The original Gears of War trilogy on the Xbox 360 introduced us to the world of Sera, Delta Squad, and the Locust Horde threatening to wipe humanity off the map. Since then, the franchise has grown to include sequels, prequels, and intersticials that aren’t even in the original genre. This makes it not that different from playing the Halo games in order. You could stick to playing just the numbered games in order, but every game with Gears of War in its name (save for one) is important to the story, especially Gears of War: E-Day. Unlike the Doom games, which have a lot of lore but keep it pushed to the side, the story in Gears is a large part of what makes these games more than just mindless shooters. We’ve been roadie running with Marcus since 2006 and will give you a complete breakdown of how to play the entire series in release order and chronologically.
All Gears of War games in release order
Gears of War was one of the most impressive Xbox 360 games we’d seen at the time, and was primed to become a huge franchise. We got three main games from the original developer Epic Games before it was handed off to The Coalition, but a few other teams have also contributed to the Gears universe. If you’re interested in getting started with the series now, playing in release order isn’t the worst way to go about it. Thanks to the original game rereleasing as Gears of War: Reloaded, going back to the earliest game is easier than ever. However, that only muddles the release order more if you were depending on the numbers to guide you, especially when the franchise rebrands itself to simply “Gears” for a time.
To experience the Gears saga as it was originally told, not including any remakes or remasters, here’s the official release order:
- Gears of War (2006)
- Gears of War 2 (2008)
- Gears of War 3 (2011)
- Gears of War: Judgment (2013)
- Gears of War 4 (2016)
- Gears 5 (2019)
- Gears POP! (2019)
- Gears Tactics (2020)
- Gears of War: E-Day (TBD)
All Gears of War games in chronological order
You can safely assume that the numbered entries follow one another in a linear order, but what about all those non-numbered entries? Those are especially interesting and add a lot of texture to the lore, not only because they feature characters besides Marcus, but fit into unexplored parts of the timeline. Playing the series in chronological order might be the best experience possible since the main games throw you into the world with little context to figure things out over the course of many games. Knowing what’s going on, how you got there, and what events led up to that point makes the emotional beats hit that much harder.
The only game you should ignore to play the games chronologically is Gears POP!, but otherwise, follow this play order:
Note: The Gears timeline is marked by years Before Emergence Day (B.E.) or After Emergence Day (A.E.)
- Gears of War: E-Day (0 B.E)
- Gears of War: Judgment (0 A.E.)
- Gears Tactics (1 A.E.)
- Gears of War/ Gears of War: Reloaded (14 A.E)
- Gears of War 2 (14 A.E.)
- Gears of War 3 (17 A.E.)
- Gears of War 4 (42 A.E.)
- Gears 5 (42 A.E.)