It's so easy to be cynical about Star Wars. What was once a whimsical, experimental, and genuinely boundary-pushing franchise has become a bloated and messy shadow of its former self, inundated with so many new, assembly-line movies, TV shows, and video games, many of them frankly mediocre, that it's hard to feel excited about a new Star Wars release these days. But you should be excited about Star Wars Zero Company.
It's not perfect, but Star Wars Zero Company is ultimately a reminder of what Star Wars can be when it's handled well. It's a joyful, swashbuckling adventure filled with lovable characters, dramatic twists, and humor that never comes at the cost of gravity or immersion. It's made by Bit Reactor, a new studio with a founder and several staff members who've worked on the XCOM series, so I expected solid tactical gameplay, not necessarily a compelling, blockbuster narrative.
But make no mistake, Zero Company's gameplay is a shining star in its own right, made from a collection of easy-to-grasp mechanics and bolstered by truly incredible presentation. Games like Star Wars Outlaws and Star Wars Jedi: Survivor look great, but for my money, Star Wars Zero Company is the most cinematic and intense Star Wars game of this generation.
Star Wars Zero Company is set during the tail end of the Clone Wars, a conflict that saw the Galactic Republic, a massive interplanetary governing body, fractured by dissent and Separatists. You play as Hawks, a former Republic soldier who was disgraced and stripped of his position after losing a pivotal battle. Now, he runs Zero Company, a mercenary outfit whose main allegiance is to the almighty dollar. But times are tough: Zero Company's in debt, and there simply aren't enough credits to pay back the avaricious Hutts. Enter a beleaguered baroness and Republic intelligence officer, who jointly offer Hawks a lucrative contract in exchange for his help taking down a dangerous cult.
Hawks can be male or female, but I made my Hawks male. For simplicity's sake, I will be referring to him using male pronouns.
From there, Star Wars Zero Company adopts a surprisingly Mass Effect-like vibe: you grow your team of misfits, chat with them at your base, and sortie with them on various missions, sometimes as a personal favor to one of your own. Through this process, you may find that you are actually growing closer to these various characters alongside Hawks. For instance, I developed a particular fondness for Kabb Uppercut, a member of the Felshi—an alien species that's debuting in Zero Company—who speaks in a rhyming, sing-song dialect at all times. More than a novelty, characters like Kabb are Zero Company's heart and soul, coming together to form one of the best gaming casts seen in quite some time.
This appeal begins with Hawks himself. Although you can customize Hawks quite extensively, he is far from a player surrogate. Dialog options are few and far between, and when you can make a choice, it's generally between two similar options. Hawks is not a pawn for the player to control in the context of Zero Company's story, but a full-fledged, predefined, self-determined character, and this makes him all the more compelling. He doesn't just act the way a given player might want him to. He's firmer than that.
Zero Company's other cast members are similarly well-wrought. At this point in the Star Wars canon, the galaxy is wracked by political strife and warfare, and disharmony can sometimes feel like the status quo. Characters will say and do things that you disagree with, like forgiving the Republic or sympathizing with the growing Separatist movement, and the "right" ethical stance is often elusive. Still, when a character like Trick, born and raised as one of the Republic's clone soldiers, is unfairly prejudiced against a Separatist sympathizer, you can understand where he's coming from.
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