Developer: Bit Reactor, Respawn Entertainment, Lucasfilm Games
Publisher: Electronic Arts
Star Wars has been adapted into just about every genre imaginable over the last four decades. From MMOs to soulslikes, it was only a matter of time before we got a turn-based squad tactics game.
First announced at Star Wars Celebration Japan in April 2025, Zero Company was developed by Bit Reactor in collaboration with Respawn Entertainment (the studio behind the Jedi games) and Lucasfilm Games.
If you haven't heard of Bit Reactor, it's a studio led by Greg Foertsch, an original member of Firaxis Games, the studio behind XCOM. It's a match that makes too much sense on paper.
In a blend of essentially The Bad Batch meets Firefly, Zero Company casts you as Hawks, a former Republic captain turned mercenary, running an outfit out of a decommissioned freighter parked at the Ring of Kafrene. Republic Intelligence hires the company to dismantle the Infinite Coil, a Separatist-aligned cult with a nasty method of recruitment.
While it's one of the best Star Wars games in recent years, you'll want to know what you're getting into from the tactics side if you're a veteran. We've kept this review free of story spoilers, so stick around as we dive into our highs, lows, and final score.
Our review for Star Wars Zero Company was conducted with the PC version on Steam.
Highs
The Star Wars Theme Delivers
If you're looking for a game that does the Star Wars IP justice, consider stopping here and buying Zero Company.
From top to bottom, Bit Reactor drops you right into the Clone Wars era. Fans who are familiar with the lore will be rewarded with references that range from easy hits to deep cuts.
You'll take missions on storied planets like Lothal and Ryloth, explore gritty alleys populated by scoundrels, and build up the Den, your home base parked at the Ring of Kafrene.
While a handful of familiar faces do turn up, they're tasteful cameos rather than fan-service crutches. The game's core cast of new characters stands on its own, with a few that have a real shot at becoming fan favorites.
In general, character design is top-notch, showcased across the diverse range of species and droids represented among both your playable operators and the enemies you face. While the main crew has some restrictions, the customization options for generic squadmates is impressive.
Then there's the signature Star Wars audio. Gordy Haab's score (Jedi: Survivor, Indiana Jones and the Great Circle) features orchestral swells that accentuate the crackle of blasters throughout combat. Hearing the whir and hiss of a lightsaber carving through a droid just never gets old.
Simply put, serving the Star Wars world is what this game does best.
A Curated Story That Gets You Invested
Zero Company puts you in the shoes of Hawks, a former Republic captain who was left out to dry and has since turned to the mercenary life.
In games like XCOM 2, The Last Spell, and Mewgenics, you're more of a faceless mastermind moving pieces around a board. Your units might have names and emergent stories, but they're effectively interchangeable and assumed to be easily lost and replaced.
Zero Company's execution is closer to the likes of Marvel's Midnight Suns and Mass Effect, where the squad talks back. They have wants and needs, with requests for personal missions and initiatives that you might not always be able to fulfill.
As you progress through the game and expand your roster, the Den becomes more populated with squad members interacting and making themselves at home in different spaces. Even supporting characters who don't come on missions have notable development and quirks.
What also sets Zero Company apart is its third-person exploration mode that appears on key missions. While mechanically simple (mostly cinematic scouting and scanning for intel), it amplifies immersion compared to simply dropping you onto a battle grid.
Great Entry Point into Tactics Genre
If you're a tactics game Padawan, no worries. Similar to how Star Wars is a world that's meant for everyone to enjoy, Zero Company makes it easy for almost anyone to jump in and have a good time.
With four difficulty settings (Story, Normal, Hard, and Expert) along with toggles for Permadeath and single-save (known as Beskar Mode), there are plenty of customization options to tailor your experience. Normal is a solid floor for anyone new to the genre, and you can easily adjust between missions as needed.
When it comes to learning how to play Zero Company, the early game introduces new mechanics and systems at a well-paced rate. Whenever you need a refresher or want to dive deeper, you can use the handy Inspect Mode that lets you highlight keywords within menus.
As you get deeper into progression and begin unlocking new skills, items, and classes, you'll never feel overwhelmed with choices. From the skill trees to build options, nothing is too committal. Essentially, you have room to experiment without having to plan steps ahead.
Lows
Lacks depth and tension
As we covered above, Zero Company is made to be accessible, but that accessibility comes at the cost of the complexity and depth found elsewhere in the genre.
While permadeath is on by default, it takes three injuries to actually lose a character. Since injuries heal back at the Den, you'd have to be having a genuinely terrible stretch for anyone to reach that third strike. It makes the game incredibly forgiving to an unfortunate degree.
The wide range of defensive and healing options doesn't help either. I was shocked when utility items that included full heals weren't consumable and could be used every mission. One of the starting party, Trick, even has a built-in resurrection passive that lets his first down be ignored.
It also offers few reasons to switch up your squad. Rather than having to shuffle personnel for strategic reasons, you can run the same four operators from start to finish. The Bond system inherently nudges you toward exactly that, since relationships only build between characters who deploy together.
Overall, this removes a lot of the gritty tension and high stakes present in other games. Even Midnight Suns, which featured superheroes, felt like it had more risk than this ragtag team of mercenaries.
To be fair, some of this is the flip side of the character-driven approach we praised above. While the narrative does help you grow fond of characters, it's hard to become truly invested when they have so much built-in plot armor that feels largely unearned.
If you're a tactics gamer who really values risk-centric choices, it might be a dealbreaker. Even pumping the difficulty to its hardest setting won't be enough to satiate some veterans.
Choppy animations and lingering delays
Although one of its selling points is being similar to XCOM, Zero Company unfortunately inherits the technical problems of its spiritual predecessors.
While the jank can sometimes match the inherent campiness of Star Wars, the result is more often annoying and immersion-breaking.
In between turns, you'll often have delays in the action where nothing is happening, as if the queued scenes need time to process. This would be somewhat understandable if it were a massive battle with many units present, but it even happens when it's just your squad and a lone last enemy.
When the delay does go through, the camera often swings to obscured angles where you can't see the result, or the animations come out choppy and out of sync with their intended rhythm.
It's truly a bummer since the rest of Zero Company's presentation is so well-polished, but it can be difficult to become absorbed in the world when the game begins to chug along.
Thankfully we didn't experience any crashes like other players have reported. However, do tread carefully if you're playing Beskar Mode (the game's ironman equivalent), since a crash in single-save mode could cost you a run.
Story Emphasis Means Less Replayability
While the character-driven approach does make you care about your squad, their motivations, and their relationships, it does have a cost.
Unfortunately, there isn't a traditional new game plus or endless mode at Zero Company's launch. And since the maps and levels are curated rather than procedurally generated, there just isn't that much replay value.
Since story is the crux of the design, it also would've been a nice touch to easily revisit certain chapters to see how different dialogue decisions would have played out. As it stands, once the credits roll, there's no going back to your save at all.
Not every game needs to be one that demands hundreds of hours, and it can be solved with DLC or mods, but it will be a low point for players who wanted more than a one-and-done. At an intended 30 to 40 hours of runtime, though, it's a respectable single experience for those who are content with that.
Our Score
8/10 (Strong With the Force, Short on Stakes)
While there can often be merit to going into a game blindly, Star Wars Zero Company is one of those titles where it helps to have your expectations in check.
From the standpoint of being a good Star Wars game, Zero Company nails it with everything that makes the space opera great. Any fan who doesn't have a preexisting dislike of turn-based games will likely have a blast, to the point of easily being an insta-buy 9/10 game.
However, if the Star Wars aspects are secondary and you're hoping to flex your strategic prowess like Admiral Thrawn, you may find yourself wanting more (closer to a 7 in that case). Don't feel bad about waiting for a sale.
In general though, we felt that Zero Company largely met the hype of its initial reveal. It won't be a 2026 GOTY candidate for us, but among all-time Star Wars titles, it's carved itself a respectable place as a good game.
We'd love to see some well-deserved DLC that can flesh out its endgame offerings and scratch the tactical itch for the diehards.
Main Reviewer: Agilio Macabasco (originally published September 1, 2026)
