Few media franchises have had as many video game adaptations as Star Wars, and the upcoming Star Wars: Zero Company, slated for release in 2026, indicates that the IP is still on the right track in this regard. Like the best Star Wars games, Star Wars: Zero Company plans to tell an original story within George Lucas’ sprawling universe, putting it in conversation with the likes of Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order and The Force Unleashed.
Unlike those games, though, Star Wars: Zero Company isn’t telling a grand story of heroism or notoriety, opting instead to focus on the far-far-away galaxy’s lesser-known figures. The cast of the game, members of the titular Zero Company itself, is ragtag and particolor, composed of fledgling Jedi, outlaws, and Republic military alike, and is led by Hawks, a customizable player-character who guides the Company in every encounter. Hawks themselves is a disgraced Republic officer who, after being ousted from their post, forms Zero Company to fight the growing Separatist movement independently. Zero Company is set during the final stages of the Clone Wars, and with the galaxy in turmoil, this motley crew will have to scrape, scrap, and struggle to complete their mission, come hell or high water.
Star Wars: Zero Company’s similarities to XCOM are no coincidence: Bit Reactor, the studio behind Zero company, has a lot of former XCOM and Marvel’s Midnight Suns staff.
Star Wars Zero Company's Hawks Has Big Shoes to Fill
Hawks, a former Republic officer turned elite commando, is taking center stage in Star Wars Zero Company, and he has some pretty big shoes to fill.
Star Wars: Zero Company Wants to Show Players the Rough Underbelly of Star Wars
Star Wars: Zero Company’s announcement trailer lays out its tone quite clearly. It begins with a series of cinematics backed by narration, from a southern-twinged, gruff man no less, laying out the flavor of the story:
“When people talk about the Clone Wars, they talk about the big moments: the crisis points, planetary invasions, all-out assaults, cities bombed to rubble. Truth is, there’s a war you don’t see. The one fought in the shadows, the war beneath war, a war that’s won with the right strategy: surveillance, ciphers, good old-fashioned sabotage. These aren’t the heroes they tell stories about—they’re professionals, setting aside their differences to take on the impossible.”
The message here is pretty clear: this isn’t “your daddy’s” Star Wars story. There won’t be many white-robed, wizened Jedi speaking in riddles, nor will there be youthful heroes coming of age and saving the world. Zero Company purports to be about the dirtier jobs in galactic warfare, not “the heroes they tell stories about.” The game wants to show players Han Solo’s world, not Luke Skywalker’s.
Rearrange the covers into the correct US release order.
Rearrange the covers into the correct US release order.
This approach should demystify the Star Wars world, bringing it a bit more down to Earth, as it were, while also providing a fresh perspective. In theory, this may make it more appealing to Star Wars fans and non-fans alike, as the former would get a taste of something new, while the latter would be relatively unburdened by expectations, nor overwhelmed by unfamiliar lore. Laid out this way, it’s easy to see how Zero Company could be akin to pieces like Rogue One, Andor, and even Solo, in the sense that it’s a look at the Star Wars world through the lens of the relatively unimportant.
A Gritty and Down-to-Earth Star Wars Is a Perfect Fit for the XCOM Formula
Based on what we know already, Star Wars: Zero Company won’t just be XCOM with a Star Wars coat of paint: there are several facets of the game, such as its third-person exploration sections (which are reportedly well-produced), that set it apart from Firaxis’ work. However, it will be similar to XCOM via its turn-based tactics gameplay, which appears to be cover-focused and interspersed with cinematics, putting a spotlight on player-controlled characters, just like Firaxis would.
This is both augmented and strengthened by Zero Company’s confirmed permadeath feature: any controllable character (aside from Hawks) can die during the course of an operation and be lost forever. Stories like Andor are beloved, in part, because of their sense of weight and consequence, feeling less like fantastical flights of fancy and more like plausible sci-fi adventures. It’s hard to imagine a more elegant translation of this quality into gameplay than permadeath.
Zero Company’s Star Wars Setting Gives It a Special Narrative Advantage
It’s quite possible that Star Wars: Zero Company will be something special in both the tactics and Star Wars camps on the grounds of narrative. It will be a nice contrast to the lofty stories of Cal Kestis and Rey Skywalker, certainly, but it may also manage to beat XCOM at its own game, in a sense.
All of my characters in XCOM 2 are near and dear to me, and that’s mostly because I’ve developed them over so many hours of gameplay. In fact, this might actually be the only reason: these characters are meant to be disposable, and are therefore not meaningfully evolved or established as part of the game's narrative. Their personalities are conveyed through their combat styles and the cosmetics I choose to put on them, rather than through any kind of traditional storytelling. They really only exist in my head.
Star Wars Zero Company, which will feature “both authored and custom characters” according to its website, will ostensibly include squadmates who are named and included as part of the story. This, combined with the character-centric nature of tactics games and the possibility of permadeath, could make for a far more emotionally affecting experience than any XCOM campaign. And with all of these characters being supported by Star Wars’ rich and ever-growing lore, Zero Company could be an enduring, compelling narrative-driven tactics game in its own right.
Command an elite squad through a gritty and authentic story in STAR WARS Zero Company, a single-player turn-based tactics game developed by Bit Reactor in collaboration with Respawn Entertainment and Lucasfilm Games. Set in the twilight of the Clone Wars, you will step into the shoes of Hawks, a former Republic officer who leads Zero Company — an unconventional outfit of professionals for hire hailing from across the galaxy.
Hawks and Zero Company are recruited for an operation that pits them against an emerging threat that will consume the galaxy if left unchecked. To succeed, Hawks will lead a team of uneasy allies who must set aside their differences to overcome nearly impossible odds.
- Genre(s)
- Turn-Based Strategy, Tactical, Sci-Fi
- Platform(s)
- PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S
