--- title: Gears of War: E-Day is the Highest-Rated Gears Game in... description: Gears of War: E-Day has received a Metacritic score of 87, making it the franchise's highest-rated entry since Gears of War 3 in 2011 and surpassing Gears of... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/gears-of-war-e-day-is-the-highest-rated-gears-game-in-over-15-years-u6gn1xzcm twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: Gears of War: E-Day is the Highest-Rated Gears Game in Over 15 Years | daily.dev og:description: Gears of War: E-Day has received a Metacritic score of 87, making it the franchise's highest-rated entry since Gears of War 3 in 2011 and surpassing Gears of... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/gears-of-war-e-day-is-the-highest-rated-gears-game-in-over-15-years-u6gn1xzcm og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/U6Gn1xzcm.png og:image:alt: Gears of War: E-Day is the Highest-Rated Gears Game in Over 15 Years og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Gears of War: E-Day is the Highest-Rated Gears Game in Over 15 Years **[80 LEVEL](https://daily.dev/sources/80lv)** · 4 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary Gears of War: E-Day has received a Metacritic score of 87, making it the franchise's highest-rated entry since Gears of War 3 in 2011 and surpassing Gears of War 4, Gears 5, Judgment, and Tactics. Developed by The Coalition entirely from scratch on Unreal Engine 5, the prequel showcases Nanite environments with over 100 times the detail of Gears 5, MegaLights for dynamic ray-traced lighting, Lumen global illumination, hardware ray tracing, and real-time destruction. Reviewers praised the return to the oppressive, horror-tinged atmosphere of the original trilogy alongside more fluid, aggressive combat. The game releases October 6, 2026 for PC and Xbox Series X|S. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Questions this post answers ### What Metacritic score did Gears of War: E-Day receive and how does it compare to other Gears games? Gears of War: E-Day holds a Metacritic score of 87 based on its initial wave of reviews, making it the highest-rated Gears release since Gears of War 3 earned a 91 average in September 2011. It scored above Gears of War 4, Gears 5, Gears of War: Judgment, and Gears Tactics, though the original Gears of War (94) and Gears of War 2 (93) remain the franchise's top-rated entries. _Track how new game releases stack up critically with daily.dev's technical and industry coverage._ ### What is MegaLights in Unreal Engine 5 and how does Gears of War: E-Day use it? MegaLights is Unreal Engine 5 technology that renders large quantities of dynamic lights with ray-traced shadows, and Gears of War: E-Day is among the first major releases to ship with it. The Coalition used it to let flashlights and weapon fire punctuate dark interiors with moving, convincing shadows, giving enclosed sections a survival-horror atmosphere distinct from brighter recent Gears entries. _Developers evaluating Unreal Engine 5 lighting tools can follow real-world adoption cases on daily.dev._ ### How much more environmental detail does Gears of War: E-Day have compared to Gears 5 thanks to Nanite? Gears of War: E-Day reportedly delivers more than 100 times the environmental and character detail seen in Gears 5. This is enabled by Unreal Engine 5's Nanite, which lets The Coalition use extremely dense source assets throughout the ruined city of Kalona, preserving fine geometric details that would traditionally need to be simplified or faked with textures. _Engine-level deep dives like Nanite's impact on asset density are useful reading for technical artists on daily.dev._ ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [Rally Up: ‘Gears of War: E-Day’ Launches on GeForce NOW](https://daily.dev/posts/rally-up-gears-of-war-e-day-launches-on-geforce-now-1tcxc2gde) · NVIDIA · 1 upvotes · 0 comments - [Ace Combat 8 is The Highest-Reviewed Game in the Series in 25 Years](https://daily.dev/posts/ace-combat-8-is-the-highest-reviewed-game-in-the-series-in-25-years-xejmda7hk) · 80 LEVEL · 2 upvotes · 1 comments - [Advanced Shader Delivery Available for Gears of War: E-Day and Coming Soon across Windows 11](https://daily.dev/posts/advanced-shader-delivery-available-for-gears-of-war-e-day-and-coming-soon-across-windows-11-uha01b3tm) · DevBlogs · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [Analysts attempt to make sense of Xbox's exclusivity shift](https://daily.dev/posts/analysts-attempt-to-make-sense-of-xbox-s-exclusivity-shift-jc8ev58vb) · Game Developer · 1 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#game-development](https://daily.dev/tags/game-development), [#unreal-engine](https://daily.dev/tags/unreal-engine) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/gears-of-war-e-day-is-the-highest-rated-gears-game-in-over-15-years-u6gn1xzcm) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"Gears of War: E-Day is the Highest-Rated Gears Game in Over 15 Years","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/gears-of-war-e-day-is-the-highest-rated-gears-game-in-over-15-years-u6gn1xzcm","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/gears-of-war-e-day-is-the-highest-rated-gears-game-in-over-15-years-u6gn1xzcm"},"datePublished":"2026-10-01T17:49:24.417Z","dateModified":"2026-10-01T17:54:48.572Z","description":"Gears of War: E-Day has received a Metacritic score of 87, making it the franchise's highest-rated entry since Gears of War 3 in 2011 and surpassing Gears of...","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/e2a429bb83fb6bb45b2cbbb2d49e7355?_a=AQAEuop","thumbnailUrl":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/e2a429bb83fb6bb45b2cbbb2d49e7355?_a=AQAEuop","isAccessibleForFree":true,"articleSection":"80 LEVEL","inLanguage":"en","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180}},"author":{"@type":"Organization","name":"80 LEVEL","logo":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/t_logo,f_auto/v1/logos/78eebcd76c154e6bbfd565fed7dc4093","url":"https://daily.dev/sources/80lv"},"commentCount":0,"discussionUrl":"https://daily.dev/posts/gears-of-war-e-day-is-the-highest-rated-gears-game-in-over-15-years-u6gn1xzcm","interactionStatistic":[{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":0},{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"CommentAction"},"userInteractionCount":0}],"keywords":"game-development,unreal-engine","timeRequired":"PT4M"} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https://daily.dev"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"80 LEVEL","item":"https://daily.dev/sources/80lv"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Gears of War: E-Day is the Highest-Rated Gears Game in Over 15 Years"}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"FAQPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/gears-of-war-e-day-is-the-highest-rated-gears-game-in-over-15-years-u6gn1xzcm#faq","mainEntity":[{"@type":"Question","name":"What Metacritic score did Gears of War: E-Day receive and how does it compare to other Gears games?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"Gears of War: E-Day holds a Metacritic score of 87 based on its initial wave of reviews, making it the highest-rated Gears release since Gears of War 3 earned a 91 average in September 2011. It scored above Gears of War 4, Gears 5, Gears of War: Judgment, and Gears Tactics, though the original Gears of War (94) and Gears of War 2 (93) remain the franchise's top-rated entries. Track how new game releases stack up critically with daily.dev's technical and industry coverage."}},{"@type":"Question","name":"What is MegaLights in Unreal Engine 5 and how does Gears of War: E-Day use it?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"MegaLights is Unreal Engine 5 technology that renders large quantities of dynamic lights with ray-traced shadows, and Gears of War: E-Day is among the first major releases to ship with it. The Coalition used it to let flashlights and weapon fire punctuate dark interiors with moving, convincing shadows, giving enclosed sections a survival-horror atmosphere distinct from brighter recent Gears entries. 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