Star Wars Zero Company Review – An Exceptional Star Wars Tale That Doesn’t Heavily Rely on Jedi and Lightsabers

Star Wars Zero Company has quickly cemented itself as one of the best Star Wars video games to date. Bit Reactor takes the familiar grid-based battlefields of genre staples like XCOM and rewires it for its setting in a galaxy far, far away. And thanks to the aid of Respawn Entertainment, including the director of Jedi: Fallen Order and Jedi: Survivor, it is all coupled with the cinematic presentation that made those aforementioned Star Wars titles so engrossing. The result is a beautiful blend of these two developers’ strengths, making Zero Company one of the best Star Wars stories told in recent memory, and it does so while keeping the ever-popular lightsabers out of the spotlight.

The campaign focuses on mercenaries operating around the edges of the Clone Wars, with players stepping into the boots of a customizable former military commander, Hawks, running a scrappy crew out of a docked freighter called The Den. This space cowboy (or cowgirl) and their crew are quickly put on a collision course with a creepy cult known as the Infinite Coil. The cult is led by a mysterious, Force-sensitive villain named Fathom, who forgoes the standard Sith tricks in favor of a mind-altering parasite plague. The shift to an antagonist whose reliant on crazy scientific pursuits and cult fanaticism is a welcome change from the normal storylines filling up this universe.

As for the gameplay, a tactical game like this lives or dies on its squad. And Zero Company delivers a strong cast of characters. Kabb is a beefy blue brawler who likes closing the gap. Cly, a Mandalorian, brings extra edge to the crew and a whole suite of those iconic bounty hunter tools. The clone trooper, Trick, is a badass in his own right, and makes for one hell of a tank. There is no shortage of characters to love and their interactions with each other are equally enjoyable, like the Umbaran shaprshooter Luco clashing with Trick. The banter gives the proceedings an emotional anchor, with many of the best interactions happening back at base. These growing relationships eventually offer more than fun dialogue. Leveling up a bond opens up stat bonuses for the bonded characters, offering small buffs that eventually stack across accumulated bond boosts to make a meaningful impact.

Scenic and Strategic

Missions are handled exceptionally well from a visual standpoint. In major story missions, players control Hawks from a third-person perspective while exploring detailed environments, similar to what you’d see from games like Mass Effect. These segments give the vibe of a big-budget action game, as Hawks explores the map. But as soon as the squad reaches a combat zone, the camera pulls back into an isometric tactical view. It grounds the battles by not dropping players into random arenas, but rather having them walk right into the fight. Side missions skip this exploration step and drop the squad straight into the action, but the main story missions use this approach to make everything feel interconnected.

Once the blaster fire starts, combat reveals its differences from its predecessors. Zero Company ditches the fog of war. Maps are fairly small but dense, and the lack of fog of war means players can always see where the enemy is hiding. This change removes the fear of triggering an unseen group of enemies while positioning and enables more focused strategy. It also encourages more aggressive plays instead of inching forward in cover. That aggression is backed by advantage points, which are earned every time a character deals damage. These points go into a shared pool and can be spent to trigger extra abilities or grant bonus action points. A player might use their blaster pistol to take three weak shots at a battle droid to generate enough advantage points to let Hawks give another heavy-hitting squadmate a free action.

The tactical depth gets even better with the backup system. This rotating buff lands on one squad member each turn. The character with the buff designates a teammate within range, and the next time that teammate attacks the backup character takes a follow-up shot. That shot will hit even if the initial attack misses. Guaranteed damage is rare in turn-based games, so mastering this system is crucial to maximizing damage output. That said, it requires smart positioning. If the backup character cannot see the enemy the teammate is shooting at, the free shot goes to waste. Players have to maneuver their squad to ensure sightlines remain open.

Brimming with Character

Character progression adds another layer of strategy. Every main character has a unique class and a signature ability making them distinct. Jae’s last shot ability automatically executes enemies if their health drops below a certain threshold; Kabb can refund his action points entirely if he kills a target with a melee attack, allowing him to chain attacks; Cly has a jetpack that sets enemies on fire when she lands; and Trick can resurrect himself once per mission. The last of those skills is important because Zero Company features permadeath (although it can be turned off). If a character is downed three times, they’re gone for good. It presents a meaningful grounding point that prevents the player from going all-in on reckless aggression.

Between tactical battles, players spend time at The Den managing Operations. This system uses Intel points to send idle crew members out on side missions. Players pick who to send on assignments, like extracting hostages or hacking a computer terminal. These missions bring in extra credits, but they can be a bit frustrating due to the game not giving clear information about who is best suited for a specific job. Sending the wrong person might result in an injured crewmate, which can feel unfair (especially if permadeath is enabled). Sometimes the operations present thought-provoking moral dilemmas, but the lack of clear success probabilities makes the system feel disconnected from the tactical combat at times.

These minor rough edges pop up in Zero Company occasionally. Enemy variety starts to thin out in the back half of the campaign. The Infinite Coil cultists have cool mechanics, like absorbing the power of fallen allies, and heavily shielded Droidekas make for terrifying encounters. But outside of those specific units, players spend a lot of time fighting standard humanoids and basic battle droids. There are also small graphical bugs that sprang up a few times, like enemies clipping through geometry when dropped into a map. Another randm issue is the camera sometimes struggles to properly frame the action. For example, a character triggering a slow-motion reaction shot results in the camera zooming in to capture the moment, but instead focused on a wall instead. All of that in mind, encountering these issues only ever presented a temporary, minor dip in an otherwise stellar experience.

Star Wars: Zero Company Review Verdict

[Editor’s Note: Star Wars: Zero Company was reviewed on PS5 and a copy was provided to us for review purposes.]