For years, Star Wars has experimented with almost every type of videogame imaginable, but tactical strategy has never really been one of the franchise's strongest areas. That is why Star Wars: Zero Company immediately caught my attention.
After seeing more of its gameplay, it seems that Bit Reactor has found a very interesting way to combine the DNA of XCOM with the universe of Star Wars without simply creating a cheap copy.
The first thing that stands out is the combat. Zero Company clearly has elements that will feel familiar to anyone who has played XCOM, but there is considerably more flexibility when it comes to using your actions.
Characters can move, attack and continue moving depending on how many action points they have available. This makes every turn feel more dynamic and gives you more possibilities when planning an attack.
And yes, there will probably be those classic moments where you have a ridiculous chance of hitting an enemy and somehow miss. It would almost be illegal to make an XCOM-style game without that happening.
One of the mechanics I find especially interesting is the relationship between members of the squad. Characters can develop bonds and those connections aren't simply there for decoration. They can actually provide advantages during combat, including the possibility of supporting another character's attack when they have the enemy in their line of sight.
This makes the squad feel more like a group of individuals rather than four interchangeable soldiers. And that is very important for a Star Wars game, because the franchise has always been about characters and their relationships.
The enemies also seem to have some interesting ideas behind them. The Infinite Spiral faction can transfer part of the power of defeated units to surviving enemies through a mechanic called Resonance. That means the order in which you eliminate enemies can become extremely important. Killing the wrong enemy first could make the remaining opponent much stronger.
There are also eight different classes alongside astromech droids, giving the player plenty of options for building a team. However, there is an important limitation: missions only allow four characters at a time. That makes choosing the right combination even more important.
Outside combat, Zero Company has a base called the Den. It isn't as complex as the strategic layer of XCOM, but it still allows players to recruit characters, improve equipment, spend credits and manage operations. There are also training activities that strengthen relationships between characters and unlock additional abilities.
Personally, I think this simpler approach could actually work in the game's favor. Sometimes strategy games become overloaded with systems that exist simply because they are expected to be there. Zero Company appears to be trying to keep the management layer accessible while putting most of its attention on the characters, story and tactical battles.
The biggest surprise is that the game doesn't seem interested in being simply "XCOM with Star Wars skins." It borrows many ideas from XCOM, but combines them with character relationships, cinematic presentation, Star Wars lore and its own combat mechanics.
And that is probably what makes me most interested in it. Star Wars Zero Company doesn't need to reinvent tactical strategy. It just needs to take the formula, understand why it works and give it a strong Star Wars identity.
If Bit Reactor manages to maintain this quality throughout the entire campaign, we could finally have the Star Wars tactical game that fans have been waiting for. The game is scheduled to launch on August 27, 2026, for PC, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S.
