Gears of War: E-Day: a 14 to 18-hour campaign, one of the longest in the series

Gears of War: E-Day is finally here. The Coalition's latest entry launched on October 6, and one of the questions the community has been asking most now has an answer: how long is the campaign? According to the review published by Vandal, the story clocks in at around 14 hours if you keep up a good pace without stopping too much, and it can stretch to 18 hours if you want to squeeze out nearly everything it has to offer.

Why does it matter? Because in Gears, the campaign has never been just a tutorial before multiplayer. It's the gateway to the series, a co-op classic to play with friends and fertile ground for replays on higher difficulties. The fact that E-Day goes for one of the longest runtimes in the franchise says a lot about what The Coalition wants this game to be: a complete experience, not just an appetizer before jumping into versus.

What you need to know

• Release: Gears of War: E-Day launched on October 6, developed by The Coalition.
• Main story: around 14 hours if you play without lingering too much.
• Completionist: up to around 18 hours if you aim to complete nearly everything.
• Verdict: Vandal considers it one of the best adventures in the series, fun and varied, though with a few less inspired stretches.
• Replayability: the different difficulty levels and co-op make it worth coming back to more than once.

How long it is and what changes depending on how you play

The gap between getting straight to the point and wanting to see everything is about four hours, a margin we think is reasonable: enough to reward players who explore without punishing those who just want to follow the story. Here's the benchmark Vandal uses in its review:

Keep in mind that these figures are for a single playthrough. The series has always thrived on replayability: cranking up the difficulty, replaying acts in co-op or going back for missing collectibles extends the campaign's lifespan well beyond that first run. And when it comes to gameplay, Vandal is clear: it calls it fantastic, with enough variety to keep those hours from dragging, although it acknowledges that not every stretch is at the same level.

Who it affects

For casual players, it guarantees a substantial adventure spread over several evenings. For co-op players, it offers plenty of material for multiple sessions with their partner. And for the competitive and creator community, it opens up an interesting front: a long, varied campaign is ideal territory for speedruns, max-difficulty challenges and chapter-by-chapter content series.

Our take

Here at Underworld Lordz, we see it clearly: a 14 to 18-hour campaign in an action shooter is a statement of intent. Many games in the genre have trimmed their story mode down to a six- or eight-hour excuse, so Gears heading in the opposite direction is good news. That said, length isn't a merit in itself; what wins us over is that Vandal's review pairs it with words like "fun" and "varied". More hours are only worth it if they're well filled.

That said, we're not going to ignore the warning about the less inspired stretches. In a long campaign, pacing dips are more noticeable, and for anyone looking to speedrun it or replay it on the highest difficulty, those moments could become the most tedious part of every attempt. It'll be interesting to see how the community optimizes routes and whether those segments end up being the most hated parts of the runs.

For content creators, E-Day is almost a gift: a lengthy story lends itself to multi-episode series, collectible guides, difficulty comparisons and co-op challenges. Our advice: if you're going to record it, play it straight through first to enjoy the story without pressure, and save the completionist version and challenges for a second run. That way you get the best of both worlds.

What do you think?

Around 14 hours at its core and up to 18 if you want it all. Does that sound like the ideal length for a Gears game, or do you prefer shorter, more direct campaigns so you can jump into multiplayer as soon as possible? Let us know in the team chat or drop by our Discord: are you going for the quick run or the 100%?