EA’s suite of Star Wars titles, despite a rocky start in 2015, has yielded quite a few high-quality titles. Star Wars Battlefront II (after many updates), Star Wars: Squadrons, and both Star Wars Jedi titles have all garnered strong receptions. It’s an impressive streak of releases, a streak that EA hopes to continue with Star Wars Zero Company.
Developed by new studio Bit Reactor, Star Wars Zero Company takes the beloved IP into new territory: Turn-based tactics. Built by a team comprised of former XCOM developers, Zero Company aims to meld the cinematic storytelling of Star Wars with the strategic depth of the turn-based tactics genre. Is the Force strong with Star Wars Zero Company, or should it be Order 66’d into oblivion?
Star Wars Zero Company takes place during the twilight years of the Clone Wars and puts you in the shoes of Hawks. A former Republic officer and leader of Zero Company, Hawks is recruited for an operation that pits them against a Separatist-aligned cult, the Coil. Led by Kundri Fathom, who’s obsessed with spreading her Shadow Plague, Hawks and his team of miscreants must band together and put her down before she can tip the scales of the war in the Separatist’s favor.
Star Wars Zero Company’s narrative is a high point, delivering a story with strong characters, threatening villains, and, most surprisingly, stakes. In our preview, we were worried that setting the game during the Clone Wars would lead to a weaker core narrative. It’s a short timeframe already filled with multiple stories and a definitive ending, after all. Despite this, the game managed to deliver proper stakes and emotional payoffs.
A lot of this is thanks to excellent character moments and development. You’ll get to see two enemies on the opposite side of the war slowly become friends, a Padawan gain confidence, and a selfish bounty hunter find a new family. Even Hawks, a fully customizable character, is presented with a strong arc that leads to an emotional payoff. In many ways, Zero Company is a near perfect encapsulation of the emotions and storytelling that makes Star Wars timeless.
If there’s one issue with Zero Company’s narrative, it’s that it falls into a similar trap Star Wars Jedi: Survivor did. Kundri Fathom and the Coil are compelling villains, yet the narrative sidelines them for a different, all-too familiar villainous group. It’s a jarring switch that gets even more jarring when the story remembers it had to wrap up the Coil’s story. Much like Survivor, Zero Company had something excellent going here and didn’t need to turn the focus to this other group. It’s a small blemish on what is otherwise an excellent narrative.
Star Wars Zero Company is a rather lengthy game, clocking in between 20-22 hours if you beeline through all the story and character-specific missions. However, taking on additional missions, maxing bonds between characters, increasing influence across the galaxy, or increasing the difficulty will easily take you past the thirty-hour mark. Given that this is a campaign-only game with no additional modes, that length is a good thing. Would it have been nice to get special missions where you can play as historical characters, as the Coil, or as the Separatists? Of course, but Zero Company does provide a healthy amount of content.
The game itself is split between combat and the Den. In combat, you’ll maneuver through maps seeking cover, vantage points, and opportunities to defeat enemies. If you’ve played a tactics game like XCOM or Gears Tactics, map design will be familiar. Where design gets interesting is in the Den. It’s here where you’ll interact with your teammates and acquire their specific missions, customize and upgrade your characters, purchase and equip equipment, and acquire updates for the Den.
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