by Anthony O'Connor
Worth: $18.00
FilmInk rates movies out of $20 — the score indicates the amount we believe a ticket to the movie to be worth
Intro:
… engaging, immersive turn-based tactics game that will thrill fans of the genre.
It would be fair to say that Star Wars, as a brand, is a little tarnished these days. Perhaps more than a little. Ever since the House of Mouse purchased the whole franchise from its creator George Lucas, things have felt… off. Oh sure, there’s been some high points. Rogue One was pretty damn solid, the first season and a half of The Mandalorian was fun and Andor was a legitimate masterpiece. Hell, even Skeleton Crew and The Acolyte were flawed but at least attempted to do something original. Other than that, though? Pig’s arsehole. The sequel trilogy was dire, with its second and third entry seeming at odds with one another and any sense of consistent writing or overall cohesion. Obi-Wan Kenobi was a crushing disappointment, The Book of Boba Fett was mid at best, Ahsoka was a snooze and the most recent cinematic entry, The Mandalorian and Grogu, was, to quote a wise and handsome sage, terminally bland(alorian). The news isn’t all bad, mind you, as the realm of video games still produces some bangers. Case in point, the brand spanking new Star Wars Zero Company from devs Bit Reactor. And you know what? It actually managed to remind your humble but weary scribe what’s so good about this beleaguered universe.
Star Wars Zero Company is set during the Clone Wars, and casts the player in the role of Hawks (gender, species and appearance determined by user), an ex Republic officer who now must assemble a ragtag group of degenerates, outcasts and psychos to fight criminals, goons and an emerging threat in the form of a bizarre cult that has mysterious, dark powers. Gameplay takes place in a manner which fans of XCOM and Marvel’s Midnight Suns will find familiar: tactical turn-based combat from a top-down perspective where positioning and resource management are as key as bringing the right team members along. You’ll go on missions, gain resources and upgrade characters and weapons, have surprisingly nuanced encounters with various team members back at base and then go out and do it all again, at levels of increasing difficulty and complexity.
It’s a familiar formula for sure, but many of the good people at Bit Reactor are Firaxis veterans, the creators of XCOM, so they know how to make the game compelling and addictive. Surprisingly, even the story manages to be engaging and emotional, which is quite the achievement when literally any team member could die permanently during any given battle. Although the default difficulty isn’t as punishing as XCOM, you will find yourself in many clutch battles and there’s a very decent chance that at least a few of your crew – characters you’ve bonded with and have come to rely on – will cark it on some dirty little backwater planet, their only legacy a small picture on the memorial wall. Equally impressive is the way the game manages to interact with locations and characters from the Star Wars movies without becoming tediously fan servicey. This is its own story with elegant nods to the lore, not an excuse to wallow in a sloppy puddle of member berry juice.
On the slender downside, the game’s technical state is a little iffy at time of writing. That is, of course, before the ubiquitous day one patch has been employed but there are plenty of incidents of graphic glitches, slow down and odd pauses throughout. It’s highly likely that these will be at least partially patched by the time you get your hands on the thing, but it’s worth noting nonetheless.
Star Wars Zero Company is an engaging, immersive turn-based tactics game that will thrill fans of the genre. Sure, it does at times feel like XCOM with a Star Wars skin, but it so deftly immerses players in that grimy, violent, lived-in universe and tells a genuinely solid story. Star Wars is having a bit of a rough trot right now but like Andor, Zero Company will remind you what’s so great about that galaxy far, far away.
