Star Wars: Zero Company – Three Strikes and You’re Out

Finally, a long-sought-after turn-based tactical game in the style of an X-com-like is here, and simply, it’s good. Now, that’s not to say it doesn’t have problems, because it does, but in a general sense, Star Wars: Zero Company is a welcome addition to the genre and should satisfy the call for squad-based combat. I might as well make one thing clear already. This is not a battle simulation in the style of Jagged Alliance 3—it’s more of an Xcom 2 (nuXCOM) game, with perhaps even a stronger focus on board game rules, gameplay and combat abstraction. But before we get into that, let’s talk about the story, which is a huge focus in Zero Company, maybe to its detriment in some cases.

Hawks and company
You play as Hawks, a mercenary captain, with outcast status from his beloved Republic. As it is, he or she (customizable) led a mission against the Separatists that ended disastrously, with Hawks and his clone pal Trick as the only survivors. After being thrown out of the military, Hawks and Trick create their own mercenary company called Zero Company, and it’s here we start. 

Things are not going too well, with the finances in the gutter, but as luck would have it, you get contacted by the Republic Intelligence for a mission they can’t do in an official capacity. It is accepted with some reluctance, as you and many others in your team (some are even former Separatists) don’t have the best track record with the Republic—but desperate times call for desperate measures, and you really need those credits.

We need stakes!
In the beginning of the game, I didn’t feel any real stakes in the story, seeing as you mostly do mundane missions one after another to earn some cash, and your main objective, the Cult of Coil, didn’t feel that enticing. However, I see now that this was probably part of the setup, thanks to the cool, but not totally unpredictable events that happened, and set the course for a much more intriguing narrative. It takes a while for it to occur, though, and the big event was funnily something I was hoping wouldn’t be the case in Zero Company about a year ago. Thankfully, it’s played with nuance, and it’s mostly a needed story shift, as suddenly things become very exciting—and thanks to having a slow start, the contrast in the narration works excellently to its favor.

For all you nerds that know your Clone War history, you can probably tell what kind of event I’m talking about. Yet, that’s not the only twist, as the game is fairly long, having more than one cool moment, a fact that surprised me. The writing is pretty tight for the most part, with some good non-Marvel humor sprinkled on top. I did find the deeper lore missing, though. There is no Codex or anything like that to keep tabs on things, so the only information to find about the mysterious cult is in the dialogue. It just felt a little underbaked to me, but considering the vibe of being a mercenary company looking for credits first and foremost never changes, I guess this makes sense story-wise. It’s just another paying job after all, why should we care why these aliens need killing!

The issue
The only real problem with the story, and this is from the perspective of an X-com-like title, is that it’s way too linear, and will play out the same every time you start a new campaign. There are not many choices to be made, and certainly not any alternative paths to take. The companions will always be presented to you at the same time in the story, a detail that can make repeat playthroughs somewhat samey. As it is now, there is no way to pick up the dedicated sniper (Luco Bronc, story character) early, so you basically have to complete half the game to recruit this fella. 

This might not be a problem if you only intend to play it once, but these kinds of games are usually very fun to experiment with different tactics, and paths to victory. The linear nature of the story could unfortunately prove to be a hard limit in the case of Star Wars: Zero Company, but waiting a year usually fixes this issue. Especially if you are an older guy, like me, who tends to forget stuff easily—now, where did I put my reading glasses?

The blasting of aliens
Being a modern turn-based game in the style of Xcom 2, the combat can feel more like a board game puzzle than a dirty skirmish where one laser bolt will end you. The four big things that set it apart from the typical modern nuXCOM game are: 

• Three strikes and you’re out – Meaning, you can go down twice in a battle, but if you get taken out a third time, you’re a goner. And with perma-death on, there will be no more cozy holochess evenings with this individual anymore.
• Three Action Points instead of two – You are no longer restricted to just two moves (scoot and shoot), as with three movement points, it gives you a better and a more enjoyable move set that actually allows you to buff or debuff, and shoot in the same turn. Great addition.
• Team-based Advantage – Then we have the Advantage system, which is a point system you can build up to ten. You get these points by attacking the enemy, and what these points allow for is special and often devastating abilities that can be used regardless of how many action points the unit has left. It’s another cool addition that changes up the dynamics of the battlefield, and often works as a fun clutch move.
• Friendship is magic – The only way (for the most part) to level up your “pure” stats, like health, accuracy, and weapon damage, is having characters bond with each other on missions through the use of skills and equipment, such as healing. It’s a somewhat strange mechanic, albeit charming—but it forces the player to play a friendship coordinator if he wants to see his men improve.

The only one of these four Zero Company features that I find truly iffy is the three strike system, as it frankly makes the game way too easy, even on HARD. You will never ever have anyone die, as the missions are too short for that—and it actually allows you to take insane risks, since the punishment isn’t too bad for eating a wound. These wounds persist between missions, but for a small cost, the medic will fix them up, and while your merc recuperates, you should have other agents to replace them for a mission or two. This removes one of the great genre (X-com-likes) strengths, aka taking casualties and the sadness that follows from that. You know, when Johnny Master Alien Killer, with thirty-five confirmed kills, finally bites the bullet.

However, there is a solution to this already, through the wonders of modding. As someone has already made a mod called Reduced Injuries Before Death, which you can find over at Nexus. Thanks mediocrepoet over at RPG Codex for finding it.

Base management
Beyond the combat, you also have your base where you upgrade weapons, skills, and handle reputations. Now, it’s not exactly at the depth of any other X-com-like, as the features here are a little sparse. It’s actually more a place for interaction with your team than building an awesome base. You will, of course, equip, switch weapons, check out dope loot, hire new soldiers and such here, but once again, it has the feeling of being limited due to design.

You see, there are no new weapons, outside of utilities to acquire, as you already have what’s needed for your mercenary company. The loot comes from modules, which are fairly rare, and armors are purely cosmetic—so if you are a nerd like me that loves to equip your men in detail, it’s not hard to feel that this aspect is a bit bland.

However, after a while, you get used to it, but I do think making loot, equipment and weapons with different stats would have made it a better game—even if it works as is. Oh well, maybe in another galaxy far, far away.

Looking good, but…
Star Wars: Zero Company looks stellar, with the prequel era really coming through in the visuals. It even has awesome ragdolls, like when throwing around bandits with a Jedi Force push. Overall, it looks great, with a lot of detail, as the game often zooms in on faces with it still looking good—and at certain parts, you even get to wander through the environments in a third-person mode (even if this is rather pointless, gameplay-wise).

This being on Unreal 5, it comes with a price, though. I wouldn’t say it’s too bad this time around, but I had some odd stuttering and sometimes the animations took ten to fifteen seconds to play, making me wonder if a nasty Sith user did a Force Slow on my CPU.

Sound and music are top-notch, with the voice-acting being of the highest possible quality. I particularly liked to listen to the male Hawks, as his vocals fit the elderly fatherly type fantastically well. I also enjoyed taking notes of the different kinds of pew-pew when it comes to the blasters. You would think that futuristic laser rifles can only have so many sounds, but Zero Company proved me wrong here. Both with the amount of sounds, and how satisfying many of these pew-pews are. There is just something very soothing about many of these Star Wars audio effects that it just makes me want to listen to a nice ground battle to lull me to sleep. 

Conclusion
Star Wars: Zero Company is a good game, but sadly, not a great one, which I hoped for. The easy nature of the game, with the limited base management plays the biggest role in my feelings toward this. Besides these issues, Zero Company is a fun time, and you can’t go wrong if you like titles like Xcom 2. The entertaining and satisfying puzzle-esque combat, and the intriguing narrative make up for the lack of deep base management—however, as pointed out, not completely. Do I recommend it? Yes especially, if you like X-com-likes, and Star Wars (in a good setting).

Thanks for reading.

– Thomas