Roger Roger | Star Wars Zero Company Review

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“Command an elite squad through a gritty and authentic story in STAR WARS Zero Company™, a single-player turn-based tactics game set in the twilight of the Clone Wars™.” – Steam Description

Star Wars: Zero Company is XCOM with a Star Wars skin, exactly what it says on the tin. Its a turn-based tactics game where you control your units and kill droids and other enemies. If you’re a fan of XCOM and Star Wars, like myself, then you will probably enjoy this game. The gameplay loop is satisfying when things work in your favor. There is the possibility for some high stakes when your back is against the wall and you’re just trying to make it out alive. It isn’t ground breaking by any means, a lot of encounters play out the same, but that’s not to say it isn’t enjoyable.

Hello, Operator?

Player’s take control of Hawks, the leader of Zero Company, as well as using a variety of different operators for missions including, a clone trooper, a jedi padawan, and even a Mandalorian. There are eight standard classes to choose from when making your Hawks or custom companions. Each of the unique companions have their own unique Talents as well that give each character a little bit of extra flavor to them. You are able to speak to each operator after each mission. Having a nice little chat with them helps you learn a little bit more about them and their story. This helps to make the hub world feel more alive.

All of the missions are launched from the map in the hub world. There is a variety of mission types ranging from just kill everything in sight, to safecracking, and rescuing hostages. The influence map shows the reputation of the entire Zero Company across the galaxy and raising the reputation grants small boons to the team, the hideout, and even additional equipment. Operations are sort of small story beats, they aren’t playable missions but they are like a choose your own adventure. You get rewards based off your choices depending on which operator you send to negotiations with a gang at a sketchy cantina on Tatooine. Each operation costs influence which you gain a set amount of after each mission completed, but there are various ways to increase this amount and how many you can hold at a time.

May the Class Be With You

There are also extra classes that are tied to unique units like the jedi.

The Assault specializes as a frontline fighter that is good at moving around the battlefield to eliminate targets from close to medium range. They have passives boosts to movement and extra critical chance against enemies who are not in cover.

The Gunslinger excels at performing multi-target blaster attacks and quick shots that lets them take out multiple enemies in one turn. They have passives that gives them a small boost to all critical chances and the onslaught passive that adds ramping damage bonus to their weapon for each attack they take during a single turn.

The Heavy is another frontline fighter. They are built as the tank by taunting enemies and drawing fire. They have a large area of effect taunt that also increases their defense. An ability called Unstoppable that grants them retaliation. Which is an effect that lets them take a counter attack when they are attacked themselves. Their passives provide small bonuses to health and defense to keep them alive in combat longer.

The Medic is well, what it says, they are the healer. They have some abilities that grant buffs to nearby allies and makes them hit a little harder. Their passives include a free medipac that doesn’t take an equipment slot, and a small buff that increases their healing.

The Scoundrel is also a support class. They mark enemies causing them to take extra damage from allies. They have passives that lets them do additional damage when helping and grant armor penetration.

The Scout is all about being tactical and ambushing enemies. Their abilities are about gaining advantage by assessing enemies and then they have an ability to expend all advantage to do massive damage to one target. They have passives that grant them an additional chance to gain advantage when they eliminate targets and when they hit a target they that target is marked for allies.

The Sharpshooter is the sniper class. They excel at long-range fights and picking off enemies. The abilities give them a shot that can never miss and a self buff that they can use when they stay in one position. The passives this class has add a small amount of damage and greater chance-to-hit buffs.

The Soldier is kind of the catch all class they have melee, grenades, blaster, and even a rocket launcher all in their arsenal. The class has abilities that let them fire a rocket launcher doing large damage over an area effect, and the ability to rush a target and hit them in melee. This class includes passives that grant buffs to melee, grenade, and blaster damage.

No Capes

The customization is one of the best parts of the game, the outfits are very Star Wars and are well modeled. Almost every single piece of equipment can be customized, mixing and matching head gear, tops, bottoms, gloves, and boots. You can also change the color scheme of every single piece of gear and you can make some god awful abominations of clothing. Even the weapons can be fully recolored to make them fit your perfect vision of your team. You can be all black clone trooper armor wearing mercs, or you can be the hot pink boy band with guns. The customization is a lot of fun to play around with. You can recruit custom units and completely customize their appearance, name, voice, and even backstory.

Graphics– The graphics are really clean in a dirty gritty way that makes the world feel lived in. The environments are well built and the particle effects of the blasters flying are great. The environmental effects are a treat for the eyes. The rain and dust look great and add a lot of atmospheric feel. The character models are well made and the droids all look accurate to the source material.
Gameplay– Honestly the gameplay might be the weakest part of this game. It is.. adequate. Nothing great, nothing awful, it just works. It has less depth than XCOM2 so most fights end up just click to move here, shoot this guy, pass turn. Most of the upgrades to the characters are small enough that they don’t feel like they make a big difference. You don’t unlock new abilities or anything it’s just a small increase. At least to the point in the story that I have reached.
Sound– The sound design is incredible! The blaster shots have that Star Wars “pew pew” to them. The explosions have that “oomph”. The droids beep and boop speaking in binary. All the little Star Wars sounds we’ve loved from the series can be found in the game. The voice acting is great as well. If the character is wearing a helmet the voice is muffled and electronic like its coming through a communicator device, and the voices are all excellent quality.
Controls– The controls are what’s to be expected. The game can almost entirely be played with just a mouse other than walking around in the hub world segments. You point, click, rotate the camera.
Story– So the story is intriguing but so far it doesn’t seem to be anything that is groundbreaking. It’s the standard plot of “these are the bad guys, stop them” with nothing really compelling about the enemy faction.

Final Thoughts

Pros:

Star Wars

Amazing customization

XCOM but Star Wars

Cons:

The game can be very CPU heavy at times

Mediocre Story

Generic gameplay

I recommend Star Wars: Zero Company. (on sale or after more content)

So far I have been having a blast but I am biased, XCOM and Star Wars are some of my favorite pieces of media, and having them combined is great. I haven’t had a ton of free time to fully sink my teeth in, but I see myself fully completing the story and continuing after. There are some downsides to the game however, the gameplay is honestly a little boring at times when every encounter plays the same.