Star Wars Zero Company, the new tactical RPG from developers Bit Reactor, is one of the best Star Wars games ever made. In fact, it’s one of the best tactical RPGs in a long time. The presentation is incredible, with beautiful graphics and environments. Combat is stellar, with each unit type being genuinely useful, with incredible depth to build craft. The story is Star Wars at its best, with fantastic character writing that embraces its history while charting its own territory. Star Wars Zero Company is everything I’ve ever wanted from a tactical RPG set in the Star Wars universe.
Star Wars Zero Company follows Hawks, the leader of an outfit of mercenaries called Zero Company. They live on the fringes of the universe, taking on odd jobs to survive. Hawks, fully customizable from class type to race, is an ex-Republic leader whose past constantly haunts them. Zero Company quickly gets dragged into the path of the Coil and its leader, Fathom, a cult that’s spreading a dangerous and deadly plague across the galaxy. It’s ultimately up to Hawks and those around them to stop them.
Star Wars Zero Company Is The Famed Series At Its Best
The narrative here is one of the best parts of an incredibly strong package. You make plenty of choices as Hawks, but at their core is a defined character who carries the weight of their past actions. They’re tired and jaded, just trying to do what they can to get by. Underneath it all is a beating heart of hope and possibility, showing up in their interactions with the crew. Hawks is entirely an imperfect character, and the story is made all the better for it.
All of the side characters surrounding Hawks are similarly interesting, if a bit unexplored. Star Wars Zero Company finds itself trying to spin multiple competing plates. The core cast around Hawks stays on the ship, and most of their interactions are limited to chats on the ship and cutscenes. It would’ve been nice to see more of them, possibly even some side missions dedicated to them, but they’re still used well enough. They make up the true backbone of the narrative, but are not the only supports.
The narrative focuses on these characters because everyone else may not make it back to the ship. Hawks isn’t alone in any of the fights; they’re surrounded by interesting and capable characters that you end up caring for. Jae is a former noble, trying her best to be more than her expectations. Kabb Uppercut, an amazing name by the way, carries his own past he’d rather not talk about, and he tries to focus on the credits more than anything else. These characters do get the side content and missions that others don’t, but they can also die on missions. If they do, their story arcs end, the rest of their missions fading with them.
Star Wars Zero Company can end up feeling a bit disjointed because of the approach. Some cutscenes in main missions won’t put much, if any, focus on the accompanying characters, because anyone could be alongside Hawks. It could be one of the main supporting characters, or other hired guns that may be taking the spot of fallen comrades. The narrative work on both sides is fantastic, but the immersion can break a bit when the main supporting cast doesn’t talk in main cutscenes. They do plenty in their own arcs, but because of it, the Zero Company crew ends up feeling like a bunch of co-workers rather than a family or friends. This would be a bigger issue if either side were a letdown, but thankfully, each side pulls its own weight, even if it doesn’t do it together.
The Story And Characters Can Be Disjointed, But Immersive
The gameplay, though, is nonstop excellence. Heading to the table, Hawks works across operations and missions. Operations are entirely text-based, spending intel gained to make choices across the galaxy. Whether it’s hitting a Separatist supply run to gain more items or credits, or running an operation for a crew member, they’re a great change of pace compared to the bigger missions. The best operations are those that make you choose between equally upsetting options, where The Coil gets stronger no matter what you do, with your choices deciding how. Two operations appear, but you can only tackle one. Do you stop the enemy captain from being able to heal their units, or do you prevent them from retaliating to your attacks? Each choice is difficult and changes your encounters for the rest of the game, making these decisions critical.
The missions, on the other hand, are the big tactical battles. They range from shorter, quick hits to huge main missions that can take place across multiple encounters. The combat is so tense and really pushes you to use your entire squad as carefully as possible, especially if you have permadeath turned on. Each unit has an array of attacks and support moves to use depending on their class. Hawks, in my playthrough, was a scoundrel focused on supporting the rest of the crew, dealing more support damage when assisting in attacks. Kabb Uppercut, on the other hand, used his giant fists to send enemies flying through objects.
Classes Matter
Each class is genuinely important, making squad-building difficult. Every choice to bring someone in means someone else gets left behind. The Jedi can toss enemies around easily, the Mandalorian can jetpack around the field, the astromech flings grenades down like candy – how you build your squad decides how you approach a fight. Is your squad primarily focused on distance, dealing damage with snipers and support attacks? Do you choose a more melee-focused approach, getting in enemies’ faces and knocking them through debris and off the map? Do you bring in four astromechs and rain terror down on groups? While Hawks is mandatory on main missions, most other missions let you make your squad entirely who you want them to be.
Units have their own abilities as well, and at a certain point, almost every unit can take on a second class. This pushes the craft of squad building even further, where now every unit can add a whole new arsenal to their kit. Each unit in a fight has a set amount of action points, with each action costing a different amount. On top of that, the entire team shares advantage, generated by hitting enemies and dealing damage. The best and most powerful skills cost advantage but not AP, making each battle a delicate web of choices. You can start with one unit, deal some damage to generate AP, flip to another to use a stronger move, then bounce back to a third to generate more. Together, this creates a battle system that’s incredibly engaging and deep, where no two battles will ever go the same way.
The maps only deepen the strategizing, as each one is different. Some are plenty open without much verticality; others have crates to hide behind, while others have various chokepoints and towers to take advantage of. They’re incredibly well designed and make each match a game of chess, positioning and counter-positioning to try and set yourself up for success. Each fight is one to look forward to, even when you get your teeth kicked in for making one wrong call or survive barely by the skin of your teeth.
Mission after mission, I came way too close to losing beloved characters. In one instance, the enemy was all over me. Some plagued enemies can pass on boosts to their allies when they die, leaving me in dire straits even as I took them out. Got to the objective, and I thought I was safe. Then the second objective hit. Get to a zone. Extract. Multiple units had already dropped once – a second time means permadeath. Thanks to careful planning and a few lucky missed shots, I made it out, with one unit at 1hp. I thought I was dead a few times over, but the thrill of barely clearing was exhilarating. Zero Company is full of moments like these.
Back on the ship, Hawks also has plenty of ways to give their squad a fighting chance. Whether it’s healing injuries in the medbay, buying new weapons and utility items at the shops, upgrading the facilities themselves, hiring new units, or improving existing ones, the ship gives players plenty to do between operations and missions. You can also just run around and talk to your crew, learning more about who they are and what they’re running to, or from. Star Wars Zero Company constantly gives you something to do.
Star Wars Zero Company also uses the Star Wars IP incredibly well. Set in the Clone Wars, you do get some really fantastic moments from this period. Anakin shows up for a guest appearance, and so do other fan favourites, but their inclusion never feels forced or out of place. There’s a deep love and respect for the galaxy at large here without ever making it the focal point. There are some fantastic moments that I won’t spoil here that I really loved, fitting into a time period of galactic strife and war. It ends up feeling like a chapter that was always there but is only being uncovered now, rather than a best-of from what came before.
Presentation is also really strong in Star Wars Zero Company, with gorgeous graphics and well-put-together cutscenes. The character animations are stellar and detailed, and the environmental lighting only amplifies how good this game looks. Tactical RPGs generally focus more on combat and buildcraft than on story and presentation, and Star Wars Zero Company is one of the few that hits both.
On the technical front, Star Wars Zero Company is solid. It does have some issues, including texture pop-in and frame drops, but never bad enough to really hinder the gameplay experience. It can also hang for a few seconds between turns or rounds if there are a lot of moving pieces, but these issues always resolved themselves. These issues were present but never game-breaking, only blips on an otherwise stellar package.
Verdict
Overall, Star Wars Zero Company is an incredible new entry in the Star Wars universe. It’s everything that makes Star Wars great: tense fights, fantastic characters, and a narrative that had me gripped to the end. Every class type is viable and important, but more than that, you really grow to care about Hawks and the company they keep. Star Wars Zero Company is an incredible Star Wars game and a genuinely fantastic tactical RPG I just couldn’t put down.
[The publisher provided a copy of the game for review purposes.]
Reviewed on: PC/PlayStation 5
