The Hype, Unreal Engine 5, and Doing Things Right

Hello! It's been a while since the Xbox Showcase 2026, and to be honest, the main reason I was excited for the event was Gears of War E-Day.

My History with Gears of War

Gears of War was the game that brought me to the Xbox platform (the Xbox 360 at the time), shortly after I played the first game on PC. Back then, we used Games for Windows Live—yes, the service that broke several games on Steam (and some games are still broken because of it to this day). The gameplay, the art direction, the soundtrack—everything about that game made me want to play the sequel. However, I only got the chance to play the later entries when the third game in the franchise launched, which many fans still consider the best one!

To this day, it's incredible to see what Epic Games managed to extract from Unreal Engine 3. Gears of War 3 and Gears of War: Judgment pushed the Xbox 360 to its limits (especially Judgment). As I'm writing this post, another franchise that comes to mind for doing the same is Halo 4, another major Microsoft-exclusive series.

Tradition and a Change of Hands

When Gears of War was handed over to The Coalition, the tradition of squeezing every ounce of performance out of Unreal remained very much alive. Gears of War 4 is still an impressively beautiful game—try it on a good PC, an Xbox One X, or an Xbox Series X. It's not an exaggeration to say that some recent releases get outclassed by Gears of War 4 from a graphical standpoint.

Then came Gears 5, which showcased the peak of Unreal Engine 4 (the same engine used in the previous game). What was even more impressive was the visual leap between the two titles, all while remaining relatively light on PC hardware and running beautifully on an Xbox One S. But it doesn't stop there. A little over a year after launch, Hivebusters was released, and this needs to be said: it looks like Unreal Engine 5, yet it's still running on Unreal Engine 4.

It's also worth mentioning that the remakes of the original game, Gears of War: Ultimate Edition and Gears of War: Reloaded, still use Unreal Engine 3. They essentially replaced the assets and polished the codebase.

Learning from Mistakes

As beautiful as Gears 5 is, the game launched with plenty of issues. According to the developers themselves, they were given more freedom while making it because they saw that the previous game had been successful, especially in the e-sports scene. The problem was that they had so much freedom that they ended up damaging characters, story elements, and gameplay mechanics.

Let's start with the protagonist change. While the ending of Gears of War 4 did provide a good setup for Kait, it still doesn't make much sense for her to take center stage. On top of that, it effectively throws JD Fenix's character development out the window just so Kait can have the spotlight. The semi-open world design and side missions were actually good ideas (so much so that they'll be reused in Gears of War E-Day).

Now let's talk about multiplayer... This is where the mistakes become far more obvious.

Starting with the ranking system: initially, they were on the right track, using a structure similar to games like League of Legends. However, toward the end, they abandoned that direction and switched to a points-based system where it wasn't clear why points increased or decreased. It also became much more time-consuming to reach the top ranks, perhaps because the system was poorly balanced or for some other reason!

The game's netcode didn't help either! It's no secret that Brazil isn't exactly a major Gears of War market, which means that most matches are played with ping above 100ms (and honestly, 100ms is the ideal scenario in this case). Since Gears of War 3, it has been entirely possible to enjoy—and even compete in—online PVP. Earlier titles relied on P2P connections, which made things far more complicated for a game like this.

Yet Gears 5 somehow managed to fail at something the franchise had been getting right since 2011. Shot registration often feels inconsistent, and if you're using the Gnasher shotgun, don't aim! If you do, your damage may not register correctly. To be fair, in some situations where your ping is around 100ms—or lower—aiming and firing might work. Remember: it might work.

And perhaps most importantly, they removed the gore.

Sometimes I wonder if that's why they dropped the "Of War" from the title. While the executions are well animated and often creative, the game barely has any blood. It reminds me of Saw 3D, where the blood looked pink in order to make things feel less graphic.

In summary, they tried to innovate and failed. Maybe it was due to direction changes, staff turnover, or a disconnect from the Gears of War community. What matters is that Gears 5 failed to satisfy much of the fanbase, to the point where the competitive scene died and the game was largely abandoned—much like Halo Infinite has been recently.

Gears 5 took one step backward so it could take two steps forward...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yAWz9IIQvt0

Welcome "Back," Tai Kaliso

With the reveal trailer for the new Gears of War and the dedicated 30-minute Direct shown after the showcase, The Coalition managed to get me genuinely excited again.

To be honest, my expectations for the game were already high, especially with the developers repeatedly saying that Gears of War E-Day would be a return to the franchise's roots!

The gameplay footage fully supports what they said in interviews—and then some. Not only does it return to the series' roots, but it also refreshes the gameplay without losing its identity (looking at you, Santa Monica Studio).

The game feels more cinematic, the gore is back in full force, and because it's a prequel, beloved characters return for longtime fans to enjoy.

Does the Tradition Continue?

I think it's safe to say that it does!

The game appears ready to push Unreal Engine 5 to its limits without wasting resources unnecessarily.

Unreal Engine 5 isn't particularly popular among many gamers. It's often criticized for being extremely demanding, but the reality isn't that simple.

Game developers frequently deal with tight deadlines and long working hours—sometimes leading to burnout, as we've seen in several recent cases. Tight schedules leave little room for proper optimization, whether that's code optimization, asset optimization, or general performance work.

Not every Unreal Engine 5 game is poorly optimized. While the example comes from Epic Games itself, it deserves to be mentioned: Fortnite.

Yes, Fortnite.

Even though it uses a cartoon-inspired art style, it makes heavy use of ray tracing, numerous visual effects, and a large, content-rich world.

I understand that not everyone owns a high-end PC, but Fortnite can still run very well with solid graphical settings on a mid-range PC. On top of that, Epic continues to improve the engine, and at the time of writing, Unreal Engine has already reached version 5.8.

Will It Run Well?

For detailed technical information, I recommend watching the Tech Demo shown during Unreal Fest Chicago.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eyLIZEGJ2_Y

And below are the PC requirements:

I also need to compare these requirements with those of Halo Campaign Evolved, the Halo: Combat Evolved remake:

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To me, it looks like The Coalition came out ahead here. More importantly, it shows that Gears of War's long-standing tradition of getting the absolute most out of Unreal Engine is still alive and well!

The only way to know for sure, though, is to wait for the release of Gears of War E-Day and play it ourselves.

"Hyped"

Finally, after the Gears of War E-Day Direct, my excitement for the game only grew. And although I find the term "hyped" somewhat ridiculous, there's no escaping it.

I'm hyped for Gears of War E-Day.

Much more hyped than I am for GTA VI!