Gears of War: Judgment is a spin off title that takes place in the Gears of War universe. Set less than a year after E-Day, and roughly 15 years before the original Gears of War, it centers around the then Lt. Damon Baird (part of the main trilogies Delta Squad) and Kilo Squad, who have been put on trial for disobeying orders and stealing COG technology without authorization. The story takes place through flashbacks as Kilo Squad recalls their actions during their trial.

The game's single player mechanics are the same third person cover-based gameplay featured in previous Gears of War games. However, during the various campaign segments, players can earn up to 3 stars per segment depending on how the player performs. These stars, in addition to rating how the player performs, unlock extras that can be used in multiplayer games. In addition to the main campaign, there is a second unlockable campaign entitled Aftermath that takes place during the events of Gears of War 3, when Baird and Cole seek help for the attack on Azura.

The multiplayer in Judgment is broadly the same as in previous Gears of War games, although several of the modes have been omitted. There are only three versus game modes: Free-For-All, Team Deathmatch and OverRun (two teams competing to better each other defending themselves). Beast mode has been removed completely, and Horde mode has been replaced by a new co-operative mode called survival, an objective-based version of Horde where a team of five players have to defend an object, such as a generator, from increasingly harder waves of Locust.