Star Wars Zero Company brings tactical combat to Clone Wars
Developed over time first seen 2 months ago
Polygon's hands-on preview of Star Wars Zero Company confirms the tactical RPG, developed by Bit Reactor (a studio of EA staffed by former Firaxis developers behind XCOM), successfully marries squad-based combat with a Star Wars setting during the Clone Wars era. Having played roughly 10 hours of a preview build, the reviewer rates it as potentially the strongest XCOM-style tactics game yet, praising its character writing while noting it repeats some familiar genre pitfalls, particularly in its non-combat sections.
Players lead Hawks, commander of the mercenary group Zero Company, who ends up secretly aiding the Galactic Republic after struggling to find paid work amid the Clone Wars. The preview highlights a strong ensemble cast with conflicting loyalties, including a Separatist team manager and a loyalist ex-clone trooper, alongside a story favouring obscure planets and expanded-universe flavour over fan-service references. Structurally, the game mirrors XCOM 2 and Marvel's Midnight Suns, splitting missions between tactical battles and base-management "operations" between fights, though the reviewer found these text-based operations to be a comparative low point, offering little genuine risk or surprise.
- Polygon previewed Star Wars Zero Company, an XCOM-style tactics game set in the Clone Wars
- Made by ex-Firaxis studio Bit Reactor under EA; praised for strong writing
- Combat and characters shine; base-management "operations" sections are weaker
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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.
More coverage
- GamesRadar+ — 12 hours in, Star Wars Zero company is a solid strategy RPG, but it's missing XCOM 2 or Baldur's Gate 3's spark
- PC Gamer — Star Wars Zero Company is a very safe XCOM descendant, but its most interesting parts are found in its Midnight Suns DNA
- Eurogamer — Star Wars: Zero Company will be brilliant because XCOM is brilliant
- Rock Paper Shotgun — "Time will tell": Bit Reactor talk queerness in Star Wars: Zero Company and whether they'll keep working with Saudi-owned EA
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Originally published by Polygon as “Star Wars Zero Company Preview: XCOM + Star Wars Is A Perfect Combo”.