The art director of Gears of War celebrates that E-Day recovers the original terror of the saga

If the first Gears was Alien, the rest were Aliens, says Jerry O'Flaherty, art director of the original title.

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The return of Gears of War with E-Day has not only awakened the nostalgia of Xbox veterans, but also revived the conversation about the tone that defined the 2006 classic. Its original art director, Jerry O’Flaherty, has shared his enthusiasm for seeing the series return to its darker and more oppressive roots, those that marked the debut of the legendary Marcus Fenix.

In a chat with FRVR, the creative explained that the first Gears of War was born with a clear inspiration from horror movies. According to O’Flaherty, the game not only had to sell copies, but also demonstrate the power of the then-new Unreal Engine 3, which led the Epic Games team to bet on a more cinematic, gloomy, and dense atmosphere. “It was horror with monsters, and then it became a monster game,” the artist summarizes.

Gears of War: E-Day aims to recover the tension and fear of the original

The creative compares the evolution of the saga to the leap between Alien and Aliens: “The first one was smaller, more isolated, focused on fear and what you couldn’t see. Then the saga grew, it became more spectacular, but lost some of that tension that I loved so much,” O’Flaherty confessed.

During the conversation, he also recalled how the team used a reduced color palette to reinforce the game’s oppressive atmosphere, a detail that marked a trend in an entire generation. “We wanted it to be dark, claustrophobic, for the player to feel danger around every corner,” he commented.

For now, Gears of War: E-Day remains a mystery, but O’Flaherty himself believes that the new project from The Coalition faithfully reflects the spirit of the original. After the tone changes in Gears 4 and Gears 5, the studio seems determined to return to the player that feeling of fear and uncertainty that defined the birth of one of Xbox’s most iconic sagas.