On most scoreboards, an 86 is the kind of score you shrug at. In Star Wars, it’s enough to put you in the top five.
That is exactly where Star Wars: Zero Company has landed at the time of writing, with the reviews having only just gone live. Bit Reactor’s XCOM-style tactics game has managed something that gets more difficult with every passing year: a Star Wars title that genuinely belongs in the discussion about the franchise’s best.
How it stacks up against the classics
At the moment, Zero Company is level with Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic 2. The only titles sitting above it are Jedi Knight 2: Jedi Outcast on 89, Rogue Leader: Rogue Squadron 2 on 90, Jedi Knight: Dark Forces 2 on 91, and Knights of the Old Republic on 94.
That is the company Zero Company now keeps. Given the sheer volume of Star Wars games out there, breaking into that tier is a steadily harder ask.
A villain carrying the story
Dan Stapleton at IGN handed the game a 9/10 and went out of his way to stress that this is no mere costume swap. Zero Company, in Stapleton’s words, is “far more than a simple Star Wars reskin of XCOM.”
He picked out the narrative in particular, describing it as one of the finest Star Wars stories since Rogue One. Much of that praise lands at the feet of the villain, Fathom.
“It’s a welcome change of pace to be up against something at least a bit more original than yet another Sith-like villain,” Stapleton wrote in his review. “Fortunately, Fathom is largely allowed to remain mysterious during her chilling performance, and her relationship with her henchman son prevents her from becoming a two-dimensional villain.”
Deeper build-crafting than anyone expected
Over at PC Gamer, the game earned a 90. Reviewer Ted Litchfield likewise flagged the story as a highlight, while noting that it never elbows aside the dense, systems-driven tactics game sitting beneath it.
“I was surprised at how much RPG buildcrafting there is in Zero Company,” Litchfield wrote. “We’re not quite at Rogue Trader levels of spreadsheet psychosis, but there are some fun synergies to exploit. A little ways in, Zero Company introduces multiclassing, and then we’re really off to the races.”
Consensus isn’t total, however. Game Informer’s James Galizio, who scored it 8/10, was rather cooler on what he called the “competent if unremarkable story and characters.”
The RPG systems eventually won him over, though, and he gave the mission design genuine credit for making all that character-building count for something.
“Growing and improving your operators is well enough on its own, but it wouldn’t be very satisfying if the game didn’t have strong map and mission design to back it up,” Galizio wrote. “Thankfully, it does; one standout mission had me dealing with enemy units, while at the same time fleeing towards an extraction point. Every turn, more and more of the map behind me became a death zone.”
A well-worn formula with a very particular kick
Critics are divided on the story. On the tactics, they aren’t. Even the reviewers who feel the game plays it safe agree that Zero Company is a strong take on the XCOM template.
Alex Spencer of GamesRadar concedes that it does little to push the tactics genre forward. He also isn’t especially bothered, thanks to what the Star Wars dressing brings to the experience.
“I’m willing to forgive a lot, for a game that can leave me feeling like I’ve dropped a proton torpedo down the exhaust shaft of my own personal Death Star,” Spencer wrote in a four-star review.