Gears of War: E-Day is coming, and the Coalition wants you to feel every kill. The studio behind the game says it has made a deliberate push toward more realistic violence, and it turns out that decision lands harder than anyone expected.
“We felt that fans were getting a bit desensitised to the violence,” said art director Aryan Hanbeck in an interview with Eurogamer. The idea was simple: make the kills matter again. “Not enough for you to get grossed out, but enough to be like ‘wow, some shit’s gone down in this world.'”
Blood, Bones and Disembodied Heads
The team spent serious effort on the moment a headshot connects. “There’s an audio component to that, too, as well as all the effects – how high the blood spurts go, how much mist we leave behind, what the body does afterwards,” Hanbeck explained. Creative director Matt Searcy added that gore is “a huge aspect” of what makes combat satisfying.
The result is a game that feels more human. Kalona, the city where the Locust invaders emerge, puts civilians front and center. The wet, crunchy violence hits harder because it is closer to home, even if it remains cartoony and more Tarantino than horror.
“We’ve got skeletons inside all the bodies, we’ve got some fun weapons that expose that a bit later on in the game, we’ve got crazy dismemberment, blood pooling… a whole bunch of stuff,” Hanbeck said, grinning. The team laughed when a reviewer’s partner walked in and called the game “very wet.”
Laughter in the Dark
The Coalition does not take itself entirely seriously. Brand director Nicole Fawcett described Gears as a game of contrasts. “It’s not a game or franchise where we want to take ourselves so seriously,” she said. “And I think it’s the contrast that makes Gears so special: it’s not one or the other.”
She listed the kinds of humor the game draws on:
- Soldier talk
- Gallows humour
- Dark humour
“That’s Gears: it’s not a bleak, apocalyptic story – even though there’s a horrible backdrop event happening, and what the characters are going through is absolutely horrific – there is this glimmer of hope, there’s levity,” Fawcett reflected.
What Comes Next
E-Day’s first season started with the Early Access release yesterday and runs for eight weeks, ending on 1st December. Ranked PvP modes arrive on 13th October. The game reaches general release on 6th October, with early adopters able to play now.
The Coalition is betting that players who have grown used to stylized violence will find the new approach jarring. So far, the reception suggests they are right.
The devs are smiling about it.
See the video the story is built around at Eurogamer.
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