Three previews of the same two chapters went up within an hour of each other on August 25, 2026: Game Rant, Xbox Wire and TheSixthAxis. Where they agree, the detail below is stated plainly. Where one of them saw something alone, its name is on it.
What was played
Game Rant puts the session at about an hour, covering the first two chapters of Act 2. Xbox Wire describes the same opening: the early hours after the Locust reach the surface, with Kalona’s City Hall converted into a COG base that is part triage and part command post.
Game Rant says single-player was the only option offered to it. All four of Bravo Squad are playable from the start, in single-player as well as in a four-player lobby. The studio has said so directly, and the game’s own text carries Marcus, Dom, Lucas and Mags by name. The rest of the squad is run by AI, and Xbox Wire rates it highly. Teammates prioritized reviving. They picked off flankers before the writer had noticed them.
Who is in Bravo Squad and who gives it orders
Bravo Squad is Marcus Fenix, Dominic Santiago, Mags Carter and Lucas Reyes, and it is formally assembled in this chapter rather than already in the field. Around them: Colonel Trench takes military command, Kalona’s mayor argues for the civilians, and Captain Akila Grey takes the squad’s details and next of kin before deployment. TheSixthAxis names the mayor as Mayor Shaw.
Later in the demo Bravo links up with Tai Kaliso and Theta Squad, per Xbox Wire. Xbox Wire makes a point of the framing: other squads are working their own assignments across the city, and Bravo is one unit among many rather than the only one that matters.
The bridge and the stadium
The first objective is a bridge. TheSixthAxis has the detail: the group splits into two teams, and Marcus leads Dom, Mags and Lucas along the upper level of a river-spanning suspension bridge toward a forward operating base. Xbox Wire names the base Oria Stadium, a Kalona landmark converted for military use; TheSixthAxis and Game Rant both describe it as a Thrashball venue.
The stadium is where the Chainsaw Lancer gets its origin scene. Xbox Wire describes the prototype as crudely but thoughtfully bolted together from a standard Lancer and an old chainsaw, and handed to Bravo Squad during downtime. Game Rant names the soldier who builds it as Russ.
Chapter 2 then opens out. Game Rant calls it a large, open zone with more freedom to explore than the older games allowed, and Xbox Wire names the objective at the end of it: a rail station, secured after a multi-level fight, at which the demo ends. TheSixthAxis is clear that this is not an open world, describing a return to the traditional battle through streets and corridors. Xbox Wire does not say either way, and its nearest line runs the other direction.
How it plays
All four of Bravo Squad are playable from the start. You do not have to play as Marcus.
What the demo showed
Only what a preview writer described having in their hands. No damage value, fire rate or reload time appears here. Not one preview published any.
| System | What the preview describes |
|---|---|
| Supply Caches | Dotted around the city. Refill ammo, change loadout, and equip weapon mods. Xbox Wire |
| Weapon mods | Rewarded for optional side missions. The examples given are damage buffs and chainsaw-kill reloads. Game Rant, Xbox Wire |
| Tactical Gear | Rechargeable items deployed in battle. The demo offered a choice of the Injector, which applies Adrenaline, or the Sonic Disruptor. Xbox Wire, Game Rant |
| Side missions | Completely optional. Two named: defending a car dealership, and freeing a family trapped in a convenience store. Game Rant |
| Collectibles | Found off the path, even on a corridor stretch like the bridge. A damaged helmet and Locust sniper goggles. Game Rant |
| Movement | Jump, climb onto objects, slide. Used to close on snipers and flank them. Game Rant |
| In-game map | A tourist pamphlet picked up at the stadium becomes the map. Xbox Wire |
| Co-op | Two-player split-screen, up to four players online. Split-screen is console only. Game Rant, Xbox Wire |
Every row is something a writer says they used or saw. Anything the previews only alluded to is not here.
Side missions pay weapon mods
The weapon mods guide has said two things for a while: mods are a Horde Siege and campaign system rather than a Versus one, and the Weapon Parts that buy them come off secondary objectives rather than off the main route. Both halves came from the game’s own wording, not from anyone playing it.
Game Rant describes the same loop running in the campaign, in a chapter it played: two side quests, both explicitly optional, and players who go out of their way to finish them “will be rewarded with helpful weapon mods”. Xbox Wire describes the other end of it. The Supply Cache is where the mod goes on the gun, alongside refilling ammo and changing loadout.
The side-objective-to-weapon-mod loop is now described by someone who played it, in the campaign as well as in Horde Siege. Same economy, both modes. If you skip side missions, you are skipping the mods.
What has not changed: no mod anywhere publishes a price, and no preview put one on screen. The mod index still lists what the game names and nothing more.
Legacy puts run back on the A button
TheSixthAxis is the only preview to cover the options screen, and it is the most practical thing in any of the three. E-Day defaults to a Modern control scheme where run is a stick click. There is a Legacy setting that returns run to the A button, which is where it has been in every Gears before this one.
Nothing else about either scheme has been published. What each one moves, beyond run, is not known.
The guns
The stadium scene turns on the Lancer appearing with its old bayonet rather than the chainsaw. TheSixthAxis found its recoil heavy enough that keeping an evasive Locust in frame was hard, and swapped to a picked-up Hammerburst, reading the encounter design as a push to keep changing guns.
The Breechshot is back (last seen in Gears of War: Judgment). TheSixthAxis calls it a non-scoped sniper rifle whose useful trick is that it is also an axe. Game Rant says only that it took Breechshots off the enemies carrying them. Boomers close out the bridge, carrying Boomshots, and Game Rant went down to them more than once.
Perfect Reload returns, per Xbox Wire, still on the same bargain: hit the window and the next round comes faster, miss it and the gun jams.
Not one preview published a damage value, a fire rate or a reload time. The weapons page carries what the game itself states, and this article adds nothing to it.
What happened next
The campaign became playable by the public at gamescom. Xbox’s booth was in Hall 7, booth A-0.61, open Thursday, August 27 through Sunday, August 30, 2026, and Xbox described E-Day as bringing the first public playable hands-on with the campaign to the show.
Gears of War: E-Day released on October 6, 2026.
Sources: Xbox Wire, Danielle Partis · TheSixthAxis, Dom Leighton · Game Rant, Dalton Cooper · Xbox Wire, gamescom 2026 booth · The Coalition, Multiplayer Deep Dive.