Dust off your Lancer and get ready to jump back into Sera , Gears of War: E-Day has landed! The franchise has a legacy as one of the premiere Unreal Engine (UE) titles, known for featuring (and pushing the boundaries of) the latest gaming technology in a gory yet stable package. And since Microsoft acquired the classic series back in 2014, current developers, The Coalition, have continued to position Gears of War as a graphical powerhouse of the industry, with the latest entry being no different.
A prequel 20 years in the making, Gears of War: E-Day explores the early hours of the Locust War and ‘Emergence Day’; an event fans have long heard about and dreamed of playing through. While not the first (or even the second) prequel game in the Gears of War saga, E-Day is the earliest in the timeline, taking place 14 years before the 2006 classic, a year before the X-Com-like Gears Tactics, and 6 weeks before Gears of War: Judgement. E-Day is also the first mainline game to feature the iconic duo of Marcus Fenix and Dominic “Dom” Santiago in a playable squad since Gears of War 3.
And though Gears of War: E-Day is a return to the basics for the franchise, there is nothing basic about the technology behind the game. Through their partnership with Epic (the developer of UE and studio behind the original Gears trilogy), The Coalition made use of UE5’s key features like MegaLights, Nanite, and hardware Lumen ray-tracing.
This was also paired with the first major use of NVIDIA’s RTX Mega Geometry in an Unreal game , to make E-Day one of the most atmospheric and best-looking games of this generation across consoles and PC. But if, like me, you’re somebody who likes to turn every setting to max without worrying about lag, then check out my experience trying the game out with NVIDIA GeForce NOW.
Before we dive in, NVIDIA GeForce NOW requires access to the game via Steam, and Internet speeds to match the desired resolution. Of course, the higher the better. I was targeting a 5K resolution with uncapped FPS to make the most of my 65” 144hz VRR OLED TV, but the game and GeForce NOW also feature total ultrawide support, ideal for moving the action to my desktop.
Loading up E-Day, I grabbed a hot chocolate as I waited for the shader compilation. It only took a couple of minutes compared to the upwards of 5 minutes I experienced on my comparatively beefy PC.
Once that was done, the first thing I did was head to the settings… and changed the main menu song to Metallica’s iconic ‘For Whom the Bell Tolls’. Then, I headed straight into the graphics settings and began to play around. With a resolution of 5120 x 2880, I decided the safe approach was to turn everything to the ‘Ludicrous’ setting to really make the most of the VRAM at my disposal. After all, I just wanted to dive straight into the game!
One setting that you may not have seen before is RTX Mega Geometry, which can only be used on NVIDIA cards with at least 12GB of VRAM. The feature works with Unreal’s Nanite technology to give more accurate, sharper, and deeper shadows for ray-traced effects, while reducing noise. With DLSS 4.5 set to ‘Balanced’ and multi-frame gen at ‘Dynamic’, I giddily began my co-op playthrough.
The first thing I noticed was the sheer level of detail. Unreal Engine 5’s Nanite technology lets environments carry far more geometric detail than before, without the noticeable pop-in as you move closer to objects. Turn on the optional Hair Strands setting, too, and Marcus and Dom look better than ever, with individually rendered strands of hair.
These screenshots were all taken with DLSS set to ‘Balanced’ to showcase Super Resolution’s ability to retain visual fidelity while reducing the usual performance drain of high resolutions. With NVIDIA’s latest model, DLSS 4.5, the small artifacts are greatly reduced compared to previous versions, and in many cases, the overall image is improved, especially around foliage.
Once the cutscene moved to the inside of a grimy bar at night, the cinematic quality of E-Day's lighting began to shine. The patrons, including new playable squad mates, Mags Carter and Lucas Reyes, are all lit from completely different light sources with varying temperatures and intensities. The game’s numerous ray-tracing options, combined with RTX Mega Geometry, create even, accurate shadows and bounce lighting, all supporting the work of Unreal’s Mega Lights tech.
But what was the game like in motion? On the streets of Kalona, the new 4-player squad tackles mysterious, scaly enemies the best way they can , with pipes and shotguns , and if you’ve played the first couple hours of E-Day, you may realise that this game has a lot of enemies that run at you. The usual suspects, Wretches and Tickers, now come in hordes from all nooks and crannies, but the terrifying addition of Grunts that run at you like linebackers means your trigger finger has to be primed more than ever. DLSS 4.5 ensured that my FPS was consistent and high enough for a fluid experience, and with both my fast internet and NVIDIA Reflex On + Boost, NVIDIA GeForce NOW didn’t detect latency that was significantly different from my average desktop experience.
Graphical fidelity also holds up as you’re blasting your way through the city. Every street has dozens of light sources, and with all settings at ‘Ludicrous’, you can see just what that means. The reflections of Wretches as they scramble through puddles, the ominous glow of an Emergence Hole, the intense neon lights emitting from the numerous ambulances and police vehicles bathe the streets in deep reds and blues, and the bloody grime that Marcus and his squad accumulate as they bash the swarms of enemies catch highlights from individual glowing sources.
Across my time playing Gears of War: E-Day on NVIDIA GeForce NOW, I averaged 143 FPS with variations between the larger open sections and the tighter linear corridors, a high bitrate, and with NVIDIA multi-frame generation set to ‘Dynamic’ and paired with NVIDIA Reflex, an all-round low-latency experience was had. This was all whilst playing over my wifi at the highest in-game settings, something I couldn’t do on my home GPU.
Check out Gears of War: E-Day and experience the horror and brutality of Emergence Day alongside the benefits of top image quality and performance thanks to GeForce NOW RTX. Available across the Performance and Ultimate tiers, visit nvidia.com/geforce-now to see RTX membership and pass options in full.