Star Wars Zero Company Preview: XCOM + Star Wars Is A Perfect Combo

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Star Wars Zero Company Preview: XCOM + Star Wars Is A Perfect Combo

Developing story first seen 2 hours ago

Polygon · 2 hours ago

Polygon's hands-on preview of Star Wars Zero Company adds detail to earlier reporting, confirming that the Bit Reactor game—staffed by former Firaxis developers behind XCOM—successfully blends squad-based tactical combat with a Star Wars setting during the Clone Wars. Having played roughly 10 hours of a preview build, the reviewer rates it as potentially the strongest XCOM-style tactics game yet, while noting it repeats some familiar genre pitfalls, particularly in non-combat sections.

Players lead Hawks, commander of the mercenary group Zero Company, who ends up secretly aiding the Galactic Republic after struggling for paid work amid the Clone Wars. The preview praises strong character writing and well-delivered banter among a cast with conflicting loyalties, including a Separatist team manager and a loyalist ex-clone trooper, alongside a story that favours obscure planets and expanded-universe-style world-building over modern franchise references. The format follows the XCOM 2/Midnight Suns model, splitting tactical battle missions from base-management "operations," with the latter singled out as the weakest element due to low-stakes, telegraphed decision-making.

  • Preview confirms Zero Company delivers standout XCOM-style tactical combat
  • Character writing and banter praised as genre highlights
  • Base-management "operations" sections flagged as the weakest part

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Bit Reactor's Star Wars Zero Company is a tactical squad combat game set during the Clone Wars period of the Star Wars timeline, drawing heavily on the mechanics of the XCOM series, in which players position soldiers on a grid, manage cover and abilities, and complete missions with limited resources. Rather than following familiar heroes like Jedi or clone troopers, it puts players in charge of a mixed group of mercenaries who take on jobs across the galaxy while getting drawn into the conflict between larger powers.

The game is notable for leaning on lesser-known corners of Star Wars lore, including obscure planets and factions, in a style associated with the franchise's older "expanded universe" material rather than the more mainstream tone of recent Disney-produced Star Wars projects. This positioning matters to fans who have followed debates over how far new games and stories should draw on that older, now largely non-canon body of work.

The story here is a preview, meaning a journalist has played an early version ahead of the game's full release and is reporting first impressions of how its combat, writing and management systems hold up, rather than a final verdict on the finished product.

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