I’m not ready Star Wars: Zero Company, the latest game set in a galaxy far, far away, but I’ve played enough of the game to understand the mechanics and bring you these ideas. So this is less of a formal investigation and more of a first impression. And that view is very positive.
Set during the twilight of the Clone Wars, Zero company follows the titular mercenary uniform as they struggle to get by. They owe a lot to the Hutts, and to make matters worse, a powerful secret cult known as the Infinite Coil has emerged against the backdrop of the greatest galactic war. You play as the director of the company, Tesh Hawks, who can be fully customized as a male or female character, with different genders to choose from. I chose to play a modified version of the typical male male, because I thought the bravado and swagger of the voice actor fit the look just fine. I just made it a little darker and opted for a handlebar stache instead, but didn’t tinker beyond that. But options abound for you to make Hawks your own.
Zero company it is a game of strategy, not unlike XCOM (the developer, Bit Reactor, is made up of vets from that franchise). If you don’t know what that means, you control all of ZC on the battlefield from an overhead camera angle, dictating positions and actions to be taken each turn. Unlike, say, Baldur’s Gate, where you control each member of your own team, you can bounce back and forth between your party members, which really helps with the flow of raids. Each party member has three action points that can be used per turn, which dictate what attack you can use or how far you can move, what utility item you can use (like grenades or a health pack), or a combination of the above. Special moves use a different resource called Advantage, which is earned by damaging or defeating enemies. But you can play with this to your advantage by being able to move around between your party and the turn order. My Hawks, for example, is a gunner and, using his Quick Draw, he can repay one of his action points if he kills an enemy. Blaster pistols do much less damage, however, so it’s a good idea to have someone else weaken the enemy first for Hawks to deal the final blow, restoring his AP (action point) and allowing him to repeat the act. Some enemies, such as B1 battle droids, can be taken down in one hit, but others are much tougher.
What makes this so tight is that the game has basically turned on. So if anyone other than Hawks dies, the game continues without them. An operator can be “injured” twice and can be healed afterwards between missions, but if they get injured three times, it’s game for that person, which can lock out side quests from designated operators. Anyone who gets hurt can be revived at the cost of one AP from another player on the team, but that could put them in harm’s way. I’m playing on hard with this mode on, and aside from wiping out the entire team early in the campaign, I still haven’t lost anyone, so if I play this again, I’ll probably go up to the hardest difficulty.
When not in combat, Hawks and the rest of Zero Company are holed up in Kafrene’s Circle at the Den, where you can chat with your team and possibly unlock new side quests, heal your team in the medbay, buy new weapons or mods at the black market vendor, level up your character, and more. You can honor anyone on the team and reclass at any time while you’re here, so feel free to mix and match things. I’ve changed almost everyone’s class at this point and found a good groove now that I’ve established a good A team and B team. Each member also has a level of connection with the other members, which can be improved for further rewards.
You then head over to the galaxy map and choose between Jobs, which are text-based missions that provide rewards such as credits, influence or intelligence. The first one should speak for itself, but victory is a three-tiered system that provides rewards in each region of the galaxy. Pick this up for more goodies. Intel is the resource used to do these jobs, so you won’t be able to do everything on a given run, and they all have a ticking clock before they expire, so you won’t be able to do everything.
On the next tab, you have the Missions, which are divided into main missions and side missions. Hawks must be present on a main mission, but he can sit outside missions, which is good if he needs to heal in the med bay, which takes one cycle to complete. Much like Operations, missions are time sensitive, and sometimes the threat of a Coil will stop your progress, forcing you to take on that mission and potentially lose out on a planned mission that only had one circle left.
Despite being very focused on combat, there is a story Zero companyand it comes to us from one of the writers of the Jedi: a survivor, Aaron Contreras. It’s not as impactful or advanced as that game, at least not at this stage of the game (I’m just past Umbara, anyway), but there’s a lot more to it than you’d expect from this genre. There are cuts, consequences, and sequences to solve.
Now, the game is not perfect. There are several bugs and technical hiccups. Nothing game-breaking per se, but enough that it’s noticeable. I’ve had one hard crash, and one time where the game wouldn’t load any of my save files after a game over the screen, forcing me to exit and reload from a previous save, which I lost about 40 min of game time. There are some bugs, such as clicking one action on the wheel and something else happens instead, and some actions not registering properly, such as overwatch not registering when an enemy walks through the radius. The graphics are also okay, with a slightly rough facial animation. But the attention to detail on the little things is great, and the sound design and score are fantastic, that said.
But generally these complaints are minor. If you like a game that tests your abilities and makes you think ahead that is set in a galaxy far, far away, this is a definite recommendation.