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Bit Reactor’s long-rumored Star wars tactics game, Zero Company, finally got a formal reveal last year, but we still didn’t know many details about this Clone Wars-era black ops story—until now.
I got about 4.5 hours of hands-on time with Zero Company, plus several interviews with the dev team—you can read my full write up about the game and what I think of it. In this article, I’m sticking to the facts: What’s the story, what are its mechanics, what can you expect from the moment-to-moment gameplay.
Is there a Zero Company release date?
Star Wars Zero Company is expected to launch in 2026 but there is not a known release date yet.
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It looked like it was in good shape to release this year when I played it in February, but as for specifics, we just don’t know.
What is Star Wars Zero Company?
Zero Company is “Star Wars XCOM,” but way more than that. Its combat iterates on XCOM, but its presentation is closer to something like Jedi: Fallen Order or even Mass Effect. You lead a mercenary company of former Separatist and Republic operatives during the Clone Wars, investigating a new Dark Side faction on behalf of the Republic.
The combat is to XCOM as Dragon Age: Origins was to Neverwinter Nights or Knights of the Old Republic: immediately familiar, but definitely an iterative upgrade. The big surprise is how you can walk around with full third-person control back at your home base and between fights on missions.
It’s a seamless, immersive, and very exciting development for the genre, blurring the line between squad tactics and a full-on RPG. Selecting a mission from the galaxy map, coming home, talking to all my buddies, upgrading stuff—the overall rhythm was giving Mass Effect 2, even though the fights themselves couldn’t have been more different.
Who is Zero Company?
You get a custom protagonist in Zero Company, Hawks, who is also a mandatory unit in story missions. They’re a disgraced Republic officer getting by in a galaxy at war, accompanied by their clone war buddy, Trick. Zero Company itself is Star Wars A-Team, doing covert mercenary work for the highest bidder—but with a heart of gold, naturally. The story introduces a number of authored squadmates who resemble BioWare companions, and that cast includes:
- Trick: clone commando
- Kabb Uppercut: cyborg boxer
- Cly Kullervo: Mandalorian mercenary
- Luco Bronc: Umbaran sniper
- Jae Mordant: ousted nobility
- Tel-Rea Vokoss: Jedi padawan
There are also a number of story-centric support characters who remain at your home base, the Den. Every story squadmate is subject to the same permadeath rules as custom mercenary operatives, and the mechanical playing field is fairly even between them. Story squaddies do get special abilities unique to them that persist if respecced: Cly’s Mando jetpack, Hawks’ AP refresh, Jae gets a random assist ability that reminded me of Fallout’s Mysterious Stranger, finishing off enemies when you need it most.
Everybody can be found and talked to at the Den: The story characters feel like BioWare companions with their conversations and side stories, while custom operators hang out like Mother Base soldiers in MGSV—only you can’t suplex them and have them thank you for it. The mercenaries have “personalities” that determine their combat barks and greetings.
Last but not least: There’s an extensive astromech droid builder to create your own little R2D2s, and they get their own class with a focus on support abilities and grenade use.
How does character customization work in Zero Company?
Story squadmates have set appearances, but can be respecced to any class other than restricted “exotic” classes. Cly Kuervo, for example, can be respecced to the Sharpshooter class, using her signature Mandalorian jetpack to reach strategic vantage points, but no one else can be respecced to the Mandalorian Warrior class she starts with.
The base classes or “specializations” are as follows:
- Assault
- Heavy
- Sharpshooter
- Soldier
- Scoundrel
- Gunslinger
- Scout
- Medic
My favorite to play was definitely Gunslinger: They get an attack that refreshes AP on kill, letting you chain together finishing blows. Hawks and the fully customizable, XCOM-style “mercenary” characters also get their pick of Star Wars alien species:
- Devaronian
- Human
- Mirialan
- Togruta
- Twi’lek
- Zabrak
The following species are only available to custom mercenaries, not Hawks:
- Neimoidian
- Ovissian
- Rodian
- Weequay
How’s the combat in Zero Company?
Zero Company’s combat is immediately familiar having played XCOM. You’re usually in control of a squad of four, with three AP per character per turn. There are a number of abilities to restore AP mid-turn and get extra attacks in, while movement and actions draw from the same AP pool—think Fallout or Divinity instead of Baldur’s Gate 3’s separation of movement and attacks.
The squad has an “advantage” bar that functions like a communal ultimate meter: The Assault class gets a multishot ultimate, while the Heavy class has an AOE rocket launcher. Those take big advantage spends to use, but there are also smaller advantage abilities. Once per turn, Hawks can spend a little advantage to restore one AP to an ally. Advantage abilities, notably, to not require AP to use—Trick could start a turn with a rocket attack, then still pivot into a heavy blaster salvo.
The fights I saw were early game, but still difficult and memorable in that XCOM way. A 70% chance to hit means “Oh god, I’ll probably miss this,” while enemy positions and unit makeup feel calculated to punish complacent strategies and make you think on your feet. Seemingly sure bets can blow up in your face, but you can also luck into amazing moments. I managed to trivialize a tough boss by setting up overwatch from multiple characters over its spawn point, thinking it was just going to be another gaggle of normal enemies. My squad chunked its health bar before it could even get its shields up.
The mission objectives I saw ran the gamut of hostage rescue, holding a control point, holding multiple control points, and “just kill everyone.” There was a good variety to how the maps were shaped and the advantages enemies had over me. The control point map had the objective exposed to enemy fire in the middle of an open arena, while the hostage rescue map had three open areas strung together by two long lanes, with the spawn point at one end, the extraction zone at the other, and the VIP in the middle.
I got an inkling of some of the trickier enemies we’ll run into as the campaign goes on: Commando droids from the Clone Wars show with an evil dodge buff, and dark side cultists who get stronger the more of their comrades you put down.
What does Zero Company’s meta game look like?
Your home base of the Den has an unprecedented level of immersion for the genre, but you’ll do similar stuff to what you got up to at XCOM HQ: Research, upgrade gear, select missions, etc. Zero Company runs in “cycles,” with each cycle ending when you go on a mission and move the clock forward. Missions on the galaxy map will only be available for a limited number of cycles before they go away.
In addition to tactical missions, there are non-combat “operations” on the board. Instead of one per cycle, you can do as many operations at a time as you have the resources to fund. These intelligence-gathering objectives play out within the galaxy map UI, and remind me of the text-based, choose your own adventure bits of Pillars of Eternity or Rogue Trader. They typically feature a choice that will determine the rewards you get, as well as squad approval of your actions.
One involved getting intel at a cantina: Do you sweet talk the relevant parties, bribe them, or start a brawl? In addition to squad mate reactions and material rewards, that last option risks an injury on the character you send out. Injuries are usually accrued by getting KOed in combat, and have to be taken care of with time and money. Too many injuries, and a character dies permanently.
You have an ideologically diverse squad: Helping the Republic more than you’re contractually obligated to will cheese off the Separatists in your organization, and vice versa. That built-in friction is one of the top things I’m looking for in a cast, and this has me very excited for Zero Company’s prospects as an ensemble story.
Other details
Is there romance in Zero Company?
Sorry horndogs, I was told in no uncertain terms that there would not be RPG-style, player-centric romance subplots in Zero Company. There are a lot of ways it seemed like Zero Company harkens to old BioWare, but that ain’t one of them.
Who’s making this game?
A lot of former XCOM talent. Bit Reactor founder Greg Foertsch cited a figure of around 20 former Firaxis devs on the team in one of our interviews, and comparing the people I talked to with the credits of XCOM and Midnight Suns saw a lot of overlap. Apex Legends/Jedi series developer Respawn is publishing the game under the auspices of EA, and Fallen Order/Jedi Survivor lead writer Aaron Contreras is heading up the story on Zero Company.
