Sometimes you play a game where its inspirations are never in question. Rarely has that been more evident in recent memory than with Star Wars Zero Company from Bit Reactor, a studio founded by former XCOM developers. While it’s more than just an XCOM-like tactics game with Star Wars stylings, the description still holds up under scrutiny – with the excellent tactical gameplay and resource management buoying what is otherwise just a competent if unremarkable story and characters.
Zero Company refers to the game’s titular mercenary group, headed under Hawks, a former Galactic Republic military captain who left the military life after a mission gone wrong. Scraping to make ends meet during the Clone Wars, Republican Intelligence officer Bennic Halloren taps him and his team for their expertise to investigate a cult encroaching across the galaxy known as The Coil. It’s the type of story where you’ll get more out of this the more you’ve engaged with the franchise outside of the main movies, but probably won’t mean much of anything on its own. References to characters from the broader Star Wars universe are nice, but they’re the only real bright spot on an otherwise whelming story that ultimately detracts more from the game than it adds.
The gameplay loop is simple: every cycle you’re thrown back to your main hub, The Den, and can spend your resources before choosing a mission. Credits and Capacitors can be spent to research permanent upgrades for Zero Company. You can also spend credits to purchase equipment for your units, Den improvements, and as rewards for expanding your influence across the galaxy. Intel is spent on operations and is gained by completing missions. Both grant rewards, including Influence in the zone they take place in. There’s a satisfying balance with the micromanagement here, especially when it comes to tackling The Coil. Occasionally you’ll be forced to choose which of two unit upgrades you want to sabotage through a menu-based choice system. You have to improvise with the knowledge that the enemies are getting stronger, alongside your team. It scratches the same itch that XCOM always has, and if that’s what you’re looking for in a tactics game, it’s very satisfying.
Speaking of XCOM, if you’re familiar with the two most recent games from that series, you already have a good idea of how Zero Company’s missions play. Each turn, your units have access to three action points (AP), which can be used to move or use actions; using different weapons cost different amounts of AP, and while some skills require AP as well, others require advantage, usually earned for successfully attacking enemies. Much like with XCOM, your goal is to seek cover and find a vantage point that plays to an operator’s strengths; each comes with their own specification which determines their passive and active skills. Eventually, players unlock the ability for a second specification, too. This leads to some devious combinations, such as a sniper that can mark enemies they’ll assist against, or using a scout to scan a group of enemies for advantage, before sending a rocket their way.
Growing and improving your operators is well enough on its own, but it wouldn’t be very satisfying if the game didn’t have strong map and mission design to back it up. Thankfully, it does; one standout mission had me dealing with enemy units, while at the same time fleeing towards an extraction point. Every turn, more and more of the map behind me became a death zone. Another mission had two different enemy factions taking pot shots at each other, with Zero Company in the crossfire; play smart, and you only have half the work to do.
Developer Bit Reactor largely succeeds at what it sets out to do, and if you’re a fan of either Star Wars or XCOM it’s an easy recommendation, even if I wish the story had just a bit more juice. If you’re looking for a sci-fi tactics fix, Zero Company delivers the goods.