Segmented lines mean that the enemy is obscured or only partially visible, often to the point that you’ll only have a small chance to hit. But where to move? When you’re selecting what bit of cover you want to move into next, you’ll spot very thin white lines tracing to enemy units that are visible from that position. Gears Tactics, like many tactics games before it, relies on you outflanking enemies and lining up the perfect shot on them. Additional cosmetic options will unlock as you progress throughout the story. You can even alter the type of metal their armor is made out of. Simply go to the barracks menu, click on a unit, click on their individual armor slot, and under the cosmetics heading there will be a primary and a secondary color choice, with a surprising amount of options. It’s a little hidden away, but you can turn each of these gravelly grunts into giant purple, yellow, or multi-colored monstrosities. Failing to bring a support unit makes any fight tougher, and special units like the grenadier, boomer, or theron guard can quickly disassemble your squad, but if you like your tactics games to be positively punishing, turn it one notch up. Don’t get me wrong, Gears Tactics can still be challenging. In my personal playthrough, I lost only two units - one during a boss fight that I didn’t feel like restarting, and one as a completely random mistake that any amount of forethought could have avoided. Gears Tactics’ default difficulty isn’t a cakewalk, but it’s definitely nowhere near the one-wrong-turn-and-you’re-dead level of tension that XCOM has.
Turn That Difficulty Up if You Like Your XCOM Masochism