Gears Of War: E-Day Had To Solve One Big Lore Problem – How Do You Get A Lancer Into The Game?
Overview & Key Takeaways
When Gears of War first debuted in the Xbox 360 generation, it introduced the world to the majesty of the Lancer weapon. A gun with a brutally effective chainsaw mounted to it, the Lancer has become the defining symbol of the franchise, and in Gears of War: E-Day, players will get to see just how that weapon came to be.
In the established Gears of War lore, the weapon was created a year after the events of Emergence Day. That created something of a dilemma for the developer, The Coalition, as they had to give players something that reminded them of the classic weapon while telling a story that takes place during Emergence Day. The Solution? A Lancer prototype that's introduced in the game, and has roots in Gears of War literary stories.
"Wherever possible, we've just done everything we can to respect the canon, right? The scene where Tai uses a chainsaw in a grocery store to kill a Locust is part of the creation story that was in a book, but we've lifted it--like all the dialogue--everything is intact in our game," creative director Matt Searcy said to GameSpot. "So even if we have to do like a small retcon, we just lift it and drop. We took the moment, we took the dialogue, we took everything about it and just said if we have to make a change, we're going to respect it as much as we possibly can, and if we need to connect the dots between two things, we're going to."
"We have to have a Lancer in this game. In the lore, it's created a year after E-Day by Marcus' father, so we find ways--like we revealed in our campaign preview where a prototype is built around E-Day--so we can feed into all of those things. It just takes a little bit of care and attention, and then there's usually a great creative solution to be able to respect all of the hard work that's come before and all the things the fans are deeply attached to."
The book that helped inspire the story of Gears of War: E-Day is the 2008 novel Gears of War: The Aspho Fields by Karen Traviss. In it, Gear soldier Tai Kaliso uses a power saw in combat, and that action eventually goes on to inspire the creation of the chainsaw attachment for Lancer rifles. The book also covers the battle in which Dominic Santiago's brother, Carlos, dies, giving The Coalition an established starting point for building Marcus and Dom’s relationship throughout E-Day.
"What it gave us was a really rich jumping-off point," Searcy explained. "So we knew E-Day is a plot point, two-thirds of the population dies, the monsters come out of the ground, and it's a cool concept. But we needed something rich for the characters to be based on, and that gave us a really strong starting point in terms of understanding where Marcus and Dom were before this game."
While the story campaign has been a big focus for the early marketing of Gears of War: E-Day, we're not entirely convinced yet if it'll tell the definitive Gears story that sets up the entire franchise. The multiplayer might be where this prequel truly shines--especially with the overhauled movement systems--and you can check it all out for yourself when Gears of War: E-Day launches on October 6 for Xbox Series X|S and PC.
When Gears of War first debuted in the Xbox 360 generation, it introduced the world to the majesty of the Lancer weapon. A gun with a brutally effective chainsaw mounted to it, the Lancer has become the defining symbol of the franchise, and in Gears of War: E-Day, players will get to see just how that weapon came to be.
In the established Gears of War lore, the weapon was created a year after the events of Emergence Day. That created something of a dilemma for the developer, The Coalition, as they had to give players something that reminded them of the classic weapon while telling a story that takes place during Emergence Day. The Solution? A Lancer prototype that's introduced in the game, and has roots in Gears of War literary stories.
"Wherever possible, we've just done everything we can to respect the canon, right? The scene where Tai uses a chainsaw in a grocery store to kill a Locust is part of the creation story that was in a book, but we've lifted it--like all the dialogue--everything is intact in our game," creative director Matt Searcy said to GameSpot. "So even if we have to do like a small retcon, we just lift it and drop. We took the moment, we took the dialogue, we took everything about it and just said if we have to make a change, we're going to respect it as much as we possibly can, and if we need to connect the dots between two things, we're going to."
"We have to have a Lancer in this game. In the lore, it's created a year after E-Day by Marcus' father, so we find ways--like we revealed in our campaign preview where a prototype is built around E-Day--so we can feed into all of those things. It just takes a little bit of care and attention, and then there's usually a great creative solution to be able to respect all of the hard work that's come before and all the things the fans are deeply attached to."
The book that helped inspire the story of Gears of War: E-Day is the 2008 novel Gears of War: The Aspho Fields by Karen Traviss. In it, Gear soldier Tai Kaliso uses a power saw in combat, and that action eventually goes on to inspire the creation of the chainsaw attachment for Lancer rifles. The book also covers the battle in which Dominic Santiago's brother, Carlos, dies, giving The Coalition an established starting point for building Marcus and Dom’s relationship throughout E-Day.
"What it gave us was a really rich jumping-off point," Searcy explained. "So we knew E-Day is a plot point, two-thirds of the population dies, the monsters come out of the ground, and it's a cool concept. But we needed something rich for the characters to be based on, and that gave us a really strong starting point in terms of understanding where Marcus and Dom were before this game."
While the story campaign has been a big focus for the early marketing of Gears of War: E-Day, we're not entirely convinced yet if it'll tell the definitive Gears story that sets up the entire franchise. The multiplayer might be where this prequel truly shines--especially with the overhauled movement systems--and you can check it all out for yourself when Gears of War: E-Day launches on October 6 for Xbox Series X|S and PC.
