Star Wars Zero Company Review

Once a simple throwaway line to explain away Luke Skywalker’s dad, the Clone Wars has become one of the most richly mined eras within Star Wars. There have been movies, shows, and books that have charted the events of the war with specific focus on the rise and fall of Anakin Skywalker. However, with a war so far reaching there are dozens of smaller stories to be told and one of those is of the freelance operator group Zero Company, led by the charismatic Hawks.

I really like the story and characters of Zero Company. Hawks’ group of operators are all from different backgrounds, and have different opinions on the war, which plays into the relationship management of the game. You see, the decisions you make through Operations will impact the bonds between the characters depending on their personal views. If you are trying to maximise bonds with certain characters then you have to be willing to sacrifice those with others. For example, Runa will be pleased if you opt for decisions that will net you cash or help the Separatists, while resident clone trooper Trick will appreciate decisions that benefit the Republic.

This function is not purely thematic, as building these bonds helps increase character attributes and unlock abilities so they are better in battle. Building up those attributes is necessary to take on the main enemy of Zero Company, that being Fathom and her Coil cult. As a villain, Fathom is a decent addition to the universe and the way she has quickly grown the Coil into a menacing threat is disturbing the more you learn about it. The Coil are a tough enemy to beat in battles because as you take one out, another Coil member becomes stronger and gains more abilities. Going against them is, in my view, the best of the encounters because of this added threat compared to the battles where droids make up the main enemy force. Even BX Droids and Droidekas don’t feel that threatening.

Before you head into skirmishes, Hawks can run around the base of operations, aka The Den, speaking to the other operators, purchasing items from the Black Market, tweaking how operators look, and customising their skills. Zero Company allows you to respec operators at any time, so if a certain build is not working for a character you can change it between missions with no penalty. It is an approach that is helpful as it lets you experiment with different character builds, syncing up their own unique skill to create almost unstoppable operators.

The Black Market allows you to buy mods that can be used to improve weapons, and utilities allow characters to be equipped with things like medpacks and grenades. There are plenty of ways to kit out a crew in the way you want to with skills, weapons, and clothing. I decided to have all of the crew wear the same colour on their outfit, giving Zero Crew a bit more of identity. You can also put crew members in the medbay to recover any injuries acquired in battle, but if a character gets three injuries in a single fight, it is game over for them.

The holotable in The Den is where you’ll launch into Missions and take on Operations. The latter are text events that you spend intel and time on, assigning operators to complete them for rewards and making decisions which can impact character bonds. You will not be able to complete all of the Operations as you will likely not have enough intel points or time, and they will expire. Missions also follow the same pattern, including story missions that you will be forced to take on as their timer runs down. It’s here that you get into the meat of what Zero Company has to offer, but it can feel a bit undercooked.

A lot of tactics games let you place your units at the start or move towards an encounter, allowing you to plan your approach, but Zero Company forgoes that by placing characters for you and forcing you to adapt. The core turn-based gameplay is familiar as characters have set action points to carry out moves such as moving and attacking enemies, but you can also  get advantage points that allow for additional actions to be undertaken, which really benefits a few story characters in ways that almost break the balance of the game. You will face off against quite a few different enemy types, but I think the Coil battles are far more interesting than droid fights.

What lets Zero Company down is a myriad of technical issues that impact the enjoyment of the game, though various fixes are reported in the 1.1 patch notes from this week. Through my playtime – some of which came after this week’s patch – Overwatch has been inconsistent, animations can take ages to play, the action menu sometimes appearing and disappearing, enemy movements taking a long time. All of this adds up to some missions turning into slogs, especially those with a lot of enemy units on the map.

If you want a challenge you should play above the normal difficulty, as that difficulty allows you to get through missions relatively unscathed. Hard makes you think about your own tactics more and has the additional challenge of removing the Bacta Tank from the Medbay, so you cannot instantly heal an operator between missions.

Going back to the characters of Zero Company, every one of them is well acted and have personalities that really distinguish them from each other. You may not agree with their viewpoints, but you value them all the same as part of the crew. Hawks has a warm, accepting personality and you can just tell they are a good person. Runa is more abrasive and firmly believes in the Separatist cause, which does cause a bit of friction with other members of the crew. Meevo is a great dry medic and science droid, while Neesh is keeps the crew well stocked with his access to the black market. Trick is my favourite though, and I am sure he will be a strong fan favourite.