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When I spoke with the Creative Director and Lead Designer of Star Wars Zero Company earlier this summer, I left extremely excited about the promise of a turn-based tactics game set amid the Clone Wars, made by seasoned hands behind some of the genre’s best.

Now that I’ve played 15 hours of a preview build over the course of a week, I’m thrilled to report that it absolutely lives up to that immense promise. Star Wars Zero Company is the perfect fusion of genre, developer, and intellectual property into something special that bodes well for the future of both tactics and Star Wars games.

Ultimate Team

You play Hawks, a former Republic officer who now leads the eponymous Zero Company of mercenaries, beginning as many great Star Wars stories do: suffocating in debt to the Hutt crime syndicate. Soon, a displaced noble and a Republic Intelligence agent approach them about investigating a dangerous cult, the Coil, spreading in the outer reaches of the galaxy alongside a mysterious and terrifying plague. It’s a classic, morally clear premise to get you right into the action of fighting smugglers, cultists, and droids in gripping, turn-based tactical battles.

As is so often the case in Star Wars, what really elevates the proceedings is the scrappy, found family of outsiders at your side. Of course, one unfortunate Rodian doesn’t survive the tutorial mission to reinforce how permadeath works (going down in combat gives a wound, and accumulating 3 wounds without resting is end of the line). That leaves you with a starting squad of discharged clone trooper Trick and ex-convict/boxer, Kabb Uppercut (a truly classic Star Wars name, and also my Hawks’ best friend according to the bond system, which rewards tracks and rewards characters that do a lot together). Soon you’re joined by Jae Mordant, the aforementioned noble whose mining citadel was stolen from her by Fathom, leader of the Coil.

But it’s not long until you’re growing that squad yourself. Early on, I also recruited two different snipers from the procedurally generated pool of potential teammates available for hire: Yaan Nia, a human rebel firebrand that I took because she looks kind of like Kleya from “Andor,” and Kos Niemz, a steely Weequay mercenary that I took because she looks kind of like a California Raisin. I fell in love with both of them almost immediately – procedurally generated characters, pinging off one another in emergent, systematized relationships, not to mention the looming threat of death, is a proven formula in countless games from The Sims to XCOM to RimWorld. As you might expect, Star Wars is an absolutely perfect setting for it, overflowing with iconic species and archetypes to mix and match like action figures in your own sandbox. This will be great fodder for imaginative streamers, like XCOM was before it.

In addition to fully customizing the appearance and specialization of Hawks at the start, you can also respec any of the above characters at any time. The only characters you can’t change are those you can recruit with unique specializations (so far, a Jedi Padawan and a Mandalorian Bounty Hunter). For the generated characters, you can even change their appearance and personality whenever you want. You can also build characters from scratch from the start menu, and enable or disable them for recruitment. It really is one of the most robust toolkits I’ve ever seen for customizing your own adventuring crew of ‘Star Wars guys’ this side of a tabletop role-playing game.

My Hawks started as a Scoundrel, but Kabb also had that class, so instead I soon switched her to a quick-firing Gunslinger, in order to take advantage of a weapon mod I’d found that applied accumulating burn status on every attack. I could just as easily imagine more RP-minded players using these customization systems to make narrative-driven modifications to their crew, like new scars and a change of role after a near-death experience. Zero Company empowers players both strategically and aesthetically to freely experiment with constructing exactly the team of operators that they want, while reserving the serious friction for where it belongs: the tactical battles.

Blorbo Chess

Combat will, in broad strokes, feel right at home to turn-based tactics veterans. Each of your characters has 3 action points per round, to be spent on moving, attacking, or using items and abilities. You alternate between taking all of your actions and the enemies taking theirs as you fight through various docks, landing pads, and other exotic locales across the galaxy far, far away. Objectives are typically divided between standing and fighting until you’ve defeated everyone, or achieving a set task (such as rescuing a hostage or holding a spot for several turns while you steal something) and then moving to an extraction zone while more enemies pour in.

Your squad’s most powerful abilities require a shared resource, Advantage, instead of action points, which accumulates up to a max of 10 when any of your team successfully deals damage to the enemy. This element of tempo leads to big, dramatic swing turns where you turn the tide of battle with a desperate, inventive, heroic combination of moves from your team, and is a perfect example of how the spirit of Star Wars infuses the design from top to bottom.

Lead Designer James Brawley told me in June about how he sees tactics games as a way to generate countless unique puzzles from the combinations of enemies, environments, and your abilities. It feels great to go from panicking about the seemingly impossible back foot the enemy has me on, through assessing my options and eking out another victory, round by round. At the developers’ recommendation as a genre veteran, I played on Hard (third highest out of four difficulties) and found it very nicely challenging, nearly always feeling like I’m scraping by and taking a wound or two, though not yet losing anyone permanently. There are well-balanced options to apply more or less challenge to suit your taste, and the cutely named Beskar mode is this game’s equivalent for XCOM’s Ironman, with no reloading previous saves.

I’ve only just scratched the surface of how much variety there is to explore in the combat and team composition. One of the bigger eye-opening moments of my playthrough was when I finally got an astromech, which has no basic attack, but carries three different utility items – all varieties of grenade, in this case – with two uses each (as opposed to one slot and one use for everyone else so far). Using them got me to start thinking more laterally about how I used grenades with other characters as well, such as using the concussive grenade to knock people off the map entirely. Brawley had mentioned that he liked being able to field a squad entirely of astromechs, in part as a sort of homage to his childhood interest of running all white mages in Final Fantasy. I look forward to exploring this wide range of options that open up as the game proceeds.

Home Is Where the Holotable Is

Between missions you retire to The Den, your cozy base of operations on a dramatic former mining-turned-trading outpost called the Ring of Kafrene (first featured in the beginning of “Rogue One,” where Cassian Andor’s contact confirms the existence of the Death Star and sets the plot in motion). Here you run around in third person to talk with your crew, manage your resources and team, and select your next mission at the holotable.

In addition to choosing your next mission, the holotable also has a strategic map of your influence throughout different sectors of the galaxy, unlocking various rewards as you do things in them. Operations are little text-based storylets that you select from the holotable between field missions, usually with a choice to determine the outcome, sometimes requiring you to send operators out with associated risks. These sometimes advance the main story or side-quests as part of narrative chains leading to missions, but are often just another way to get the credits, intel, and gear that you need to operate. For certain, particularly charged moral choices, everyone in your squad will have an opinion, with the UI clearly showing how each option will affect Hawks’ bond level with every other character. All these systems satisfyingly interlock to give you lots of little choices that dynamically feed back on one another – it gives off that classic, Sid Meier sense of a game being “a series of interesting decisions.”

Besides strategic management of your personnel and equipment, the Den also serves as a great narrative interlude to your harrowing battles, learning more about the members of your squad as well as other, non-combatant members of the team, like your wry android doctor. Dropout star Vic Michaelis stands out in particular as Runa Blask, a Togruta (like Ahsoka) former Separatist partisan finance expert who’s become Hawks’ main advisor. She’s extremely smart, a little mean, and will not hesitate to let you know how much she hates the Republic. I really wish she’d pick up a blaster and join us in the field.

Go See a Star War

Ask me several years ago, and I would have easily told you that I’m more of a Trek guy, but the one-two punch of “Andor” and now Star Wars Zero Company has seriously shifted that center of gravity. Much like that exceptional TV series, Zero Company puts Star Wars in a slightly different genre context than I’m used to, done with such skill and care that it makes me appreciate with fresh eyes what’s always been great about the franchise, like found families, cute little aliens, and the tinny voices of hapless, overconfident B-Series battle droids being immediately owned (they’re fodder enemies that go down if you breathe on them, and it never stopped being funny).

It’s also always great to see developers whose work I’ve loved spread their wings at a new studio. Even at the preview stage, Star Wars Zero Company is a fantastic first outing for Bit Reactor, and beyond looking forward to playing more of it, I’m also already excited about whatever they decide to do next.

I am eager to get back to the adventures of my Blorbos soon when Star Wars Zero Company launches on XBOX Series X|S on August 27, 2026.

STAR WARS Zero Company™ Deluxe Edition

Electronic Arts

☆☆☆☆☆
31

★★★★★

$69.99

$62.99

Pre-order* STAR WARS Zero Company™ to outfit your droids with the Crystalline Astromech Pack Preorder Bonus, which includes the R3 droid and translucent “crystalline” astromech heads for the R4, R5 droid variants, as well as Star Wars Zero Company’s™ exclusive BR-1 droid.

Unlock unique cosmetic items inspired by the Clone Wars™ era with Star Wars Zero Company™ Deluxe Edition.

The “Grand Army of the Republic” Cosmetic Pack
• “Republic Officer” Uniform
• “100th Clone Company” Armor Set
• “ARC Trooper” Armor Set

The “Shadow Collective” Cosmetic Pack
• “Pyke” Helmet Cosmetic
• Five cosmetic tattoos
‎ – “Pyke Syndicate”
‎ – “Hutt Cartel”
‎ – “Death Watch”
‎ – “Black Sun Syndicate”
‎ – “Crimson Dawn”

Five Weapon Set Themes
• “100th Clone Company”
• “Kafrene Informant”
• “Black Sun Syndicate Enforcer”
• “Bespin Security”
• “Separatist Warrior”

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™.

Lead the Clone Wars’ Most Cunning Operatives
Command the galaxy’s finest in tactical operations, investigations and other heart-pounding missions through a cinematic original story.

Choose Your Path to Victory
Strategize and adapt to make every move count. The outcomes of your decisions make each playthrough different.

Engage in Tactical Star Wars Combat
Deploy a team of operatives ranging from scoundrels to astromechs, or even a Jedi, choosing from an arsenal of abilities to defeat your foes.

Forge Deep Bonds with your Squad
Improve your squad’s skills on missions, as they learn to work together and unlock new combat synergies.

Personalize Your Fight
Customize Hawks’ combat specialization and appearance, then fill your team with original and custom-made Star Wars characters, tailoring their appearances, loadouts, and abilities.

*Conditions and restrictions apply. See https://www.ea.com/games/starwars/zero-company/disclaimers for details.
Lucasfilm, STAR WARS and related properties are trademarks and/or copyrights, in the United States and other countries, of Lucasfilm Ltd. and/or its affiliates. © & TM 2026 Lucasfilm Ltd. All rights reserved.

STAR WARS Zero Company™

Electronic Arts

☆☆☆☆☆
31

★★★★★

$59.99

$53.99

Pre-order* STAR WARS Zero Company™ to outfit your droids with the Crystalline Astromech Pack Preorder Bonus, which includes the R3 droid and translucent “crystalline” astromech heads for the R4, R5 droid variants, as well as Star Wars Zero Company’s™ exclusive BR-1 droid.

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™.

You will step into the shoes of Hawks, a former Republic officer who leads Zero Company as they are recruited for an operation that pits them against an emerging threat that will consume the galaxy if left unchecked.

Lead the Clone Wars’ Most Cunning Operatives
Command the galaxy’s finest in tactical operations, investigations and other heart-pounding missions through a cinematic original story.

Choose Your Path to Victory
Strategize and adapt at both your base of operations and an ever-shifting battlefield to make every move count. The outcomes of your decisions make each playthrough different.

Engage in Tactical Star Wars Combat
Deploy a team of operatives composed of a variety of archetypes ranging from scoundrels to astromechs, or even a Jedi, choosing from an arsenal of tactical abilities to outmaneuver and defeat your foes.

Forge Deep Bonds with your Squad
Improve your squad’s skills as you deploy them on missions, where they learn to work together and unlock new combat synergies that could be the difference between victory and defeat.

Personalize Your Fight
Customize Hawks’ combat specialization and appearance, then fill out your team with original and custom-made Star Wars characters, tailoring their appearances, loadouts, and abilities to fit your playstyle.

*Conditions and restrictions apply. See https://www.ea.com/games/starwars/zero-company/disclaimers for details.
Lucasfilm, STAR WARS and related properties are trademarks and/or copyrights, in the United States and other countries, of Lucasfilm Ltd. and/or its affiliates. © & TM 2026 Lucasfilm Ltd. All rights reserved.