Platforms: PC, PS5, Xbox Series X|S
Set during Star Wars’ Clone Wars period, Zero Company sidesteps the era’s endless brawls between Troopers and Droids to reveal a new threat: the Infinite Coil, a dangerous cult spreading a terrifying plague across the galaxy. The only ones capable of stopping them? A rag-tag crew of plucky mercenaries, of course.
Led by Hawks – a customisable avatar who can be male or female, and from one of six species, including Ahsoka‘s head-tentacled Togruta and Darth Maul’s Zabrak – the eponymous Zero Company gets by on two-bit jobs, until Republic agents Bennic Halloren and Jae Mordant recruit them to investigate the Coil, a mission that could turn them into unlikely heroes.
This feels fresh in a way that Star Wars hasn’t for a while.
Zero Company is at its strongest when it’s focused on its galaxy-spanning story, building on existing lore while throwing new characters and settings into the toy box. Infinite Coil leader Kundri Fathom is a particularly great villain, having a sympathetic edge to their malign motivations, while ally Kabb introduces a brand-new species to the Star Wars universe. This feels fresh in a way that Star Wars hasn’t for a while.
While there have been several real-time strategy games putting the “war” in Star Wars, Zero Company is the series’ first turn-based tactical outing, playing a lot like the XCOM series. Or rather, exactly like XCOM – a handful of characters take to the field each battle, carefully budgeting action points to move, attack, or use abilities. Each encounter is high risk, with characters permanently dying if you plan poorly, and you’ll be forced to pick and choose which battles to take on, with unavoidable penalties from whichever you ignore.
Excessive familiarity aside, Zero Company is a solid if not quite spectacular tactics game. While a few key characters have unique skills – Jedi Padawan Tel-Rea uses the Force to shove enemies around, while Mandalorian Cly employs jetpack attacks – developer Bit Reactor wisely leans into gunslinger classes for most characters, forcing players to carefully consider range, verticality, and vulnerabilities in combat. As Coil cultists grow in power, each victory feels hard-earned.
Unfortunately, it’s somewhat undermined by how buggy the game is. Otherwise impressive visuals that perfectly capture the Star Wars feel are marred by constant texture pop-in, and cutscenes often bizarrely contort character models. Worse, twitchy controls, cluttered UI, and an awkward camera can undermine your planned manoeuvres – and that’s when the game isn’t crashing entirely mid-battle, eradicating progress.
If those frustrations can be patched out, this emerges as an engaging side story for Star Wars fans – but even then, one you’ll remember more for its storytelling than its gameplay.
