There was a very lazy way to talk about Star Wars Zero Company when it was first revealed: call it Star Wars XCOM, nod knowingly, move on with your day. That shorthand is already starting to feel too small. The more we hear about the game, the less it sounds like a neat little tactics side project and the more it sounds like Bit Reactor is trying to pull off something messier, weirder, and honestly more exciting: a Star Wars squad drama with turn-based tactics at the center, but with enough third-person storytelling and world interaction around the edges to make it feel like a real adventure instead of a spreadsheet with blasters. PC Gamer’s hands-on preview is a big reason that conversation is shifting. They came away from about four and a half hours with the game talking not just about combat, but about production values, third-person traversal, character…
turn-based tactics
Star Wars Zero Company Suddenly Looks Like More Than Just Star Wars XCOM
After a long quiet stretch, Star Wars Zero Company is suddenly looking much bigger, stranger, and more ambitious than the easy elevator pitch suggested. Yes, the Bit Reactor project still has the former-XCOM-developers angle hanging over it. But the latest wave of screenshots, combined with PC Gamer’s new hands-on preview, makes it sound less like “Star Wars XCOM” and more like a full-on squad RPG with turn-based tactics at its core. The Hands-On Preview Changed the Conversation The biggest shift came from PC Gamer’s feature after spending roughly four and a half hours with the game. Their main takeaway was that Zero Company is not just about tactical firefights. Outside combat, players directly control the customizable protagonist Hawks in third-person exploration segments, with story missions linking multiple battles through on-foot sequences. PC Gamer also came away impressed by the production values, the Star Wars presentation, and the more character-driven feel…