The Star Wars franchise has created another entertainment product for its eager fan base to snatch up. This time it’s in the form of a turn-based, XCOM-like, tactical RPG called Star Wars: Zero Company. And the game has been very favorably received, with some 650,000 initial release sales on the Steam PC site alone.
Star Wars: Zero Company slips players into the boots of a dishonored former Republic officer named Tesh Hawks. Hawks has put together a ragtag band of mercenaries (the Zero Company), and he’s taking whatever soldier-of-fortune jobs he can scrape up in the gritty days of the Clone Wars.
Just when it looks like a huge debt owed to the Hutts might finally break Zero Company’s back, Hawks and his crew get an offer from Republic Intelligence to run a shadow mission. There’s a Separatist-aligned cult called the Infinite Coil that hopes to unleash a dangerous, mind-altering plague across the galaxy. Someone must stop them. And it looks like that someone is a former soldier with a whole lot of debt and a freelance crew to feed.
Anyone who’s played a popular XCOM tactical shooter in the past will be able to slide into the challenges of the T-rated Star Wars: Zero Company pretty easily. Missions begin with choosing a crew from the Zero Company ranks. There are eight distinct classes to choose from, including Assault, Gunslinger, Heavy, Medic, Scoundrel, Scout, Sharpshooter and Soldier.
Each class has its own strategic advantages on the battlefield. For instance, the Assault class is built for swift movement and close-quarters combat. Armored Heavies can absorb more punishment from foes and draw enemy fire away from weaker teammates. Gunslingers use pistols with multiple attacks, and Sharpshooters are long-range specialists. (Hawks is also able to recruit specialists to join the team, such as a Jedi Padawan and a Mandalorian warrior, who add their own movements, strengths and tactics to the mix.)
Movement and battle skills are the next part of the equation. The objective is to take cover and then move your team around relatively small battle areas—such as desert streets, underground towns and military installations—that are littered with crates, walls, military barricades and the like. Turn-by-turn you try to outflank and blast through an enemy squad made up of humans and droids while they maneuver to best your team.
Over the course of a 40- to 50-hour campaign, players work to build their squad, win battles, aid teammates with special missions and defeat the plague-focused foes. Star Wars: Zero Company is designed entirely as a solo experience with no player-versus-player or co-op play. And the game does not require an internet connection other than for an initial download.
This is a game focused on saving the galaxy from a great parasitic evil. And even though Hawks presents himself as your typical Star Wars rogue, he’s actually a fairly thoughtful and caring individual who makes wise choices—especially with his crewmates.
The voiceovers and storyline of this game are both very solid and immersing (though the graphics sometimes fall short). And the tactical play always adds an increasing level of challenge and variety while never feeling overwhelming for younger players.
There are also off-the-field, multiple choice conversations and interactions that will impact the bonds between battle companions and offer tactical advantages, bonuses and back-up protections while on the field together.
Star Wars: Zero Company has lots of Star Wars backstory and texture in its mix, but it’s predominantly a shooting and tactical battle game. So players blast away at foes with pistols, rifles and scatterguns along with cutting enemies down with lightsabers and hard-hitting melee weapons.
Human and droid characters absorb blasts, cry out in pain and fall over and disappear. Some cutscenes feature explosive blasts, characters getting stabbed and individuals getting bitten by poisonous, insect-like creatures that skitter up their arms and deliver a deadly bite to their throats. (It’s bloodless.)
The game is also designed for permadeath when teammates fall, which can be unsettling after creating relationships with those characters. (However, that permanent death option can be turned off in the game menu.)
The Infinite Coils is a religious-like cult of people that receive special “Shadow Plague” powers after surviving a poisonous bite. These people gain unnatural resilience, fast health regeneration and combat skills which make them believe they are immortal. They aren’t.
This T-rated game also incorporates occasional uses of foul language in the dialogue, including the words, “h—,” “a–,” “b–tard” and “d–n.” God’s name is exclaimed at least once. There is also a profanity substitute spat out in the form of the word “Kriff!”
Hawks occasionally drinks from a flask and shares the contents with someone else. (But those contents are never defined.)
Star Wars: Zero Company delivers a dose of Star Wars character lore with a nicely constructed tactical shooter. But there are some T-rated concerns for parents of younger fans to mull.
After spending more than two decades touring, directing, writing and producing for Christian theater and radio (most recently for Adventures in Odyssey, which he still contributes to), Bob joined the Plugged In staff to help us focus more heavily on video games. He is also one of our primary movie reviewers.
