Gears of War: E-Day is out in early access ahead of its full launch on October 6 via Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, and PC. And when it releases, it will be available via Xbox Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass, a boost the Microsoft subscription service needs following a “nightmare” update that has left subscribers disappointed. Thankfully, for said subscribers, it looks like they are in for a treat. While user reviews are a little lower than The Coalition and Xbox would have hoped for — considering these are its most hardcore fans, so its user review score is probably as high as it ever will be — its Metacritic score is an 86, the best since Gears of War 3.
Videos by ComicBook.com
Slightly raining on the parade is the fact that multiplayer servers have just gone live, and there are already hackers and cheaters. This is something every major multiplayer game struggles with, especially at launch, but it appears Gears of War: E-Day has a little more than some games, based not just on our own experience, but based on the reports from players on Reddit, X, and elsewhere. To this end, one of the top posts on the Gears of War Reddit page is a post lambasting the fact that there are hackers already, in early access, before the game goes live for the wider public. And if there are hackers in early access, it’s reasonable to assume the full launch will be even worse.
“It’s Pretty Annoying”
Unfortunately, while disappointing, it’s not surprising. There were notable cheaters in the game’s beta, so early access and launch seemed to guarantee a hacker problem. It’s not prevalent, but it also seems that The Coalition and the new Gears of War do not have as good an anti-cheat system as some other games boast. The good news is the problem is predominantly limited to PC. They aren’t exclusive to PC, but most are there, which means Xbox users can escape them by turning cross-play off.
“So I wasn’t tripping in my last round with the person I suspected of cheating,” reads one of the comments on the post above. Another adds, “I’ve had a few in horde that are one-shotting every enemy in rapid succession. It’s pretty annoying.”
To put it into context, Call of Duty: Black Ops and Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 — two old games notorious for having hacking problems — were re-released on PS5 and PS4 earlier this year, and I encountered fewer hackers at launch there than in early access with Gears of War. Neither is common, and this is anecdotal, but it’s not great. You can also ban accounts all you want, but if you don’t have a robust anti-cheat system, it’s not going to stop any of them. That said, and as always, feel free to leave a comment or two letting us know what you think.
More Gaming
-
Image Courtesy of Electronic Arts/Secret Mode
