Disclaimer
The copy of the game used for this review was provided by the publisher at no cost to the reviewer.
Though Horde Siege was not available to play in this build, I plan to cover that in a future update to this review.
Introduction
Nearly 20 years ago, in November 2006, the original Gears Of War emerged, pun deliberately intended, in its full retail capacity. After the iconic Mad World ad, as well as various demos and E3 reveals, people got to step into the boots of Marcus Fenix and Dominic Santiago for the first time and see just how well a chainsaw works when strapped to the front of a gun, all in gory Xbox 360 detail.
Fast forward two decades and, of course, the gaming landscape has shifted dramatically. Not just in terms of expansion in general, but factoring in accessibility as well. We’ve seen titles from AAA to indie make strides for a variety of disabilities, but most importantly to this reviewer from a personal perspective, in terms of letting gamers without sight (having no sight whatsoever) join the party.
Now, thanks to The Coalition and Xbox providing me a review code, let’s go back to where it all began and look at Gears Of War E-Day, asking the question: Just how much can I do without assistance?
Note:
This review was conducted with a pre-launch build of the game. Consequently, issues may be referenced below that are not present in the Day 1 version.
First Boot
On launching the game for the first time, the game’s logos play, including the iconic chainsaw rev that signals a title from the franchise and its developer The Coalition (hereafter sometimes also referred to as TC). In my case, once that had faded away and the game’s start screen appeared, the game spoke, unprompted, which is always a plus.
Whether this is because I played the beta, whether it’s because I’d configured my Xbox Series S for games like Gears 5, using the Let Games Read to Me function as it was known then, I can’t say for certain. The fact of the matter is, I pressed A to start, was told the game was logging inand was brought through the initial setup flow.
This flow, though it narrated as expected, did have a couple of issues. These included not allowing you to adjust the speed of the narration on this first screen (though that option is available later and is very granular and dynamic), as well as not interrupting its initial string where it announces how to navigate between the tabs if you move up and down in the menu.
Fortunately, the 5 tabs, which include brightness, audio and accessibility, aren’t the only places where you can tweak useful settings. However, before we get there, you’ll have to agree to the code of conduct. This is all fully narrated in-game as well, which is comparatively rare for things like this.
Having agreed that I’ll do what I can for a fair and sportsmanlike experience for my fellow gears (I’m paraphrasing of course as the code is much more detailed), I was then offered the possibility of entering bootcamp, the game’s tutorial, even if I didn’t want to do it immediately for one specific reason, that being I hadn’t set up my options as of yet and wanted to make sure everything was ready before I learned the ropes.
Covering All Bases
Gears Of War is somewhat known for its in-universe tutorialisation of mechanics in its opening mission. In the series’ first outing two decades ago and the sequel, the general rule of thumb wasn’t that there was a separate tutorial mode, only that you could, should you wish, learn as you went along.
Gears 5 did have its own bootcamp mode that you had to complete to earn an achievement and I feared that I wouldn’t be able to get through the E-Day equivalent without help, as was the case with the previous entry. However, thanks to configuring some key options, as well as a fair amount of patience the first time I tried it in my review period, I was able to get through the tutorial without sighted assistance, something I’d never managed in a Gears game before. The only reason I needed patience was something we’ll come onto in a little bit, namely a few issues with navigation.
Configuration Quandary
You might be wondering what I configured, perfectly valid given there are so many options in this game compared to Gears 5. I will answer that a little later, breaking structure a little I know, but speaking of that previous entry in the series allows me to give some context as well as to the options available.
Objectively A Good Idea
In Gears 5, I had the great fortune to work on a system, alongside TC, for the game’s Escape Mode, called Navigation Ping: Escape mode officially, but unofficially just designated as Escape Ping by players.
Escape Ping, seen here in some non-commentary footage from me), let you run through the tile-based maps of Escape’s Multiplayer gameplay loop, following the route the game wanted you to take, though it did, as explained in a blog post by the company, not include key things like supply rooms or your teammates, should they need to be revived, though those were flaws that the team acknowledged directly.
There was always the question of whether such a system would make its way, in an updated format, into the singleplayer offering, though in the case of Gears 5, that sadly didn’t come to pass.
After 7 years transpiring between Gears 5 and E-Day’s releases, and 5 between that of Escape Ping and E-Day itself, I can finally confirm that (as was seen referenced in an accessibility section on the support page for E-Day), the campaign mode, as well as Horde Siege do use a similar version of this same system, with unfortunately some of the same issues (though I’m getting ahead of myself).
What I Actually Configured
Here’s a list of the approximate options I’d configured before I started my first playthrough, though this will be updated if any additions or tweaks are made to accessibility options later down the line.
- Narration on, speed set to at least 1.7
- Standard conventional sliders like Music, character dialogue etc all set to 70 (to allow the narrator volume to stand out)
- Aim assist set to lock-on aim, with the lock-on audio cue turned on and at full volume, the same full volume approach is taken with other accessibility-specific cues like hit markers, though of course you can adjust if desired during gameplay
- Audio Navigational aid and Audio Ping are turned on
Once I’d taken in the tutorial and configured what I wanted, I dove into the campaign, excited to see how everything started for a very recognisable duo.
Missing Features Emerge
Unfortunately, even though some of the trailers featured audio description on the Xbox Store, the campaign does not offer such clarification as to what’s going on in its spectacular sounding cutscenes. This still means you are left guessing, though you should be able to get the idea just from the dialogue and atmosphere. Whether this could be added in via a patch remains to be seen, but even if it doesn’t happen I was already impressed by the quality of the cutscene audio when comparing it to the gameplay. Speaking of gameplay, eventually, after some cutscenes and text to speech narrated title cards and a text crawl (which I rather like personally), we finally get into our first piece of actual gameplay: movement.
Point A to Point B
Navigation in E-Day’s campaign consists, primarily, of following an audio beacon between objectives, hitting buttons to traverse into, over and around cover that can protect you from enemy fire, as well as, of course, stopping to pick up ammo, weapons and the like along the way.
The sound cues for this system are similar to those from Escape Ping, meaning that if you’ve played Gears 5, you might be familiar with how this works in practice already.
The unfortunate thing is that there are instances where the objective marker vanishes deliberately, the most prevalent example being during combat encounters, where your objective is, essentially, slay all the enemies, though this isn’t always true.
Once that’s done, however, you can usually expect that after some dialogue, the objective will reappear.
If I died during battle, which did happen especially early on, I did notice that during my review gameplay, objectives sometimes seemed to, without reason, vanish on reload, requiring sighted assistance to resolve. However, there were also instances where if I merely moved enough, it would get it to reappear.
There are no audio cues for weapons, ammo or other related picups, just a spoken prompt when you are in the small interaction radius. Though this is better than nothing it can make it a little frustrating at times when you know you just passed more bullets for your gun but can’t find them again.
Though this system does work well when it functions as intended, though prompts like climb etc are voiced by TTS rather than through audio which would’ve made things much more fluid in my personal opinion. That’s not to say that there aren’t audio cues for some elements like ropes or supply caches, though there isn’t a glossary that I could find at least detailing these for newcomers to learn them outside of just playing through the campaign.
Ladders do give an audio cue and attached TTS prompt and, once you understand how they work they are pretty straightforward, though you don’t encounter these until a little later on.
Being able to even traverse the world of Gears without assistance in any form, issues aside, was fantastic and I have high hopes for co-op campaign as well if these pain points are patched, though these weren’t the only frustrations I had to get around.
Limited Lives
Limited lives in single player experiences seems, to me at least, to be an archaic relic of arcade games from the early days of the video game medium. After all, how would you get people to continue playing without letting them insert credits once all their lives had been used up.
Unfortunately, for some unknown reason, this game runs with this idea and gives you limited revives by default, meaning that if you happen to get downed too many times, you’ll be forced to reload at the last checkpoint. This latest checkpoint situation has its own issues, in that if you loaded into a checkpoint after death, there were instances where the navigation line would not reappear, leaving you in need of sighted assistance at times, though again, hopefully this will be ironed out ASAP. Now, to the other core part of Gears, the combat.
Stay on Target
As some of you might remember from my Horde Siege gameplay, this game features a lock-on aim system, with an audio cue when there is a target in your sights. However, a frustrating problem noticed in the beta and subsequently in this preview build is that the system seems to, sometimes, lock you onto distant targets rather than the closest one. This means that taking out imminent threats is frustrating at times when you’re trying to do so with anything other than your lancer’s melee capabilities.
When the targeting system works though, it is very satisfying, as there is no need to fire if you don’t hear a ping, unlike in Gears 5 where you’d have to guess at whether you were in line with a target or not. Case in point, the Breachshot, a semi-auto firing sniper rifle is my favourite gun I’ve seen so far, specifically because I can get multiple headshots or hits on enemies, without having to figure out if I’m even aiming at a hittable target in the first place.
Even during combat, you may still find yourself searching around for enemies, as they can be quite well-hidden. That being said, in those cases where I couldn’t navigate to enemies tucked out of sight (given there’s usually no objective marker and there’s no direct sense of where you have to go to get to them), the AI did seem to help out where it could, which was great if I could mark a particular enemy for them to fire at.
Searching For Answers
Speaking of searching, without giving spoilers, there are main story moments that require you to search an area to find an objective. Now as much as I understand the need to allow for exploration, the fact of the matter is that I am unable to explore in a vague area, much as I would be uncomfortable doing that in unfamiliar environments in the real world. Having an option to lead me straight to an objective whould’ve massively helped in this situation, as I was blocked rom progressing without assistance, though again having an audio cue or haptic element to them track down could’ve also worked to achieve similar results.
Free-cursor Frustrations
Similarly to the above, there are items like hardcases and supply caches that, though sighted players can see them on the free-cursor map, are inaccessible to me personally without assistance to find them. This means that I am also locked out of multiple achievements, including for secondary objectives. If these objectives were listed instead of available solely in this map-based format, I might be able to take them on myself but as it stands, this still needs work. Here’s hoping something can be done in the future to open up more opportunities for exploration, especially given there are side objectives that have other characters to meet, interact with and learn their stories, greatly enhancing the atmosphere and lore of the Gears universe.
You Will Be Rewarded
Gears Of War as a franchise is no stranger to rewarding players. Whether it was the Road To Gears 5 challenges as shown in this Reddit post, or those from other betas or promotions down the years. This game is no exception and, though I’d completed all challenges for the E-Day beta, when I loaded the game for the first time and saw the rewards screen showing that I’d unlocked various skins and the like, unfortunately they did not seem to read what I was pressing A to dismiss. The system would merely sometimes show text like the achievement that triggered the reward (relevant during the various acts and chapters of campaign I managed to play through) or the vague description of the item (like the Bravo Squad Skin Set).
It would be much better not only if I knew what I’d unlocked (as well as the how), but also what these rewards looked like in practice through alt text (for instance instead of just saying “civilian Dom” as the name of a skin, there could also be the alt text “Dom wearing a suit”, for example though of course with greater visual detail in such a description) when selecting it.
Hopefully this lack of narration will be fixed in the final build, much like the other issues that have been highlighted, but all things considered this was a relatively small inconvenience.
Now, for a different aspect of the Gears universe, physical merch, more specifically, controllers.
Staying In Control
Gears has always been a franchise known for its cool controllers and consoles, though I never got to see the Gears of War 3 ones first-hand. My first experience with this franchise’s consoles and controllers was the Gears Of War 4 Limited Edition Xbox One S, with its deeply etched claw marks on both pieces of wardware making it stand out in my mind. Looking back at that review now, it’s easy to see how much things have changed in the 10 years between games, but thankfully the special edition trend did continue.
For Gears 5, a special edition console also existed and I was fortunate enough to cover that one too, though that was markedly less tactile than the Gears Of War 4 iteration.
Now with E-Day and the 20th anniversary of Gears, though there’s no console (at least that I’ve seen), The Coalition have released a limited edition standard controller, as well as one from Xbox Design Lab.
Thanks to being sent review units early by Xbox (at no cost to the reviewer), I did get a chance to see these before the game’s launch and thought I’d briefly cover them below as a part of the main Gears E-Day experience as well.
Standard Controller
Though it’s called the Limited Edition controller (you can read all about it at the link), without any other distinctive naming, the controller lives up to the hype with the tactile cracks described on the advertising being present and immediately recognisable as soon as you get hands-on with the controller itself. Opening the box with either scissors or a blade on the adhesive sticker that keeps the box in place, found on the bottom opposite the hanger and opening the top almost like a book, you’ll find the top of the controller, cracked surface and all, underneath.
The cracked surface is primarily on the controller grips, but the overall texture is different to the standard ones you’d have probably seen across pretty much the entire face of the controller, giving it a distinctive feel.
The Crimson Omen, the iconic symbol of the Gears Of War games, in the form of a skull surrounded by a cog, adorns the face of the controller and though you can’t feel it exactly, you can see what appears to be the outline of the edge of it in the way the fac plate is formatted.
The rubber grips are a pretty standard feature of most of these special edition controllers and, though I haven’t used the controller itself as of the time of writing, I’m curious to se just how this feels in practice.
My only other honourable mention is an inscription I read about, which you can find in the battery cover (i.e. the section that would hold the batteries in place, should they be inserted).
The inscription reads as follows:
I shall hold my place in the machine and acknowledge my place in the coalition. I am a gear.
Even though it’s not readable without sight, it’s a fantastic addition to what is already an impressively themed controller that I would recommend to anyone checking this game out who wasnts to immerse themselves that extra level.
Design Lab Controller
Even though it sounds like a very cool design in theory from the description on the page linked above, unfortunately the design lab controller is merely a printed one, though it does feel very smooth under hand which is great. Given the marketing with the ideas of crossed Lancers and the like though, I’d hoped for something more from this collaboration in terms of physicality, even if as was said by sighted assistance it looks fantastic. Though I wouldn’t recommend this to gamers without sight, those with usable vision might get a kick out of this one as a piece of Gears history.
Sound, Voice And Score
As much as I had a great time with the gameplay I got to see first-hand as well as keeping an eye on the accessibility pain points, I was also focusing on the auditory presentation of the game itself.
The score, composed by Adam Lastiwka, who also wrote the soundtrack to Gears 5’s Hivebusters DLC, seems to take a few influences from Doom 2016 and its sequels, though that is no bad thing as when the heavy score kicks in when a fight breaks out, the adrenaline starts pumping and you know that you’ll probably have to fight for your life in a city that’s changed forever. As much as the heavier score might have fans worried, there are also softer moments as well, very much capturing the transformation of the planet Sera from a battleground where humans once fought each other into something totally different. There are even subtle nods to the original Gears games in there too which, though not necessarily surprising, was a pleasant shock to me when I heard them.
As for the voice acting and sound design, from the moment I’d seen this game revealed in 2024, I had a feeling this would all be of high quality and, from what I’ve played so far, including the multiplayer beta, this game does not disappoint. When you run ahead of your squad, the dialogue switches to a radio filter meaning you can still hear the chatter and follow the story, the various firearms feel punchy and satisfying, not to mention the rev of the chainsaw on your lancer is as impactful as it arguably should be.
The voice cast, as expected, deliver equally solid performances and, even though I haven’t finished the campaign as of time of writing, I am confident that whatever twists and turns come my way in my journey through the first hours of the Locust war, the dialogue and delivery, harkening back to 20 years ago, will feel right at home.
Summary
Pros
- Menu narration enabled by default
- Navigation audio cues in both campaign and PVE multiplayer for main objective
- Lock-on aim available in PVE multiplayer and campaign, seemingly on all difficulties
- Great sound design, scoring and voice acting
- Merch with tactile designs also part of marketing
- Coalition Receptive to accessibility feedback
Cons
- Accessibility issues with navigation cues prevented me from playing as much as I’d have liked, though hoped to be fixed post-launch
- No audio description in cutscenes
- Narration speed adjustment not available in initial setup flow
- Some elements didn’t narrate as hoped, requiring future adjustment
Conclusions
Gears Of War E-Day, though it has some issues accessibility-wise, is the most accessible game yet in the franchise. Having been able to play through a fair amount of the campaign without assistance (factoring in the issues mentioned in this review such as requiring assistance with certain checkpoints), as well as enjoying the Horde Siege beta when I got to play that earlier in the year, with The Coalition being receptive to accessibility feedback I have high confidence that in time, this could be a fully accessible Gears campaign, something I never thought I’d say.
With solid sound, scoring and atmosphere, though there are key things missing from this experience, it is a marked improvement over the previous iteration of the franchise, particularly as the game was apparently built from scratch as well. If the navigational and aiming issues are ironed out, I can honestly see myself recommending this to gamers without sight who do not have assistance available. However, as of the release of this review on early access launch day I am hesitant to do so, as I have not seen accessibility considered as part of the day 1 experience, based on the patch notes that were released to mark the occasion.
I only hope that this game, much like Gears 5 before it, can be allowed the budget, time and resources it needs to become more accessible to an even wider audience. Regardless of whether it does though, as a Gears fan who longed to play one of these games without the need for someone else to accompany me, I am very pleased with the progress that has been made and will update this review with any important developments.
Post-launch Update
After releasing the above review and with the game officially being in early access, I was able to dive into Horde Siege on Steam and Xbox, as well as the campaign on Steam after receiving the collector’s edition that I pre-ordered.
This therefore also means that I can talk about the accessibility of the multi-player component, something that I’d seen in the beta prior to the game’s release.
Co-Op Campaign
The co-operative experience is something that Gears has included since the very inception of the franchise and this latest entry is no exception.
Thankfully, regardless of what platform you play on, whether that be PC or an Xbox console, you’ll be able to play alongside friends or other players.
Though you might have to switch to the crossplay friends list, that appears to also be doable on Steam, even if the keyboard doesn’t speak when you type.
As much as the navigational line was visible for some instances when I assisted other squads in campaign, allowing me to follow them and take out foes from the back of the pack so I could be less likely to die, on other occasions, it would either vanish altogether or still lead me on paths that were deadly to follow and result in the rest of the squad failing the objective because I perished trying to reach them.
During co-op sessions with a regular from my streams to finish my run that was furthest along, though the playthrough did not happened in a streamed setting, we discovered that the old trick of using a chainsaw on a Lancer as an audio beacon did still work, albeit sometimes the idle audio would cut out and it couldn’t be heard when a lot was going on at one particular point in the campaign where it would’ve been useful.
This would all be solved if the audio navigation aid was fixed as per previous suggestions, but given that hasn’t materialised yet, having the ability to converse directly with your co-op partner works wonders.
The only other thing I’d want to mention here is that we did encounter not only instances where the audio navigation aid tried to take you into the void, but we also found various sections tricky, such as one where the game split us up just because of the characters we were playing at the time. This hadn’t happened so far in our playthrough, but we had to quit to the lobby and re-choose our characters so that we’d be able to be in the same part of the level, in an effort to prevent the navigation line causing even more problems.
Finally, I want to give a shout out to all those who’ve run with me in Gears games over the years, including this one, for describing what they could of the cutscenes and levels. Without that, some of the lines of dialogue that hit hard wouldn’t have made sense, nor the set pieces felt as impactful.
Regardless, co-op is still alive and well and, with the new accessibility, it’s great to be able to take the lead in the story where otherwise you would be unable to previously.
Horde Siege
Horde Siege, hereafter just referred to as Siege for simplicity is, for lack of a better phrase, open world PVE (Player VS Environment) multi-player. You get main objectives, which the navigation beacon will point you to and side objectives, which are not part of this but you’ll sometimes hear as audio cues along the way.
3 squads, each comprised of up to 4 people, are tasked with following the main objectives, eventually leading to a hectic extraction from a Raven (the Gears universe equivalent of helicopters).
Direction Unclear: Please Repeat Request
You may realise an immediate issue here, in that as with the beta, the side objectives, which can gain you experience, weapon parts and other rewards, are not trackable without sight. This means that you are limited to following gunfire and hoping you’re assisting your squad, as well as of course dealing with issues surrounding traversing into the void (i.e. you die immediately with no way to tell you’re not going to make a jump) and the navigation line sometimes acting rather strangely, as it did in campaign.
For sighted players, they are able to track objectives on their map much like campaign, which is something the objective navigation system doesn’t account for either, so if a squad member tracks a side objective you won’t be directed to it, at least from my testing.
Combat Complexity
That being said, I’ve definitely helped out either my actual squad or those of others around me by listening to the audio design and traying to target enemies from distance, being particularly successful with the Marksman class, somewhat ironically given it’s a sniper archetype.
Being able to tell just what enemies are coming at you in a game like this is fantastic, as you can then prioritise targets based on sound, though this has technically been a thing since Gears 4 in a way, even if the enemy callouts here are much more telling and indicate weapon choice to a greater degree.
Getting headshots is, as you’d expect, satisfying as ever and, even if you’re down, you have a greater possibility of a squad picking you up if you’re in the action. There are event achievements for saving someone from a Locust, which I managed to do without even realising it, as well as others that though I couldn’t complete myself, were completed for me by virtue of the squad doing what was required (like finding perk caches that aren’t audible, for instance).
Has Anything Changed Post-Launch?
Though there were a few places where bugs appeared to have been fixed in campaign, the target lock and navigation issues covered previously do not appear to have been fully resolved as of the October 6 full launch of the game, though if any accessibility patches do update these, I’ll be sure to clarify.
Would I say Horde Siege is accessible without sight? Partly, somewhat similar to Gears 5’s Horde though arguably with a greater level of flexibility as you can use lock-on aim and the audio navigation aid on any difficulty of your choosing.
Where the game still falls short is in the traversal side of things and when your lock-on decides, as one viewer in my stream chat put it, that the ground was more interesting, though again, given how well this game has done so far, I hope the devs are given the time and resources they require to turn this into a fully accessible title at some point in the relatively near future.
For those asking, I would not currently recommend this game unless you have a friend to go through it with (for a variety of reasons, not just sighted assistance, but the co-op experience as well). You can match up with other people and help with their games to an extent, though with the bugs present that can be difficult at times.
This game is not fully playable without sight, but under the right circumstances, much like Gears 5, it can be extremely enjoyable and immersive.