"Ability-combo tactics and sharp squad writing, sunk by stutter and flat progression"
About
STAR WARS Zero Company is a single-player turn-based tactics game set in the final stretch of the Clone Wars. You command a four-person squad through a branching campaign, moving on a grid and spending action points on abilities rather than leaning on the cover-and-overwatch rhythm of most squad tacticians. Firepower here comes from chaining unit abilities together, one character setting up a hit another cashes in. Between missions you return to a base called the Den, upgrade facilities, run loyalty missions for your companions and respec your squad freely. Eight starting classes, with more unlocking later, feed the character customisation.
Verdict
There's a genuinely good tactics game in here, one that swaps cover-hugging for ability combos and wraps it in the sharpest writing a Star Wars game has managed in a long while. The problem is everything around the good fights: progression that hands you a point of damage and calls it growth, four weapons that make encounters blur together, and a technical state that has players editing .ini files just to boot in at a stable frame rate. Whether it lands depends heavily on how your machine handles it and how much you care that your squad barely changes over 30 hours. Worth watching once the patches land, harder to recommend at full price today.
You'll like it if …
- +You want ability-chaining tactics over the cover-and-overwatch routine
- +Companion banter and a well-voiced squad matter more to you than deep loot systems
- +You're happy to tinker with DLSS and config files to get a game running
You'll dislike it if …
- −You need weapon and armour progression to feel your squad growing stronger
- −Frame drops and crashes on capable hardware are a dealbreaker
- −You want the strategic weight of XCOM 2's build commitment
Breakdown
- +Combat runs on stacking squad abilities into combos rather than parking units behind cover, and the core loop lands well when it fires cleanly
- +Encounters sit at a difficulty where a win feels scraped out rather than handed over
- +Free respec between missions lets you rebuild the squad around each fight
- −Overwatch misbehaves: shots pass through walls, triggers fail to fire, and on higher difficulty it can steamroll encounters
- −Ability animations play out in full with no skip, blocking the camera while you wait to plan the next move
- −Enemy AI abandons cover for low-odds potshots, flattening the tactical read even on Expert
- +Eight classes at the start with more later, plus multiple build paths and companion loyalty missions
- +A first playthrough can't clear every operation and sidequest, leaving room to come back
- +Roughly 20 to 40 hours of campaign for most players
- −Four weapons, no armour and no melee options, so fights start to feel interchangeable
- −Skill upgrades often amount to a point of extra damage, a sidegrade next to XCOM 2's progression
- −Costless respec removes any weight from committing to a build
- +Sharp voice acting and witty companion dialogue, a clear step up for a Star Wars game
- +The Den earns return trips for the writing as much as the upgrades
- +Lore fits the Clone Wars timeline without feeling like a checklist
- −The main plot is faithful but generic, unlikely to surprise
- −Text-heavy 'operations' sidequests stall the pacing between missions
- +Art direction, character designs and cutscenes draw consistent praise
- +Sound design supports the setting well
- −Crashes, stutter on camera movement and texture pop-in hit players across hardware tiers
- −Frame generation and DLSS are needed just to reach playable frame rates, and even then results are shaky
- −Motion blur can't be turned off
- +Menu flow and the UI itself are generally clear when they behave
- −Menus close on their own and the action wheel sticks the camera in place
- −Hard locks reported, including spawning trapped between a desk and chair after a cutscene
- −Setting resolution can mean editing UE5 .ini files by hand because in-game options are so thin
- −Third-person movement floats, with the character drifting on after you release the key
- −Save file corruption reported
score
