Gears of War: E-Day devs on making the Locust scary
The Coalition's Matt Searcy and Pax Lyle tell Pure Xbox how they rebuilt the series' signature enemy and the pressure behind the prequel.
The Coalition has spoken about the thinking behind Gears of War: E-Day, the prequel that takes the series back to Emergence Day. Studio creative director Matt Searcy and gameplay design director Pax Lyle sat down with Pure Xbox to discuss how the game came together. E-Day launched into premium early access on October 1, with its full release on Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass set for October 6. The studio described the project as a reintroduction to the Gears origin story, built to evoke both nostalgia and terror in returning players.
A central challenge was making the Locust frightening again. Searcy said the team treated the enemy as a reintroduction, beginning with concept art rather than a redesign, and looking for ways to increase the sense of dread without losing what made the creatures iconic. One example he gave was stripping the armour from a Wretch to see how it might read as a starved, predatory animal. The first act unfolds on the first night of the invasion, holding back weapons and set-piece battles so players feel the emergence as the characters do. Lyle added that reintroduced enemies carry small twists to deliver surprises.
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Where this story ran: one outlet on 4 October 2026. The summary above is written by GamersGuild; the links go to the original reports.