Even just an hour with Gears of War: E-Day's explosive campaign left me hungry to fill more E-holes across its semi-open world

I’ve played about an hour of the Gears of War: E-Day campaign, which is shaping up to be a brilliant Xbox 360 throwback.

Does E-Day reinvent the wheel? No, at least if the two missions that I’ve played are anything to go by, but everything that makes Gears of War good is present and accounted for.

My hands-on kicked off at the start of Act 2 of the campaign, with the fictional city of Kalona still grappling with the early stages of the mutant Locust invasion.

Series hero Marcus Fenix and his rag-tag team of survivors, which includes long-time ally Dominic Santiago along with newcomers Mags Carter and Lucas Reyes, are holed up in the besieged city hall.

There are murmurings of a gigantic creature the group has just taken down — presumably a boss fight at the end of the previous chapter — and you’re quickly drafted into the military effort to take back the city.

Duck and cover (Image credit: Xbox) Your first goal is to head to a nearby Thrashball stadium (a familiar in-universe sport that looks like a weird hybrid of football and rugby), which involves traversing the crumbling streets and crossing a giant mechanical bridge.

Obviously, things aren’t so simple — with countless Emergence Holes (or E-holes for short) opening and spewing out waves of foes as you make your way over.

Locust enemies are aggressive and, while they don’t pose much threat in isolation, can employ some pretty formidable tactics.

The basic rifle-wielding drones will stick to cover like glue, popping up intermittently to spray your team with bullets.

They can be hard to keep track of in large numbers, so be careful that those armed with shotguns don’t manage to flank you, as a few close-range hits will shred your health bar in seconds.

Tossed grenades and groups of fast-moving, dog-like Feral Wretches keep the pressure up by forcing you to change cover frequently, preventing fights from devolving into opposing sides taking pot shots at each other across the battlefield.

The steady introduction of new enemy types, from lethal snipers to giant bazooka-equipped brutes, kept the handful of encounters I experienced fresh with some interesting scenarios, like covering another squad located on the other side of the bridge, thrown in there too.

Xbox Xbox Xbox Xbox Xbox It’s classic Gears of War action, elevated by meaty gunplay.

Chipping away at enemies from a distance is relatively ineffective and awkward (unless you manage to scoop up one of the powerful Breechshot rifles from a fallen enemy sniper to pop a few heads), but the up-close action is beautifully slick.