» Watch video: Star Wars Zero Company: Trailer
I’ve been waiting for this strategy game for so long. Only one major blunder is holding Star Wars Zero Company back on the PC.
Martin Hartmann (own opinion):
Conclusion on Star Wars Zero Company:
As soon as it was announced, I knew that I was going to love Star Wars Zero Company. I love Star Wars, I love XCOM style tactical games. It’s a dream come true.
After the release, Zero Company delivered exactly where it needed to. The story is exciting and the characters are fun to watch. Added to this is the fun tactics and strategy gameplay, in which every move needs to be carefully considered.
Despite minor errors, the new Star Wars game is (almost) a masterpiece for me. Unfortunately, the technical side of the game is too immature and frequent crashes sometimes make it hard to love the game.
- + Pure Star Wars atmosphere
- + Well-written characters
- + Exciting tactical gameplay
- + Tricky team management requires decisions
- – Could give more enemy variety
- – Graphics and gameplay glitches
- – Frustration caused by crashes
8/10
A really good Star Wars story
In Star Wars Zero Company you lead a down-on-his-luck mercenary company in the middle of the Clone Wars. At the very beginning you create your own hero or heroine. Nevertheless, you don’t play a nameless character who never opens his mouth in conversations.
The main character “Hawks” is one of the game’s great strengths, but this applies more broadly to all story characters. Regardless of whether it’s a clone trooper or a Separatist, the dialogue is so well written, so well voiced and so well animated that I was never tempted to skip or skip through it.
Star Wars Zero Company is particularly clever in incorporating randomly generated mercenaries into the game. They have a trait, such as Rogue or Veteran, that determines behavior and dialogue. As long as each trait only appears once in the team (it can also be customized), it really feels like you’re building a real team that isn’t just extras. However, these characters are still not involved in the story.
Good mercenary, but also a good boss?
Zero Company has a clear structure. Hawks is first at the company base, conducting discussions, starting improvements and leveling up team members. Then it’s off to the map table to start the next mission.
The whole team management requires difficult decisions. There are never enough credits, especially at the beginning. So do I buy a thermal detonator on the black market or do I quickly get a crew member back on their feet with a stay in the bacta tank? In addition, side missions can expire if Hawks ignores them for too long. The right time for a story mission needs to be chosen well in order to get the maximum resources.
The game shines in the tactical battles
Enough talking and enough planning. Most of the time you will be fighting in Star Wars Zero Company. Anyone who knows tactical games like XCOM will immediately find their way around. First, you move your fighters around the battlefield to find perfect positions to attack battle droids or other villains. Then it’s the enemies’ turn, so hopefully you’ve thought about cover too.
The tactical rounds can get wonderfully complex here. Your mercenaries have several action points (AP) that they can spend on equipment and special abilities. There are always cool combinations like a melee strike that causes opponents to stagger back – directly into the line of fire of the next fighter.
One of my favorite characters in combat is an astromech droid that can’t shoot itself, but can scan enemies and give AP to allies. At the same time, he can throw more grenades than humanoid fighters.
The dark side of Star Wars Zero Company
The battles are the highlight of Star Wars Zero Company, and yet I spent more time in them than I wanted to. During my playing time, it happened several times that the game simply crashed. This is particularly annoying because there are no auto-saves during battles. So I had to play everything again. I have since learned to save often.
Luckily, this doesn’t happen too regularly. Sometimes a mission is simply broken and crashes several times in a row. Afterwards, several other orders can run completely smoothly.
This really big error is followed by even smaller graphics and gameplay glitches. For example, sometimes enemies can simply shoot through walls. I hope that the developers will deliver patches quickly. There doesn’t have to be this much frustration.
Star Wars Zero Company was released on August 27th for PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X|S.