Star Wars Zero Company's characters give heart and soul to this promising tactical adventure

First announced back at the Star Wars Celebration in Japan in April of 2025, Bit Reactor’s debut title, Star Wars Zero Company, is about set to drop out of hyperspace and into the laps of eager fans later this month. I recently had the opportunity to play through an extended chunk of the game, roughly about the first third of the campaign, and thanks to the likes of my big blue bestie, Kabb, this could end up being one of my favorite games of the year. 

The comparison to Firaxis’ XCOM series is felt almost instantly, as soon as you get into the first fight in Zero Company, and for good reason. Many of the same heavy hitters that worked on those games formed Bit Reactor. Dramatic camera angles show off devastating hits, while class specializations, S-tier grid-based tactical encounters, and even the memeable (but still infuriating) high-percentage misses when an enemy is standing right in front of you are all here and accounted for. This outing to a galaxy far, far away will be familiar to anyone who has spent time with its Earth-based counterpart. That said, Zero Company has its share of surprises too, making it feel more like a cousin than a clone in Jedi robes. 

That said, Zero Company has a secret weapon that has caused this new adventure in a galaxy far, far away to quickly sink its lightsabers deeper into me than its Earth-based cousin - its characters. Bit Reactor’s debut is a much more narrative and character-driven affair, and even with only this brief look, I have found myself far more invested in my team than I ever have with my squads in XCOM. Each of the main members of the crew, including Hawks (the leader of Zero Company), Trick (a clone trooper who served with Hawks), Kabb (the big blue muscle of the team), and Tel-Rea (a Jedi padawan who joins you) have such personalities to them that walking around the Den - Zero Company’s base of operations - I was getting flashbacks to making my rounds on the Normandy in the original Mass Effect games.

The more I learned about each one, such as Kabb’s surprising love for space opera or other members’ thoughts on Count Dooku's rather irresponsible spending (which gave me a good chuckle), the more impressed and invested in the adventures of Zero Company I became. I was surprised to hear the thoughts of a custom-created character - voiced by Elias Toufexis (aka. Adam Jensen from Deus Ex fame) - as I walked around. While the main story of Zero Company — trying to track down the shady Coil group — hasn’t quite sold me yet, even if it never does, I feel pretty confident that just helping out and going on missions for my squad will still result in a good time.

Your team isn’t just there for a good talk between missions, though. While you are able to create and recruit custom characters (including making your own astromech droid), knowing how best to use each of these main crew’s strengths and synergizing their abilities with one another is half the fun of combat encounters. Each of the main cast comes complete with unique abilities that only they can pull off, which made for some of the best moments of my demo. Moments like having Tel hurl a battle droid into an explosive barrel with her Force push or bull rushing Kabb over to uppercut an unsuspecting enemy into the overwatching Hawks’ line of fire, or just having Trick bust out a big ol’ rocket launcher to light up a group of Coil agents who were clustered together. 

The sense of camaraderie within Zero Company and how it extends both through its story and its gameplay is another promising aspect that I am eager to dive deeper into. As characters assist each other out in missions, such as healing one another or using their abilities on one another, their bonds will grow, earning the pair various buffs or bonuses. According to the devs, the story in Zero Company is fairly linear, so the biggest draw for replaying through the game appears to be trying out different party combinations and earning the best rewards and bonuses from creative party pairings.  

There is still so much left to see and mysteries to uncover in Star Wars: Zero Company, but having played as much as I did in this nearly finished build, Zero Company’s gameplay and characters have sold me on it being one of my favorite Star Wars games in a long time. Whether or not its story manages to land as well as those other factors, I will just have to wait and find out. I’m someone who has always viewed Star Wars from the perspective that it’s the personalities who inhabit this galaxy that make it so special, with things like the lightsabers and Death Stars serving as sprinkles on top. 

Thankfully, I, along with everyone else, don’t have long to wait until we can travel to a galaxy far away again with the likes of Hawks and the rest of Zero Company. Star Wars Zero Company releases in just a few short weeks on August 27 on PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series S/X.