Gears of War: E-Day Proves Accessible Games Can Be Great Games

Gears of War: E-Day is the accessible action-adventure game Xbox fans and disabled players have wanted for years. It is not perfect, but The Coalition has created the most accessible Gears game to date and one of the most accessible games in the industry. After playing the campaign, I can say that Xbox finally has a great accessible game joining the ranks of Forza Motorsport and Sea of Thieves. This is a brutal, beautiful, chaotic experience, and it gives disabled players a new way into one of Xbox's main franchises.

Emergence Day Begins

E-Day starts on Emergence Day, when the Locust emerge from the ground and begin their invasion of humanity. This prequel starts it all, long before the first Gears of War. You play as Marcus Fenix, with Dom and the rest of the squad beside you. Marcus and Dom have been friends for a long time, and this story shows their friendship and brotherhood as they face the beginning of the crisis.

For someone new to the franchise, this is a perfect jumping-on point. I haven't been able to play the earlier Gears games, so starting with the story that sets everything in motion worked well for me. Gears fans may want more from Marcus and Dom. The squad gets a lot of the story, and some new characters get more screen time than expected. Marcus and Dom are still a big part of the game, but their relationship is sometimes in the shotgun seat while the squad drives the story. For me, that was a minor criticism, not a major problem.

Brutal, Beautiful Cover Shooting

The game looks amazing. Its environments are creepy, horrific, and full of destruction. The action shows what Unreal Engine 5 can do, and the result feels like the future of the franchise. Gunfights are loud, violent, and fast-paced. Cover can be destroyed, large enemies can force you into the open, and attacks can come from different directions. In one fight, a giant frog-like enemy spouted acid while I threw grenades into its mouth. At the same time, larger Locust enemies were attacking from far away. My cover was blown, my squad needed help, and I had to keep moving to survive. That kind of chaos makes the campaign so much fun.

Gears created the cover shooter, but E-Day does not let you stay safe behind cover for every fight. Some enemies flank you, some push you, and others make you move across the battlefield. This can be difficult when learning the game for the first time, especially for disabled players. However, the aim assists can make that movement easier to manage. Lock-on aim can automatically lock on to the closest enemy, and the right thumbstick lets you switch between targets. Snap aim can move the reticle to an enemy when it is close enough. I preferred snap aim because it gives me some additional challenge while still helping with aiming.

Co-op and Multiplayer

Co-op makes the campaign even more useful for disabled players. Playing with friends can provide help when an option does not fully support a disability or when a difficult fight becomes overwhelming. It also makes the squad action more exciting. Multiplayer also has accessibility options, though some campaign features may not work the same way there. My review focuses on the single-player campaign, where accessibility is strongest.

Accessibility Is the Star

Accessibility is what makes E-Day special. The campaign has options for deaf and hard of hearing players, players with motor disabilities, players with cognitive disabilities, low-vision players, and blind players. It includes subtitles, captions, visualizations for off-screen attacks, control sensitivity options, remapping, and ways to change holds to toggles. Players can turn off gore, and the font is legible. These options give more people a chance to play in the way that works for them.

These options also work together rather than feeling like a list added at the end. A player can use high contrast mode with larger text, follow the visual line from the navigational assist, listen for its directional sound, and use snap aim during a fight. Someone who needs different controls can remap them, adjust sensitivity, and change holds to toggles. Players who need help understanding attacks can use captions and off-screen visualizations. The campaign gives you several ways to find information, move forward, and take part in combat. That matters because accessibility looks different for every player. No single option can support everyone, but a group of options can remove more barriers. E-Day understands that better than many action-adventure games.

Blind players will feel like a badass in this game

For blind players, the game offers a screen reader, navigational assist, traversal assist, lock-on aim, snap aim, and directional audio cues. The navigational assist creates a line from Marcus to the next objective and provides a sound that points in the direction you need to go. Unlike The Last of Us, where you press a button to ping the next path, this assist constantly tries to direct you wherever you are. That makes moving through the campaign much easier without taking away control.

High-contrast mode is also excellent for low-vision players. The colours can be adjusted and make characters stand out from the detailed environments and help during fast fights. Larger text, a larger HUD, a visual navigation assist, accessible audio cues for when you lock on to an enemy and when you hit one, and adjustable screen narration add more ways to make the game work for different players.

Where Accessibility Falls Short

The accessibility is impressive, but there are bugs and some clunkiness. Navigational assist can become confused when it constantly changes the path to the next waypoint. Sometimes it leads to the end of a path and has to wait for the story, a cinematic, or the squad to catch up. It usually takes you to the correct objective, but it does not always support exploration. I wish it could guide players toward collectibles, supply caches, and other points of interest. You can ping a place on the map, but you cannot always create a marker that the navigational assist will follow.

The map is another weak point. The screen reader reads some objectives, but it does not read every small text box or waypoint properly. In the open zone, this can make exploring more difficult than moving directly toward the next objective. These problems were not blockers for me, and I hope they can be fixed, but they keep the accessibility from being perfect. This is why I give Gears of War: E-Day a four out of five for accessibility instead of a higher score.

Other Campaign Criticisms

The rest of the campaign is not without criticism. Looking for collectible items and weapon upgrade boxes can feel awkward when gunfights are happening in the distance. The light weapon system lets you add mods and change how guns play, but I mostly cared about defense and dealing more damage. Once I found a loadout I liked, I stayed with it. The cover shooting can also become a little repetitive, although larger enemies and changing battlefields do a good job of breaking it up.

A Win for Xbox Accessibility

I have not had this much fun with an Xbox game since Forza Motorsport introduced blind drive assist. E-Day is adrenaline-pumping, beautiful, and exciting. This genre may not be for everyone, and it may not sell a huge number of consoles, but it is a major release for Xbox. Halo and Gears have always been at the core of the platform, but it has taken a long while for Xbox to really get the gears turning for accessibility. They have had great accessibility hits within their consolidated studios like Bethesda’s DOOM The Dark Ages, and Machine Games’ Indiana Jones. But the core to Xbox from the beginning has always been Halo and Gears. This is finally the Gears games disabled players have been waiting 20 years for.

For fans who tried Gears 5 and wanted more accessibility, this is the moment they have been waiting for. For people who have never been able to play Gears before, the prequel story makes it easier to begin. The game welcomes new players without forgetting the action, characters, and cover shooting that made the series a mainstay for Xbox.

That success also makes the future of accessibility at Xbox important. The accessibility teams and developers helped make this game possible, and Xbox should continue to invest in their work. Disabled players need that expertise. E-Day proves that an accessible game can also be a great game, and it should be an example for other Xbox studios rather than the end of that investment.