaigns.
E-Day compared with the original Gears of War
| Comparison | Gears of War: E-Day | Original Gears of War |
|---|---|---|
| Chronological position | Set at the beginning of the Locust invasion. | Set after the invasion has become an established war. |
| Marcus and Dom | Young soldiers encountering the crisis at its start. | Experienced fighters shaped by years of conflict. |
| Enemy status | The Locust are a new, unexpected surface threat. | The Locust are a known enemy with an existing war history. |
| Narrative purpose | Origin story about the founding disaster. | Continuation of the war and its immediate consequences. |
| Societal context | Sera has just ended a human war and is unprepared for another. | Human society has already been transformed by the Locust War. |
How E-Day connects the two wars
E-Day is a hinge between the Pendulum Wars and the Locust War. The first conflict is human against human; the second begins when the Locust emerge and attack the surface. The short peace period means the handoff is almost immediate, making the campaign a story about one war ending just as another, fundamentally different war begins.
This connection adds more than background. It explains why the COG’s forces and institutions are vulnerable at the precise moment they need to respond to an unprecedented enemy. A society that had been fighting the UIR cannot instantly reorganize around underground incursions, unfamiliar tactics and the defense of civilian population centers.
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It also gives the setting a clear historical rhythm: a long human conflict, a brief attempt at peace, then the emergence that defines the next era. E-Day is the turning point that makes the later games possible.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Is E-Day a spin-off?
No. Xbox’s 2024 announcement identifies Gears of War: E-Day as a new mainline entry and explicitly places it before the original game. Its earlier setting does not make it an alternate universe or an optional side story. The campaign expands established canon by depicting the event that the later games treat as the beginning of the Locust War.
Calling it a mainline origin story also sets expectations for its narrative role. The focus is not merely on a historical battle mentioned in passing; it is on the characters and crisis that establish the series’ central conflict.
A chronological reading order
If you want to follow the story in timeline order, use this sequence:
- Pendulum Wars: the COG and UIR fight a 79-year human conflict.
- Postwar interval: the war ends, and Sera has only a short period to transition toward peace.
- Emergence Day: the Locust first break onto the surface and begin their invasion.
- Gears of War: E-Day: young Marcus and Dom fight through the opening days and encounter the new enemy.
- Fourteen-year interval: the invasion develops into the Locust War that defines human society.
- Original Gears of War: Marcus and Dom return as experienced soldiers in the later conflict.
Release order can still be valuable for understanding how the world was originally introduced, but chronological order makes the cause-and-effect relationship especially clear: E-Day is the event that produces the conditions seen in the first game.
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- Enthralling cinematic story. Experience the epic finale to the Gears of War trilogy
- Unparalleled gameplay
- One of the definitive multiplayer experiences on Xbox LIVE
- Gears of War 3 pushes the envelope for stunning visuals on Xbox 360
What the timeline establishes—and what it does not
The official descriptions establish the game’s position before the original title, its setting on the first Locust emergence and its focus on young Marcus and Dom. The chronology guide supplies the duration of the Pendulum Wars and the short interval before the attack.
Those facts establish the broad historical framework, not every individual scene or character biography. The exact ages of Marcus and Dom, the minute-by-minute sequence of every battle and the full explanation of how each later institution develops are not specified by the timeline information itself. They should not be inferred simply from the fourteen-year placement.
What is clear is the campaign’s purpose: it shows the first public disaster of the Locust era, puts the central friendship at the beginning of its military history and connects a long human war to the conflict that defines the franchise.
Why this placement changes the story’s stakes
When the Locust appear in the original game, the audience already understands that Sera has endured years of destruction. E-Day removes that distance. Every defensive decision carries the uncertainty of a first encounter, and every loss helps explain why later survivors treat the invasion as an existential war rather than another campaign.
The setting also makes Marcus and Dom’s personal story inseparable from the world’s historical break. Their first fight against the Locust is simultaneously a formative experience for two soldiers and the opening chapter of a civilization-wide catastrophe. That is why the timeline is more than trivia: it determines what the characters know, what the institutions can do and why the later games begin in such a transformed society.
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