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Scan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minuteDriver Scan →Clear out junk files and repair common Windows errorsFree Scan →Star Wars Outlaws is the better fit for a solo player who wants an open-world adventure, stealth, gadgets, syndicate relationships and freedom to choose how to approach encounters. Gears of War: E-Day is the better fit for someone who wants a darker, more focused cover-shooter campaign with split-screen or four-player online co-op, including access through Game Pass.
Both are third-person action games, but they make fundamentally different promises. Outlaws is a scoundrel-and-heist journey across several Star Wars locations, while E-Day is a directed origin story about the first hours of the Locust invasion. The deciding questions are not which game has more guns or the larger map; they are whether you value exploration or firefight intensity, solo flexibility or built-in co-op, and a lighter underworld adventure or survival-horror wartime pressure.
| # | Preview | Product | Price | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |
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Star Wars Outlaws /PS5 | $19.94 | Buy on Amazon |
| 2 |
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Star Wars Outlaws - Limited Edition (Amazon Exclusive), PlayStation 5 | $31.00 | Buy on Amazon |
| 3 |
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Star Wars Outlaws for Playstation 5 | $18.99 | Buy on Amazon |
| 4 |
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Star Wars Outlaws Gold Edition (PS5) | $59.99 | Buy on Amazon |
| 5 |
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Star Wars Outlaws Limited Edition (Exclusive to Amazon.co.uk) (PS5) | $43.34 | Buy on Amazon |
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Quick verdict: which game should you choose?
| If you want… | Choose | Why |
|---|---|---|
| An open-world, solo-first adventure | Star Wars Outlaws | It moves between distinct planets and locations, lets you take optional jobs, and builds encounters around stealth, gadgets, traversal and blaster combat. |
| A concentrated cover-shooter campaign | Gears of War: E-Day | Its identity is deliberate cover positioning, intense firefights and the horror of Emergence Day rather than free-form exploration. |
| Campaign co-op | Gears of War: E-Day | You can play alone, in two-player split-screen, or with up to four players online. |
| Solo play with stealth and social choices | Star Wars Outlaws | Kay Vess can use Nix, distractions, gadgets and syndicate relationships to shape how jobs unfold. |
| Game Pass access | Gears of War: E-Day | Xbox lists the game for Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass, with cloud access documented as well. |
| A Star Wars underworld story | Star Wars Outlaws | It is set between The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi and follows Kay Vess and her companion Nix. |
What Star Wars Outlaws is
Star Wars Outlaws is described by StarWars.com as the first open-world Star Wars game. Its story takes place between The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi, a period when the Galactic Empire still dominates but criminal organizations exploit the disorder around it. You play Kay Vess, a capable scoundrel trying to build a future with Nix, her companion.
The game is organized around travel through distinct locations across the galaxy rather than a single continuous city. Ubisoft’s description emphasizes jobs for crime syndicates, relationships that can change how those factions treat Kay, and story expansions that extend the adventure. That structure gives you a central narrative to follow while leaving room for optional activities, detours and different routes through a job.
#1 Best Overall
- LIMITED EDITION CONTENT* The Rogue Infiltrator Character Pack includes cosmetics for Kay and Nix.
- Explore distinct locations with bustling cities and cantinas. Race across sprawling outdoor landscapes on your speeder. Each location brings new adventures, unique challenges, and enticing rewards if you’re willing to take the risk.
- Live the high-stakes lifestyle of an outlaw. Turn any situation to your advantage with Nix by your side: fight with your blaster, overcome enemies with stealth and gadgets, or find the right moments to distract enemies and gain the upper hand.
- Take on high-risk, high-reward missions from the galaxy’s crime syndicates. Steal valuable goods, infiltrate secret locations, and outwit enemies as one of the galaxy’s most wanted. Every choice you make influences your ever-changing reputation.
Outlaws is not simply a conventional blaster game with a large map added around it. Its core loop combines reconnaissance, stealth, distractions, gadgets, vehicle or other traversal, social decisions and direct shooting. You can often prepare an encounter, remove or distract a guard, and decide whether to stay hidden or draw the blaster. Nix is part of that toolkit rather than a decorative sidekick: the companion helps create openings and supports the infiltration rhythm.
Who Outlaws suits best
- Players who prefer a solo campaign and do not need built-in campaign co-op.
- Players who enjoy choosing routes, accepting optional work and managing relationships with competing factions.
- Star Wars fans who want to inhabit the criminal underworld rather than replay a film plot.
- Players who like mixing stealth, gadgets and shooting instead of repeating one firefight pattern.
What Gears of War: E-Day is
Gears of War: E-Day is a third-person cover-shooter from The Coalition. It is set fourteen years before the original Gears of War, when the Locust Horde erupts and Marcus Fenix and Dominic Santiago are drawn into the opening violence of Emergence Day.
The campaign launched on October 6, 2026, for Xbox Series X|S, Windows PC and Steam. Xbox also documents Xbox Play Anywhere, cloud gaming and inclusion in Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass. The game’s premise places the emphasis on a catastrophic event, military survival and the relationship between its two central characters.
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Xbox describes E-Day as a third-person cover-shooter and presents the campaign as playable alone, in two-player split-screen co-op or with up to four players online. The design therefore starts from coordinated firefights: choose cover, expose yourself at the right moment, manage pressure from multiple directions and help your partners survive. Official product material focuses on the brutality and horror of Emergence Day rather than on open-ended stealth systems.
Who E-Day suits best
- Players who want a darker, more concentrated campaign built around cover and firefight pressure.
- Friends or families who need local split-screen or online campaign co-op.
- Players already using Xbox, Windows PC or Steam who want the option of Game Pass or cloud play.
- Fans of Marcus Fenix, Dominic Santiago and the origin of the Locust invasion.
Combat: flexible infiltration versus cover-shooter pressure
How Outlaws approaches a fight
Outlaws treats combat as one option within a broader infiltration system. Intel and Ubisoft describe Kay and Nix working together with stealth, distractions and gadgets before or alongside blaster fire. You may scout a location, create a diversion, get past a guard unseen and reserve the blaster for the moment when concealment fails. That makes the player’s first question “How do I want to enter this encounter?” rather than simply “Which piece of cover is closest?”
A later Ubisoft update specifically highlights the choice between staying stealthy and reaching for the blaster. It also calls out enemy weak points that reward strategic targeting. The implication is not that every encounter can be solved without shooting; rather, the game gives you tools to control visibility, positioning and target priority before committing to a firefight.
Rank #2
- Only at Amazon Limited Edition Content - The Rogue Infiltrator Character Pack includes cosmetics for Kay and Nix.
- Discover a galaxy of opportunity. Explore distinct locations with bustling cities and cantinas. Race across sprawling outdoor landscapes on your speeder. Each location brings new adventures, unique challenges, and enticing rewards if you’re willing to take the risk.
- Experience an original scoundrel story. Live the high-stakes lifestyle of an outlaw. Turn any situation to your advantage with Nix by your side: fight with your blaster, overcome enemies with stealth and gadgets, or find the right moments to distract enemies and gain the upper hand.
- Embark on high-stakes missions. Take on high-risk, high-reward missions from the galaxy’s crime syndicates. Steal valuable goods, infiltrate secret locations, and outwit enemies as one of the galaxy’s most wanted. Every choice you make influences your ever-changing reputation.
- Jump into the pilot seat. Pilot your ship, the Trailblazer, as you engage in thrilling dogfights with the Empire and other foes. Find the right opportunities to chase, evade, and attack to get the upper hand.
Nix matters mechanically because a companion who can distract or assist an enemy expands the number of openings available to Kay. Gadgets and traversal continue that pattern: the environment is part of the solution, and movement between locations feeds into the way you approach objectives. If you enjoy experimenting with a route and then improvising when a guard notices you, Outlaws offers more room for that behavior.
How E-Day approaches a fight
E-Day is built around the cover-shooter format. Its combat identity is deliberate positioning, controlled exposure and pressure from a hostile battlefield. The campaign’s horror framing makes each emergence and encounter feel like part of a larger survival crisis, while co-op adds the need to coordinate revives, firing lanes and movement through a fight.
The official Xbox pages do not provide a complete weapon list, frame-by-frame handling breakdown or quantified difficulty comparison. It is therefore more accurate to describe E-Day by its confirmed structure—third-person cover shooting, directed combat spaces and co-op options—than to claim that one title has a faster reload system, a larger arsenal or a specific damage model.
E-Day may include larger combat pockets and alternate routes, but those spaces still serve the campaign’s firefight rhythm. You are moving through an invasion story, not managing a network of open-world jobs. The satisfaction comes from surviving pressure and working with your team, not from finding a nonviolent route through every objective.
Combat decision table
| Combat question | Star Wars Outlaws | Gears of War: E-Day |
|---|---|---|
| Primary approach | Stealth, distractions, gadgets and blaster combat used in combination. | Cover-based third-person firefights and coordinated movement. |
| Role of preparation | Scout, manipulate attention, exploit weak points and choose when to reveal yourself. | Read the battlefield, select cover and manage enemy pressure with precise timing. |
| Stealth emphasis | Central to the encounter design and explicitly presented as an alternative to using the blaster. | Not the defining feature of the confirmed campaign description. |
| Companion or team play | Nix supports Kay in a solo adventure. | Campaign supports solo, two-player split-screen and up to four-player online play. |
| What is not established by official material | No directly comparable difficulty, campaign-length or performance benchmark is published. | No complete official weapon list or quantified difficulty comparison is published in the cited Xbox material. |
Campaign structure: open-world freedom versus a directed origin story
Outlaws’ open-world shape
Outlaws is designed as an open-world journey across distinct planets and locations. The map structure supports a central heist narrative while leaving space for optional activity, route choice and jobs connected to crime syndicates. Your standing with those syndicates is part of the story context, so a decision that helps one faction can affect how another views Kay.
This structure changes the pace of the campaign. You can leave a main objective, travel elsewhere, take on a side job or explore a new location before returning to the central thread. The freedom is not merely cosmetic: traversal, reconnaissance and relationships all influence how you reach an objective. Players who enjoy making their own sequence of activities will find more flexibility here than in a linear military campaign.
Rank #3
- PlayStation 5Specifications
- Multiplayer: Single Player Only
- Format: Physical
- Weight: 1 lbs
- Produced with the highest grade materials
E-Day’s primarily linear structure
Xbox’s launch guide describes E-Day as primarily linear, but it also notes large open pockets, multiple pathways and side paths that can lead to side missions. That qualification matters. E-Day is not a corridor-only shooter, yet its wider areas exist inside a directed origin story about the first hours of the Locust invasion.
You should expect the campaign to guide you from one major event to the next, with room to look around, choose a route through a combat space or pursue an optional path. Those pockets can provide breathing room and replay value without turning the game into an open-world sandbox. The narrative destination remains clear: survive Emergence Day and follow Marcus and Dominic through the beginning of the war.
Which structure is better for you?
- Choose Outlaws if you want to decide what to do next, revisit locations and balance story missions against optional syndicate work.
- Choose E-Day if you want a campaign that keeps momentum, delivers set-piece pressure and gives you limited but meaningful route choices within a larger directed flow.
- Choose Outlaws for exploration-driven pacing; choose E-Day for a story-first pace organized around escalating combat and survival.
Solo play and co-op: the biggest practical difference
Outlaws is presented as a solo adventure. Kay Vess and Nix form the playable partnership, but the game is not described as a campaign for multiple human players. If your priority is a personal Star Wars story with control over your own pace and approach, that focus is an advantage. If you are buying specifically for shared campaign play, its solo-first structure is a limitation you should recognize before purchase.
E-Day supports three campaign configurations: solo play, two-player split-screen co-op and online campaign co-op for up to four players. The local option is important for players who share a screen, while the four-player ceiling makes E-Day the clear choice for a regular online group. Co-op also changes how the game feels: a cover shooter built around coordinated movement and overlapping fire becomes more expressive when each player can watch a different angle.
Xbox states that online campaign co-op and other online modes require a Game Pass subscription that includes online multiplayer. The exact subscription tier and regional terms can change, so check the current Xbox listing for your account’s region before assuming that a particular plan enables online play. The campaign itself remains available as a solo experience.
Tone, setting and emotional contract
Outlaws: a scoundrel adventure
Outlaws uses the Star Wars underworld as its emotional foundation. Kay is navigating criminal syndicates, risky jobs and a galaxy shaped by imperial power. The tone is adventurous and opportunistic: the fantasy is becoming a capable outlaw, making deals, slipping through guarded spaces and using clever tools to survive.
Rank #4
- PRE-ORDER BONUS* Pre-order to get the Kessel Runner Bonus Pack including a Trailblazer spaceship cosmetic and a speeder cosmetic.
- GOLD EDITION CONTENT* Play up to three days early with the Gold Edition, which includes the base game and the season pass.**
- Explore distinct locations with bustling cities and cantinas. Race across sprawling outdoor landscapes on your speeder. Each location brings new adventures, unique challenges, and enticing rewards if you’re willing to take the risk.
- Live the high-stakes lifestyle of an outlaw. Turn any situation to your advantage with Nix by your side: fight with your blaster, overcome enemies with stealth and gadgets, or find the right moments to distract enemies and gain the upper hand.
- Take on high-risk, high-reward missions from the galaxy’s crime syndicates. Steal valuable goods, infiltrate secret locations, and outwit enemies as one of the galaxy’s most wanted. Every choice you make influences your ever-changing reputation.
That does not mean every mission is light. Betrayals, faction pressure and dangerous confrontations are part of the premise. The difference is that the campaign frames danger through a roguish, cinematic adventure rather than a continuous military catastrophe.
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E-Day: horror and survival
E-Day is centered on the horror and brutality of Emergence Day. The Locust eruption is a civilization-scale disaster, and the campaign’s emotional contract is survival under impossible pressure. Marcus and Dominic are not choosing which criminal syndicate to please; they are confronting the event that defines the Gears timeline.
This contrast affects how the same third-person perspective feels. Outlaws asks you to observe, improvise and exploit openings. E-Day asks you to hold a position, survive the next assault and move forward through a war that has suddenly begun. Neither tone is inherently better, but they appeal to different moods.
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| Game | Confirmed platforms and services | Important access notes |
|---|---|---|
| Star Wars Outlaws | PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S and PC through Ubisoft Connect, Steam and Epic; Ubisoft also lists Amazon Luna. | The game is positioned as a current-generation console and PC release. Choose the exact storefront or console edition you intend to use. |
| Gears of War: E-Day | Xbox Series X|S, Windows PC and Steam; Xbox Play Anywhere, cloud gaming, Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass. | Online campaign co-op and other online modes require a Game Pass subscription that includes online multiplayer. |
What the platform choice means
Outlaws gives PlayStation 5 owners a direct option, while E-Day is centered on the Xbox and Windows ecosystem. On PC, both games have Steam availability documented, but Outlaws also lists Ubisoft Connect and Epic, and E-Day carries Xbox Play Anywhere and Game Pass options.
Cloud access is explicitly documented for E-Day through Xbox. Ubisoft lists Amazon Luna availability for Outlaws. Availability can vary by region, subscription catalog and account, so treat those service listings as access routes rather than a guarantee that every edition or expansion is included everywhere.
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Buying and cost: retail choice versus subscription access
The most important cost difference is not a published price comparison; no directly comparable current retail price is established in the available official material. Instead, the practical distinction is how you can access each game.
Best Value
- PRE-ORDER BONUS* Pre-order to get the Kessel Runner Bonus Pack including a Trailblazer spaceship cosmetic and a speeder cosmetic.
- LIMITED EDITION CONTENT* The Rogue Infiltrator Character Pack includes cosmetics for Kay and Nix.
- Explore distinct locations with bustling cities and cantinas. Race across sprawling outdoor landscapes on your speeder. Each location brings new adventures, unique challenges, and enticing rewards if you’re willing to take the risk.
- Live the high-stakes lifestyle of an outlaw. Turn any situation to your advantage with Nix by your side: fight with your blaster, overcome enemies with stealth and gadgets, or find the right moments to distract enemies and gain the upper hand.
- Take on high-risk, high-reward missions from the galaxy’s crime syndicates. Steal valuable goods, infiltrate secret locations, and outwit enemies as one of the galaxy’s most wanted. Every choice you make influences your ever-changing reputation.
- Outlaws: buy the edition for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S or a supported PC storefront. Ubisoft’s listings also identify Amazon Luna availability.
- E-Day: buy on Xbox Series X|S, Windows PC or Steam, or access it through a qualifying Game Pass plan. Xbox also documents cloud gaming and Xbox Play Anywhere.
- Online co-op: for E-Day, confirm that your Game Pass subscription includes online multiplayer; a plan that only provides the game catalog may not satisfy that requirement in every region.
If you expect to play E-Day with friends for a short period, Game Pass can reduce the need for a separate full-price purchase, subject to the catalog and regional terms active when you subscribe. If you want permanent access to a solo Star Wars adventure, a retail or digital purchase of Outlaws is the more straightforward model.
Choose by player type
Choose Star Wars Outlaws when…
- You would rather decide how to infiltrate a location than move from one firefight to the next.
- You enjoy open-world travel, optional activities and relationships that affect your position with crime syndicates.
- You want a campaign built for one player, with Nix providing companion support.
- You prefer the atmosphere of a Star Wars scoundrel story set between the original trilogy films.
- You play on PlayStation 5 and want a current-generation Star Wars adventure available on that platform.
Choose Gears of War: E-Day when…
- You want cover shooting, deliberate positioning and the pressure of coordinated firefights.
- You need two-player split-screen or online campaign co-op for up to four players.
- You want to follow Marcus Fenix and Dominic Santiago at the beginning of the Locust invasion.
- You prefer a primarily linear campaign with larger combat pockets and optional side paths rather than a world built around free roaming.
- You use Xbox or Windows PC and want Game Pass, cloud gaming or Xbox Play Anywhere as part of the access decision.
Questions the comparison cannot answer from official specifications
There is no directly comparable official critic score, sales total, campaign-length figure or performance benchmark established for both games in the material available for this comparison. That means a responsible buying decision should not rely on an invented number of hours, a claimed frame-rate advantage or an unsupported ranking of weapon variety.
The confirmed differences are structural and experiential: open-world versus primarily linear campaign design, stealth-and-gadget flexibility versus cover-shooter pressure, solo focus versus extensive co-op support, and scoundrel adventure versus horror-survival tone. Those distinctions are more useful for choosing between them than a single score would be, because they describe what you will actually do during play.
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Pick Star Wars Outlaws if your ideal campaign lets you wander between planets, accept syndicate jobs, use stealth and gadgets, and decide when a blaster fight is worth the risk. Its open-world structure and solo-first design make freedom the central feature.
Pick Gears of War: E-Day if your ideal campaign is a focused, darker shooter that you can experience alone, beside one other player on the same screen or with a group of up to four online. Its directed Emergence Day story, cover-based combat and Game Pass availability make intensity and shared play the central features.
Quick Recap
Product prices and availability are accurate as of the date/time indicated and are subject to change. Any price and availability information displayed on Amazon at the time of purchase will apply.
