Considering just how many Star Wars games exist, making one that can be considered an all-time great is an increasingly tough task. That makes Star Wars: Zero Company all the more impressive. Reviews for the XCOM-style tactics game just landed, and it looks like Bit Reactor has created something that made its way onto the Mount Rushmore of Star Wars games.
At the time of writing, Star Wars: Zero Company sits at an 86 on Metacritic. That might not sound like a wildly high number, but it’s enough to put it in the top five best reviewed Star Wars games of all time, according to Metacritic. It’s currently tied with Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic 2, though it’s a bit behind Jedi Knight 2: Jedi Outcast (89), Rogue Leader: Rogue Squadron 2 (90), Jedi Knight: Dark Forces 2 (91), and Knights of the Old Republic (94).
Judging by the reviews (including a glowing one by our own Elijah Gonzalez), it’s no surprise that critics are resonating with Zero Company. In a 9/10 review, IGN’s Dan Stapleton noted that Zero Company is “far more than a simple Star Wars reskin of XCOM.” Stapleton praised the narrative in particular, calling it one of the best Star Wars stories we’ve seen since Rogue One, passing some of that credit along to the story’s 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.”
PC Gamer was similarly impressed, scoring it a 90. Reviewer Ted Litchfield agreed that the story is a strong point here, and noted that it didn’t get in the way of what’s still a complex, systems-heavy tactics game that understands what makes XCOM great.
“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.”
Not every critic is on the same page about its strengths. In an 8/10 review for Game Informer, James Galizio was less impressed by the “competent if unremarkable story and characters.” Galizio agreed that the RPG systems shine, and also gave flowers to the strong mission design that makes character-building worthwhile.
“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.”
While there are some varying opinions on the story, critics seem to agree that Zero Company is a strong riff on the XCOM formula. GamesRadar’s Alex Spencer admits that it doesn’t do much to evolve the tactics genre, but notes that the Star Wars of it all goes a long way towards making it unique: “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.