The game is played from a top-down perspective and is a turn-based tactics title in which players issue commands to a squad of human soldiers to eliminate the hostiles in a map and depending on the mission, complete secondary objectives.

[2] If a friendly unit is downed, players can revive them to bring them back into battle with reduced health.

[5] One year after Emergence Day, when a subterranean race of creatures called the Locust Horde emerged on the surface in a campaign to kill every human on the planet of Sera, Coalition of Ordered Governments (COG) leader, Chairman Richard Prescott (Liam O'Brien), orders all major cities outside the Jacinto Plateau to be incinerated by the Hammer of Dawn.

Mere hours before the Hammer Strikes, he receives orders from Prescott and Major Sid Redburn (Bruce Thomas) to retrieve classified intel files from the CIC building.

After rescuing a Stranded group, a militia of civilians who survived the Hammer Strikes, from a Locust attack - they also join Alpha Squad who help fix their Mammoth rig.

Angry at Prescott for withholding information about Ukkon's immortal condition, Diaz relocates his entire squad into the deserts of Vasgar to teach them how to fight and prepare for the battle ahead.

Upon arriving, Mikayla discovers Nedroma was a quarantine zone and research facility for Rustlung, a fatal condition caused by the exposure to Imulsion fumes.

Redburn then knocks out Diaz and prepares to drive off with Ukkon, alive and imprisoned, back to Ephyra.

However, the scientists went mad and used genetic experimentation to try and evolve the patients into greater beings, but instead created the Locust.

Diaz and Mikayla retrieve the files, and when Prescott discovers that Alpha had learned the truth about New Hope and the COG creating the Locust, he attempts to kill them with the Hammer of Dawn to cut any loose ends.

With Alpha presumed dead and no longer part of the COG, they decide to stick to their mission of killing Ukkon.

Redburn reveals that the scientists at New Hope created a fail-safe cytostatic gas that could neutralize Ukkon's healing ability.

After Mikayla creates the cytostatic gas grenade, Alpha proceeds to locate Ukkon's base of operations.

Upon investigating Zenic, Diaz rescues a civilian taken as a prisoner named Reyna Torres (Melanie Minichino).

[6] According to Alex Grimbley, the game's executive producer, "[the team] actually just took existing Gears and just moved the camera up".

[12] With the release of the game on Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S on November 10, the game received additional content with the addition of Jacked Mode which introduces Jack as a playable character, new "Deviant" enemies which are tougher variants of their regular counterparts, more powerful "Supreme" weapon modifications and 11 new achievements worth 400 gamerscore.

IGN praised the game's graphics and animations, writing, "Character models are fantastically detailed and the ruined, mostly urban environments of the planet Sera are elaborate.

Animations are top-notch as well...", criticized the user interface for not providing enough information, and concluded that while the campaign went on to wear out its welcome, it was strong, "...with some clever, Gears-appropriate ideas".

Unfortunately all three bosses use essentially the same mechanics and they don't change throughout the fights...", while praising the combat, skill system, and top-notch presentation.