XCOM is one of those franchises that has many more fans than you’d expect. Despite belonging to a niche genre, turn-based strategy, and having a fairly unusual setting, science fiction, it draws a fairly broad audience. A lot of people enjoyed its excellent 2012 reboot developed by Firaxis Games, XCOM: Enemy Unknown, which was considered a sales and critical success.
That doesn’t take away from the fact that the game had some things that didn’t thrill even its most devoted fans. The number of times shots with a 95% chance to hit would miss, especially when those odds held even when firing at someone whose face we had right in front of the barrel of our shotgun, was a little ridiculous. Likewise, the ease with which enemies seemed capable of shooting through walls was a bit too frustrating. Something that doesn’t happen in the new game from Bit Reactor and Respawn Entertainment: Star Wars Zero Company.
A Star Wars XCOM
Set in the Star Wars universe and taking place during the Clone Wars, we play as Hawks, a Republic officer who has to find people capable of defending the galaxy from an emerging threat. To do that we’ll have to recruit mercenaries, opponents of the Empire, and even a single Jedi, who we’d better use wisely, because the game has permadeath and if we lose him, we won’t have any more lightsabers to use for the rest of our playthrough.
Because Star Wars Zero Company is XCOM in everything but name. We have hit percentages against a given enemy, we can destroy the cover the enemies are behind, and we have limited actions. What changes is that this is Star Wars.
To begin with, here we have a linear story. We have a series of specific missions where we’ll come across specific characters whom we’ll get to know. Although they can die, which will affect the narrative, there isn’t an emergent narrative like XCOM’s. Which also has its advantages: the characters are more defined, with more elaborate conversations and a clearer role in the story.
That also makes each character have more distinctive abilities. Making choosing one character over another depend not only on stats, but specifically on what they do on the battlefield. Giving it a clearer direction for how we want to play. Making it feel more distinctive.
Smoothing out the rough edges
Although what XCOM fans will like hearing most is that here they won’t have many of the problems that plagued the Firaxis game. Although there are still dice rolls and mishaps can still happen, they aren’t as frequent as in the game that inspired it. Every so often you miss a 95% shot or land a 5% one, but they’re exceptions, not rules. And the game doesn’t punish us as brutally as XCOM did for missing a shot. Especially because, if we now aim point-blank at someone with a shotgun, we won’t miss our shot.
Add to that the fact that misses break cover and that you don’t lose turns when you miss, the game feels friendlier. Less cruel to the player. This may be a drawback for some players, who will miss XCOM’s absolute brutality, but in general it’s a net positive: it makes the game feel more fluid.
That makes Star Wars Zero Company a game with great potential to succeed with a larger audience than we’d expect. Among XCOM fans, who will find a polished, elegant version of a game they already like. Among Star Wars fans, who will find a fantastic game to sink plenty of hours into and charismatic characters in a fascinating period of their favorite universe. And anyone who’s a fan of XCOM and Star Wars may well be looking at their game of the year. As long as they have a PlayStation 5, an Xbox Series X|S, or a PC.
