"E-Day is an origin story," Nicole Fawcette continued, "it's the origin story of the bond that defines the franchise, which is Marcus Fenix and Dom Santiago's friendship. When you first meet them, they're not the same Marcus and Dom you know. In Gears 1, they've already spent 14 years fighting the Locust."
In Gears of War: E-Day, Marcus and Dom are just returning from the Pendulum Wars, which was a global resource conflict between two of Sera's primary super powers. Millions were lost in this conflict, and the development of insane weapons like the orbital laser Hammer of Dawn emerged during this conflict. Humanity enjoyed barely two months of respite after this war, before E-Day occurs.
"Peace was declared on Sera, and they had a hopeful future in front of them. There's also trauma and grief from the Pendulum Wars, stemming from the passing of Dom's brother Carlos. Carlos was Dom's brother, but he was Marcus' best friend. So, Marcus and Dom are not the best of friends that we know of, yet."
"So, the trailer set our emotional tone, as well as our visual tone," Nicole continued. Indeed, we learned over the past week that the trailer for Gears of War: E-Day was entirely in-engine, using in-game assets and lighting, and should be a good representation of the kind of quality players can expect when the game launches. It should be a good representation of the horror, too.
"You can see that we've wanted to reposition the Locust drone as actual scary, terrifying creatures. People remember Gears of War 1 of having these high moments of horror, and being scared. We're going back to that darker, grittier vibe that people have in their mind when they think about the franchise."