The Clone Wars is the greatest time period in the history of Star Wars. Despite this, we’ve rarely seen video games tackle this era. Bit Reactor and EA have dove headfirst into the war that changed a galaxy far, far away forever, and they’ve done so with a staggering respect for the source material. Not only that, Star Wars Zero Company is a thrilling and engaging turn-based tactics game. After the preview I got to play, I was craving more. This is shaping up to be one of the best Star Wars games of all time.
Bit Reactor hasn’t just made the gameplay exciting. The developers have a deep love for Star Wars and it shows. Star Wars Zero Company doesn’t just rely on using what’s come before, instead creating a unique tale set during this important period of galactic unrest. The characters are fleshed out with interesting back stories. Hawks is a superb lead that I loved from the start, much in the same way I warmed to Han Solo the moment I saw him appear in A New Hope.
While it does feel like a completely new chapter set during The Clone Wars, there are nods and references fans will love. After barely ten minutes of playing, I’d heard someone mention Pong Krell and got all giddy. Planets are mentioned that featured heavily in the animated series, and hearing Bradley Dee Baker return to voice a clone soldier Trick, one of Zero Company’s members, I knew I was in safe hands. This world is familiar, but the grittiness and maturity offers a fresh take on The Clone Wars.
As much as the story and characters are enjoyable, gameplay is so much fun. Tactical battles are thrilling and tense. That threat of potentially losing a team member forever looms around every corner. Each member of your squad has certain special abilities depending in their specialisation, and varying talents can lead to unique opportunities. The turn-based missions have an overarching objective, but how you get there is what makes Zero Company so good. Combat is deep, and every character can be utilised differently.
Different types of blasters can be equipped depending on character specialisations i.e. repeaters for heavies and longarm blasters for long-range attacks. Some operators can taunt enemies into drawing focus away from the rest of the team; others can heal squad members or steal credits during missions; and damage bonuses can be applied for operators with ‘The Bigger They Are’ talent. Specialisations affect how an operator fights. For example, Soldiers like Trick can launch rocket attacks and are strong from mid-range, while Heavies soak up damage and cause a lot too.
How you attack each mission is where I found the most joy. There’s plenty of cover on the battlefield. Flanking a bunch of battle droids when obliterating them with a grenade as they focus elsewhere is so satisfying. Destroying an enemy’s cover then putting them down with a barrage of blaster fire never got old. It’s also about adapting to different enemies. Clankers act differently to followers of the Infinite Coil. Even B1 and B2 battle droids have different attack patterns. Every fight feels new and exciting, and I always loved diving into combat.
Outside of battle, there’s plenty to do at your base. The Den is where you upgrade your operators; recruit new ones; purchase weapons off the black market; allow injured operators to recover at the medbay; upgrade your base with new areas; choose your next mission; and more. Whatever you do, you’ll spend a lot of time here. As you go about your duties, there’re also opportunities to talk to your teammates and learn about them and their backgrounds. Sometimes this leads to character-based missions. Chatting with Trick led me to a rescue mission for a fellow clone trooper known as Sawtooth on the Twi’lek planet of Ryloth.
The holotable is where you can choose Operations that are non-combat missions that can offer credits and Intel, which is needed to start these missions. Dilemmas can also appear which leads to you making difficult choices. Like Mass Effect, wrong decisions can improve or damage bonds between you and your team. Naturally you’ll grow bonds with different characters, and this can have benefits to how battles play out as well as offering unique abilities for different characters. There’s a lot to Star Wars Zero Company, but these bonds are something I can’t wait to explore more.
Star Wars Zero Company is everything I wanted it to be. From the deep combat to the exciting story and characters, there’s nothing at this point of playing that I didn’t enjoy. The Clone Wars is my favourite period in Star Wars, and seeing it tackled in this way is so cool. I fear I’m going to suffer loss in the full release and probably never get over it, but that’s what makes the missions so intense and high stakes. For now, those worrying it might not be the game it appears to be, I’m here to tell you this is something incredible.
Star Wars Zero Company is coming to PC, PlayStation 5, and XBOX Series S|X on August 27th.
