Star Wars Zero Company Review – The Rogue One

I remember a time when Star Wars fans were begging for new content in the franchise. Then Disney acquired Lucasfilm, and now maybe there is too much. Yeah, not all content lands, but sometimes we can get a hit masterpiece such as Star Wars: Andor. The same can be said of the video games in the franchise. While the new Battlefront games weren’t as good as the originals, we still receive great ones such as the Jedi Survivor games and now Star Wars Zero Company. Developed by Bit Reactor, a studio composed of people who worked on games such as XCOM, Civilization, and Gears of War, decided to work with something familiar to them in both the genre and the IP as their debut title.

This work became Star Wars Zero Company, a turn-based tactics game that takes heavy inspiration from XCOM, but in the Star Wars universe. The game also takes the Andor approach in creating something unique in a familiar galaxy. While Andor gave us a unique perspective into the rebellion years of the saga, Zero Company gives us a new look into the Clone Wars to Empire era. Andor is greatly known both critically and among fans as one of the best-written stories in Star Wars, which is another element that can be compared with Zero Company. The game is full of quality writing in its story, while also having great companions that can be compared with great ones in video game history, such as the ones in the Mass Effect series.

In Zero Company, players take the role of Hawks, a former Republic captain turned mercenary after an operation led by Hawks ends badly. Out of Republic business, Hawks makes his own independent team, Zero Company, composed mainly of misfits like Hawks. Every one of these team members is interesting thanks to being accompanied by great backstories and dialogue dynamics. Some examples include Tricks, a Clone who served under Hawks when he was still with the Republic, Tel-Rea, a Jedi looking for clues on her Master, Jae, a noble in Republic intelligence, and many more. Besides being accompanied by interesting lore, you can also edit the outfits of both Hawks and each companion with many customization options to choose from, giving you even more freedom to create your company style, hence connecting deeply with the characters.

What makes Zero Company even more engaging is that you can recruit additional NPCs to join the team, not only those tied to the story. These NPCs are highly customizable as well, with great character design that respects the lore, while offering fun dialogue in the home base. For example, an NPC medic I recruited performed so well in battles that became one of my main core members for a big part of the game. It also helps that an amazing cast of voice actors support these NPCs. To give you an idea of this, that medic was voiced by none other than Suzie Yeung, the voice of Yuffie in Final Fantasy VII Remake, while story companions include Judy Alice Lee, who voices Melinoë in Hades 2.

Additionally, there is a permadeath system in the game by default (you can deactivate it), which makes you care even more for these characters. Permadeath also affects companions with ties to the story as well, making the stakes in the gameplay even higher. As mentioned, Zero Company takes heavy inspiration from the XCOM games. Fights take place in a battle zone with some destructible environment that helps greatly with immersion. Each character has their own turn with three attack points per character, and you can mix and match these attacks for many combinations; they don’t follow a specific turn order like some turn-based games.

Operators have their own specific talents too. Hawks’ talent, for example, increases assist damage and defense for all operators; Trick can self-revive, etc. These talents can be improved with specializations/classes, such as Assault, Sharpshooter, Scoundrel, etc., all with their own abilities for different playstyles. You can equip two classes for each operator, giving even more flexibility on how you can tackle each fight. While in general Zero Company doesn’t bring much innovation to the genre, the combination of classes and attacks still makes it engaging and a very accessible experience into the genre.

There are, however, some performance issues that are affecting some of this experience. I encountered textures not loading and low frame rates in some areas, even on low settings. There are also some problems with the camera angles, especially in battles. Sometimes the zoom or combo animations are completely obstructed by the environment, or the camera goes in weird directions. These were most noticeable towards the final acts of the game.

Unfortunately, most of the developers at Bit Reactor had been furloughed just a few weeks before the game’s release. So, there’s currently only around 20% of the team left there to fix these optimization issues. Which is a shame, because this team has created one of the best Star Wars projects with Star Wars Zero Company, one that respects the universe while bringing something fresh to it. There is great appreciation for the art style and music of the franchise too, and I am sure these can be even more impactful if every developer on this team is back in business soon for a sequel. They deserve it.

Walter reviewed Star Wars Zero Company on PC with a provided review code. This review is based on the version of the game that was available at the time of writing, and our score will not be changed.