Star Wars Zero Company is XCOM set in the Clone Wars and we love it

EA and Respawn has finally unveiled their turn-based Star Wars strategy game and it seems to be sticking very close to the XCOM formula.

It’s been rumoured for years, but EA has finally offered a full reveal for their turn-based Star Wars strategy game, which they recently announced is called Star Wars Zero Company.

As recent leaks suggested, it seems to take considerable inspiration from GameCentral favourite XCOM. There’re only a few seconds of footage, at the end of the trailer below, but it confirms that you’re controlling a small team of covert specialists in what’s described as a ‘gritty’ Clone Wars story.

For anyone that’s only ever seen the prequels, much of the ancillary content set in the same era – especially The Clone Wars animated series – is very good and this seems to be drawing on that for inspiration, in terms of the characters and, presumably, plotlines.

The game is being developed by new studio Bit Reactor, with help from Star Wars Jedi creator Respawn. Bit Reactor may be new but many of their staff are ex-Firaxis and have worked on both XCOM and Civilization, with others having experience with everything from Gears Of War to The Elder Scrolls Online.

As you can see, the trailer reveals almost nothing of substance but according to EA the game is set towards the end of the Clone Wars, with the main character being Hawks – a former Republic officer who we assume is the human character in the trailer thumbnail.

Most games that copy XCOM’s turn-based tactical combat don’t usually attempt to replicate the strategy level elements back at base, where you research and manufacture new weapons, amongst other things.

Zero Company does seem to have a similar feature though, with EA stating that between missions you’ll ‘develop a base of operations and gather intelligence through a network of informants to stay one step ahead of Zero Company’s adversaries.’

Bit Reactor is already talking a lot about ‘meaningful outcomes from player choices’ which we’re assuming is a reference to permadeath, which was a key feature in XCOM, where if a soldier died that was it – there was no way to bring them back.

Nothing so far confirms that but while it’s stated that you can change Hawks’ ‘appearance and combat class’, apparently ‘recruited operatives’ can only be ‘personalised from a range of original Star Wars character classes and species.’

That implies that while Hawks can’t die (or if he does it’s game over) everyone else can, so these characters in the trailer and artwork are not necessarily permanent. It’s also stated that soldiers can ‘forge bonds’ to ‘unlock powerful combat synergies’ so there’s clearly a benefit in keeping people alive for as long as possible.

EA has confirmed clone troopers, astromech droids (think R2-D2), and Jedi but you can also clearly see a female Mandalorian, as well as an Umbaran – from one of the most popular arcs of The Clone Wars series – acting as a sniper.

How many other aliens and class types there are is unclear but the Jedi is the same species as Tubes from Rogue One and Andor (a Tognath, if you want to be specific).

There’s no indication so far that any pre-established character are going to appear in the game, but knowing Star Wars we doubt Lucasfilm will be able to resist the temptation.

Although there isn’t much to go on, seeing as we’re both massive XCOM and Star Wars fans we couldn’t be more excited, especially given that many of the developers have plenty of experience with the genre.

The only problem at the moment is that it won’t be out until next year. Interestingly it’s scheduled for Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 5, and PC but not Nintendo Switch 2 – although that could potentially change as we get nearer the release.

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