Star Wars Zero Company Review: Should You Play It?

Latest Update: September 9, 2026 – Categories: Star Wars Zero Company

Our Star Wars Zero Company review breaks down the combat, classes, difficulty, and story to answer one question: should you play this XCOM-style tactics game?

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Star Wars Zero Company is a turn-based tactics game that has drawn in both new and returning tactics players. In this post, we answer one question: is it a good game? A good game does not have to reinvent the wheel, push cutting-edge fidelity, or ship a chart-topping soundtrack. It has to make you want to wake up early to play, and struggle to put the controller down when you do. By that measure, Zero Company delivers.

At its core, this is a nuts-and-bolts entry in the XCOM-style tactics genre, wrapped in a huge Star Wars setting. You command a four-operator squad, use cover and action points, and fight to win each mission without losing anyone for good. It is simple enough to pick up in an afternoon, and deep enough to keep veterans busy on the hardest settings. It leans on a proven, pre-built system rather than trying to invent a new one, and that is a strength, not a weakness.

In this review, we break down how the game plays, where it shines, and where it falls short, then answer the only question that matters: should you play it?

What You’ll Learn

What Star Wars Zero Company is and how it plays
How the core combat, 3 AP action economy, and Advantage systems work
How the eight standard and exotic classes shape your squad build
How difficulty scales from Story up to Expert and Beskar ironman
The pros, the cons, and our final score verdict

What Is Star Wars Zero Company?

Star Wars Zero Company is a squad-level turn-based tactical RPG developed by Bit Reactor and Respawn Entertainment, published by Electronic Arts. It launched on August 27, 2026, for PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X|S.

Impact Bomb AOE damage in Star Wars Zero Company

If you are unfamiliar with turn-based tactical games, think of a mix of Baldur’s Gate 3 and Final Fantasy Tactics. You use Action Points (AP) for both movement and combat: your whole team takes its turn, then the enemy takes theirs. It is a slower, thinking style of combat rather than fast, real-time decision-making. Below are some quick facts about the game, and we cover combat in detail later:

Genre: Turn-based tactics and squad RPG
Setting: The twilight of the Clone Wars, into the early rise of the Galactic Empire (roughly 20 BBY)
Roster Size: 4 deployed operators per mission, chosen from an expanding roster at your mobile base
Campaign Length: Roughly 30 to 40 hours for a thorough first run through the main campaign and tactical side operations
Target Audience: Fans of XCOM 2, Gears Tactics, and tactical RPG party builders

Story & Setting

You play as Hawks, commander of an elite, covert Republic mercenary unit known as Zero Company. The narrative kicks off in the closing months of the Clone Wars.

The primary threat is the Infinite Coil, a fanatical Separatist-aligned splinter cult led by Kundri Fathom. Fathom weaponizes a parasite-born pathogen called the Shadow Plague, which grants infected troopers lethal combat mutations and a hive-mind mental link. In the field, that becomes a three-way split of enemy types: organic Infinite Coil cultists, classic CIS battle droid battalions led by the Super Tactical Droid Typhon, and ruthless underworld bounty hunters. The result is authentic, gritty Star Wars military flavor. The story does not try to outshine a cinematic single-player adventure; instead, it serves as functional, engaging context for your tactical deployments.

The story is reminiscent of Jedi Survivor: dark, adventurous, and constantly pushing you to fight just to survive another day. When Hawks was announced and previewed, I did not feel connected to the character at all. If I am being honest, he felt like another Han Solo rip-off. As the story unfolds, though, he is anything but.

Hawks’s background starts to play out, and you learn he carries tremendous guilt over his previous unit’s missions. Without giving too much away, there is more to him than the witty charm and humor suggest. Deep down, he is haunted by that guilt and feels compelled to protect his newfound group of misfits, Zero Company. He has far more depth and intrigue than your run-of-the-mill Han Solo space cowboy.

Before we wrap up the story, it is important to understand Companions and how they interact with your team.

Squad, Companions & Bonds

Every story deployment requires Hawks plus three operators of your choice. Alongside generic recruits, your roster includes standout authored story companions. Jae Mordant executes low-HP targets without spending AP, Cly Kullervo is a high-mobility Mandalorian who generates Advantage, and Trick is a Clone trooper whose self-revive makes him incredibly hard to lose.

Deploying the same operators together raises their Bond levels, and high Bonds unlock passive benefits like +4 HP, range damage, or assist damage, to mention a few. Because you only field four units, you cannot afford dead weight; every team needs a clear mix of single-target damage, area control, and support utility.

Companions each have their own appeal, quests, and side conversations back at the game’s hub, the Den. I enjoyed their personalities and their variety in combat, but one thing was missing: romance.

I am not your typical romance-novel enthusiast, but a deep connection or romance with one of your characters adds richness to a story and makes you feel more connected to the narrative. Baldur’s Gate 3, an all-time classic RPG, does romance so well that it becomes a main driver of your dialogue, not a secondary one.

I loved the story: the villains are different, unique, and interesting, and the main characters’ writing and voice acting feel authentic and nuanced. The game’s setting during the Clone Wars era was also a highlight that added a lot of depth to the presentation, resulting in several call-backs and “aha” moments related to classic Star Wars characters and events that were equally surprising and fun to live inside when they happened.

The one real disappointment was the lack of romance. Even so, it did not take away from my overall satisfaction with the game, especially the gameplay and combat.

Gameplay & Combat

Combat takes place on grid-based tactical maps where line of sight, cover values, elevation, and action management dictate survival. You deploy four operators into each mission, position your team, establish overlapping fire lanes, and eliminate high-threat targets before they retaliate. Hawks can respec and play one of eight Specializations (classes), and you unlock a secondary specialization at Cycle 18, roughly midway through the campaign.

With four slots to fill, and Hawks almost always taking one, you fill the rest with story companions or with Operators you recruit and custom-build. There are eight specs to choose from, and some companions bring their own unique spec. Let me break down the essentials so you can quickly understand how the game plays, then I will give my opinion on it. Here is a quick breakdown of the map:

Turn Structure: Team-based phases. You move and act with all four units in any order, then the enemy takes its turn.
Map Objectives: Operations rotate between hard-target assassinations, payload demolitions, hostage extractions, and multi-turn defensive holdouts.
Cover: Your operators and the enemy both get bonuses and penalties for using cover, whether full or partial.

Cover & Action Points

Zero Company moves away from the traditional two-action turn by giving every operator a strict pool of 3 Action Points (AP) per turn:

Movement Costs: Moving costs 1 to 3 AP depending on the sprint distance and any terrain hazards you cross.
Weapon AP Costs: Weapon fire is not a flat end-of-turn action. A standard Blaster Rifle costs 1 AP for its first shot, a Longarm Blaster costs 2 AP, and heavy weapons like Repeaters can consume all 3 AP for full-burst suppression.
AP Transfer & Utility: Support units like Astromech droids can donate AP directly to high-damage allies, letting your main damage dealer move, fire, and reposition in a single turn.
Cover Rules: High cover provides substantial damage mitigation and better defense rolls, low cover gives partial protection, and being caught in the open invites critical hits.

The Advantage System

Advantage is a shared team resource that caps at 10 points. It fuels high-impact squad ultimates, cheats the action economy, and turns tough firefights in your favor:

Generation: Advantage builds every time your squad deals damage. Multi-target attacks and weapons with multiple shots per turn generate a lot of it.
Scout Synergies: Scouts excel at fueling the pool thanks to wide-area recon abilities, grenades, and multi-hit attack sequences.
Spending Advantage: Points go toward squad-wide buffs, bonus off-turn AP, precision shots, and specialized companion abilities.
The Momentum Loop: A well-executed turn generates 4 to 6 Advantage through smart area damage, letting you immediately spend it to finish the remaining targets without ending your turn.

Is Combat Fun?

Now that you understand how the game works, we need to address the real question: is it fun? The answer is yes, and here is why. The XCOM style of turn-based combat is both simple and complex. When you first start, you do not grasp the depth of positioning, rotating between characters to build Advantage, spending it, moving, buffing, healing, then firing the last round at the precise moment you can trigger another Advantage skill.

That is what makes the combat so rewarding. At Normal difficulty, a new player might think the game is hard, because early enemies chunk your health fast. You do not yet understand instant kills with a concussion grenade, or knocking enemies off ledges into the endless caverns below. Nor do you understand how to build an Overwatch funnel, where the enemy is forced to press forward and gets eaten alive by reactive fire.

How did I know the game was fun? A simple test: once I beat it on Normal, did I want to immediately start over? The answer was yes. I did exactly that on Expert difficulty to sharpen my combat knowledge and push my build crafting further.

Each combat encounter runs about 5 to 15 minutes, so I can pick it up and put it down quickly and still have a good time. The enemies are varied, with Droids and Coil each having strengths and weaknesses, so knowing what you are facing on a given map is critical to success. You also want to bring different companions into each battle based on their unique talents.

If I am being picky about combat, the negative is the lack of a button to speed up the pace. In other turn-based games, when 10 or more enemies are taking turns, it can feel like a drag and you want to skip ahead. That simple addition would make things feel snappier. The map variety is also a little thin, so it can feel repetitive. On the plus side, the difficulty is heavy at the start and then eases as you earn more unlocks and equipment upgrades.

I love a good turn-based RPG, and this is one. The combat is simple enough for beginners but complex enough for hardcore fans who want a serious challenge on Expert.

The Den & Permadeath

Between drops, your squad rests at The Den, a hidden base where you handle tactical management, weapons research, and roster logistics:

Roster Expansion: The Den starts with room for 7 operators and expands up to 20 through upgrades, giving you backups when your main squad gets injured.
Injury Accumulation: When an operator hits 0 HP in combat, they go down and take an Injury.
The 3-Injury Permadeath Rule: Operators carry injuries into later drops if they are not rested in the Medbay. A third cumulative injury results in permanent Killed in Action (KIA) status, wiping that unit and your investment from the roster.
Base Upgrades: Investing credits and salvaged components into the Armory, Workshop, and Medical Bay boosts your combat readiness and gear.

The Den feels a bit lackluster, and it is a small negative for the game. I wish it were more like Dragon Age: Inquisition, where you feel a sense of progression visually, not just through upgrades you buy at a vendor. Sure, +1 Blaster Damage is great, but there is no interior sense of progression across the story that makes the space memorable.

It is not a total bust; it is a fun environment you can move through quickly. I just feel that if they tied the upgrade mechanics to visible changes inside your ship or Den, it would make the story come alive even more.

Progression & Customization

Character progression is straightforward and impactful, rewarding thoughtful loadouts over menu micromanagement:

Build Diversity: Each class has talent trees you upgrade with Focus points.
Weapon Modifications: Weapons can be modded with AP-generating parts, scopes, and status-effect barrels, to name a few.
Universal Weapons: Any class can equip any weapon type, so you can run an AP-efficient Blaster Rifle on a support unit or a Longarm on a Sharpshooter.
Respec Flexibility: You can respec standard operators at your base facility, letting you pivot your squad build toward more single-target damage or sustained healing.

Progression is not overly complex, but you must balance Focus-point upgrades against Den and Intel upgrades. Your Den grants a variety of bonuses, like increased Blaster damage, but each costs Credits. Unlike some games, you cannot simply replay missions 100 times to farm unlimited credits. That is where the real complexity lives: knowing which missions to take and which to avoid to maximize credits, intel, and more.

Speaking of Intel, you can send Agents on missions across different regions of the map. Completing missions in a region also raises your influence, and at set intervals you earn rewards (tiers 1 to 3). This matters because the zone rewards grant a +1 to weapon mods and a +1 to a utility slot. One campaign mission choice also grants a +1 to one of the two, either a mod or a utility.

These are a tremendous power boost, because the utility slot is not just for medpacs and grenades; it also holds passive bonuses like +2.0 movement for all operators. So while progression seems ultra-simple at first, it is not: time is limited and choices matter, and that is where a lot of the fun and replayability come from. Deciding which missions to take, in what order, and how operations and intel gathering feed your power keeps you coming back.

Difficulty & Accessibility

Zero Company offers difficulty settings tuned for casual story players all the way up to hardcore strategy veterans:

Story & Normal: Forgiving hit percentages, reduced enemy health scaling, and faster Medbay recovery let newcomers enjoy the Star Wars setting without frustration.
Hard: The default step up for genre veterans who want a challenge. The Bacta tank is disabled on Hard and Expert.
Expert: The intended difficulty ceiling. Enemies use advanced flanking AI, focus-fire exposed units, and carry disruptive grenades that punish clumped squads.
Beskar Mode: This is not a separate difficulty but an ironman-style modifier you can pair with any difficulty, much like Honour Mode in Baldur’s Gate 3. It commits your campaign to a single save with no manual reloads. Permadeath is a separate toggle, on by default, where a third injury means a permanent loss. The ultimate test, and the Legend achievement, comes from clearing the campaign on Expert with Beskar Mode enabled.

After beating the game on Normal, I immediately started over on Expert, without Beskar. The game felt much harder, with each shot taking half your life. Every move was critical, which made the game riveting even on the less demanding missions. The addition of Beskar Mode, plus an achievement (Legend) to brag about endlessly, is enough of a challenge to justify a third playthrough.

The range of difficulty is perfect for the average player: forgiving enough to experience the story if you do not love combat, and demanding enough to go all out and earn the Legend achievement to prove your skill.

Presentation

Zero Company is built around clear tactical readability rather than GPU-melting fidelity. Character models and environments are sharp and clean, and on both console and PC the game targets a steady 60 FPS with some stuttering through large explosive sequences. Key story beats and companion interactions play out in fully voiced cutscenes that feel straight out of The Clone Wars or The Bad Batch.

My overall experience with the visuals has been a little buggy to start. I have had multiple frame drops during cutscenes when heading back to the ship after a mission. I am playing on PC with an RTX 4080 and a fairly strong rig. I have also hit a few bugs where the Burning status effect stalls, taking 20 seconds or so to resolve.

Outside of those two issues, I have not had any crashes or forced reloads. I expect a patch or two will smooth these out.

The Ultimate Sharpshooter in Star Wars Zero Company

The visuals really reminded me of Jedi: Fallen Order in their detail. Even Hawks’s mustache, if you leave it on the default, slightly overlaps his lip in a couple of spots. That may sound like an odd detail to notice, but it makes the character feel authentic rather than generic. This is exactly why Star Wars Zero Company is a good game: it is the little things that lift it above the endless triple-A soup, and yes, even mustache hairs play a part.

One last note on the voice acting. The masculine Hawks, voiced by Jonathan Freeman, delivers some of the best lines in gaming since BG3. Whether it is the humor, the serious moments, or greeting his companions, Freeman crushes it. Hawks feels real, like someone you know, and he made me rethink my original surface-level bias against him.

The main villain, Fathom, voiced by Rekha Sharma, also crushes it. Instead of the typical Star Wars villain with a breathing mask and a lightsaber (those are cool too), she is mystical and mysterious. She always seems in control, which makes her genuinely scary, and the closing series of missions makes her a memorable one.

Overall, the graphics and voice acting are phenomenal and are a highlight of the game.

Who Should Play It?

You should play Star Wars Zero Company if you love Star Wars lore, especially the Clone Wars era, if you enjoy slow, methodical combat, or if you want a deep story and a 30 to 40 hour experience you can play at your own pace.

You should skip it if you crave the real-time, lightning-fast reflexes of Jedi Survivor, or if slower AP-style combat bores you.

Final Verdict

Star Wars Zero Company does not reinvent turn-based tactics, and it does not have to. By taking the proven foundations of squad-level cover combat, adding a snappy 3 AP action economy, and layering in the momentum-building Advantage system, Bit Reactor delivers an addictive, deeply satisfying tactical RPG.

With roughly 35 hours of high-stakes missions, strong companion progression, and the tense challenge of Beskar Mode, it is easily one of the most enjoyable Star Wars titles in years.

Final Score: 8/10 (Buy Recommendation)

Star Wars Zero Company Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

1. Is Star Wars Zero Company like XCOM?

Yes. It features grid movement, cover, line of sight, and squad-level permadeath, but it streamlines the action economy with a 3 AP pool and an Advantage resource meter.

2. How long does it take to beat Star Wars Zero Company?

A standard campaign runs roughly 30 to 40 hours, with extra replayability from higher difficulties and Skirmish drops.

3. Does Star Wars Zero Company have permadeath?

Yes. Operators that reach 0 HP gain an Injury, and a third injury without treatment at the Den means permanent Killed in Action (KIA) status. Permadeath is on by default but can be turned off.

4. Is there a single-save challenge mode?

Yes. Beskar Mode works like Honour Mode: it removes manual reloads and commits you to a single save. It can be paired with any difficulty, and combining it with Expert is the game’s toughest, Legend-worthy challenge.

Star Wars Zero Company Review: Should You Play It?

What Is Star Wars Zero Company?

Story & Setting

Squad, Companions & Bonds