NEED TO KNOWWhat is it Star Wars XCOM, but even better than that sounds.Release date August 27, 2026Expect to pay $50/£40Publisher Disney / EA / Respawn / LucasfilmDeveloper Bit ReactorReviewed on Core i5 12600K, RX 9070 XT, 32 GB RAMMultiplayer NoneSteam Deck Not LikelyLink SteamIt's kinda weird that it took somebody this long to make a Star Wars squad tactics game, but studio Bit Reactor has, for all intents and purposes, knocked it outta da park. Star Wars Zero Company is a superbly executed—if familiar—tactics game, but it's also a new all-timer Star Wars story: I'm talking Rogue One, Knights of the Old Republic, TIE Fighter-tier.Melt away everything else, and it's got a Terminator skeleton of pure XCOM, the trendsetting tactics series many of Bit Reactor's senior developers cut their teeth on. But the studio struck out from there into more uncharted territory: lavish production values, zoomed-in action game-style exploration, and some truly knockout set pieces and story beats.Crucially, none of it came at the cost of challenge or crunchy complexity. It feels like Bit Reactor has pitched a big tent where tactics sickos, RPG storytelling fans, and Joe Sixpack cinematic console game-enjoyers can truly find something to love, not just tolerate.Zero to heroZero Company takes place in the twilight of the High Republic, and sees you inhabiting a Commander Shepard-y point of view character, Hawks. Hawks is a disgraced former Republic officer and, at least in my save file, a Zabrak (Darth Maul guy) who delivers every line in a charmingly incongruous cowboy drawl. While Hawks has a largely set character, their gender, appearance, and dress are highly customizable, including your choice of combat class and Bit Reactor's admirable embrace of Star Wars' cantina-going humanoid aliens. I felt a sense of ownership of my Hawks the same way I do with Geralt of Rivia.The entire cast shares a similar easy charisma, both in your home base crew and recruitable story-centric operators—it's a winning, "family of friends" ensemble straight out of the BioWare playbook. There are a lot of comfortable Star Wars archetypes among them—ponderous-but-loveable alien bruiser, uptight princess, and laconic bounty hunter, to name a few—but, like the comfort zone combat mechanics, they're executed extremely well and belie surprisingly affecting twists.Bit ReactorBit ReactorBit ReactorBit ReactorBit ReactorThere is some serious "Aerith dies in Final Fantasy 7" stuff in Zero Company's back half that knocked my socks off, and Bit Reactor went to such great lengths establishing a narrative status quo, the moments that upended it felt like I was getting smacked in the chest.Even when the story's cruising at a relatively calm clip, your lovable crew can be at each others' throats. The cast has the sense of friction and conflict I'm always looking for in an ensemble, and the ex-Separatist characters are some of my favorites. Former bean counter and Zero Company operations lead Runa is abrasive, smarmy, and unpleasant in the best way, while Umbaran bubble boy Luco hates your guts, as well as those of your clone buddy, Trick.Zero Company is basically Star Wars A-Team: You're mercs with hearts of gold who do private war stuff for the highest bidder, but in, like, a cool, fun, and ethical way. Galactic Republic Intelligence drops a fat contract in your lap to investigate a kooky cult (it's always a cult), leaving Hawks and crew to turn-based battle their way into saving the galaxy.You gear up and manage your operation from the Den, a small but well-realized home base in an asteroid-bound smuggler city. From the galaxy map, you can choose to execute from a selection of text-based, noncombat espionage operations reminiscent of the War Table stuff in Dragon Age: Inquisition, while each "Cycle" (read: day) at the Den is capped off with a full-fat combat mission that moves time—and, when appropriate, the story—forward.You explore the Den with full on, action game-style driving third-person controls, and this is one of Zero Company's neatest tricks. Every environment is as tactile and richly detailed as something in Jedi: Fallen Order, and major story missions even feature exploratory interstitials between the fights. But, as soon as combat starts, Zero Company seamlessly zooms out to a classic, tactical view.The exploration gameplay is almost painfully simple—interact with points of interest for small bonuses, otherwise you're mostly walking down corridors—but I found it had a really outsized effect in this tactics game context. Even as a first attempt, it adds this revelatory immersive quality, while Bit Reactor managed a level of presentation and wow-factor that I'd love to see in other tactics games and CRPGs.Squad wipeBit ReactorBit ReactorBit ReactorBit ReactorYou're limited to four squadmates on a mission, and can embark on a variety of odd jobs between main quest blowouts: Hostage rescue, steal the thing, blow the thing up, and the surprisingly rare "kill all the guys." Even on side missions, there's an impish, trolling quality to Zero Company's design that I always love to see.Enemies will spawn just far enough away that you'll struggle to reach them on a first turn, but they'll have no problem counterattacking after you've committed. Reinforcements often spawn right in your path to an exfiltration, and it seems only enemy snipers have access to the really good rifles that can pinpoint strike you from across the map.Zero Company's difficulty feels very well-judged to me: I felt pressured enough on Normal, but not overwhelmed. My guys would get downed here and there, but I only had to take a second try on one fight in my playthrough.I'm a huge sucker for gimmick battles in a turn-based game—the Iron Throne in Baldur's Gate 3, for example, or the flaming oil tower from Divinity: Original Sin 2—and Zero Company's main campaign missions are consistently full of "oh shit" challenges that had me grinning. One of my favorites had me and my squad trooping out in explore mode down a suspiciously deserted catwalk with the MacGuffin of the day at the far end. Once we grabbed the thing and the trap was sprung, enemies started filling in the path to the exit, and droid bombers began strafing the bridge in a turn-by-turn expanding killzone that pressured me to stay moving even as bad guy reinforcements blocked my path.In other missions, things could get really weird: One memorable main story level gifted me a one-time, functionally invincible super-unit to clear a path as I had my normal guys follow along and complete objectives—it felt like a reverse-escort mission in this delightfully surprising way. Another jaw-dropper, season finale of a mission hit me with what I can only describe as "Spec Ops: The Line type-shit," a simple-but-devastating mechanical twist that perfectly complimented the narrative one.Buildy boysI was surprised at how much RPG buildcrafting there is in Zero Company. 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.My jam has been the Gunslinger: They get stronger the more attacks they make in a round, and also get a quickdraw ability that refunds its action point cost on a kill. Crowds of one-shot, dopey battle droids came to resemble juicy Thanksgiving turkeys to my quickdraw-addled mind, powering me up for DPS attacks on beefier foes.Bit ReactorBit ReactorBit ReactorBit ReactorBit ReactorAstromech droids are support gods in Zero Company, and I almost never went out without one. They can't make direct attacks, but they can refresh squadmates' AP and get bonus slots and uses for utility items like grenades. They're support-casters that feel like College of Lore Bards in Baldur's Gate or the Officer class in Rogue Trader.In addition to Zero Company's main cast, you can hire generic mercenaries more in line with the anonymous, proc-gen squads of XCOM. I mostly stuck with the canon crew, but I was pleasantly surprised at how seamlessly the custom operators slot into the Den. They draw from a selection of "personalities," each with their own voice actor, and they can be found chilling around the Den like Mother Base soldiers in Metal Gear Solid 5. They even have relevant commentary on the story as it unfolds, and will converse with each other as well as the story squaddies.Hanging over all of them is the threat of permadeath. I didn't experience its consequences directly in my playthrough, but even the threat of it lends each fight higher stakes. I can't help but admire the chutzpah of hanging permanently missable story content on such a lovable, fragile cast. These systemic risks are also supported by the story in a really clever way: Some characters leave the stage in shocking, permanent fashion. It all contributes to a narrative that feels tragic and grown up in a similar way to Rogue One.Complete packageZero Company has been a treat from beginning to end, and I've found little to complain about. There's small stuff, some patchable, and some less so; EA has indicated there will be a day one patch I did not have access to in the review period. My biggest issue: I'm a pretty anti-waypoint guy these days, and Zero Company's exploration segments are so linear, the ever-present Skyrim quest marker felt like it was leading me around by the nose—I'm shocked there isn't already a toggle in the options.I experienced two hard crashes in my playthrough, as well as one severe graphical glitch that required me to reload a save. Smaller issues popped up here and there: minor graphics hiccups, flickering UI elements, a long hang time while the game would try to resolve an enemy turn, but nothing I found particularly odious. I am sorry to say that Zero Company is not a Steam Deck candidate, and it's hard to see how Bit Reactor could make it fit that box. Bottoming out settings and maxing FSR resulted in a soupy, unparsable, 15-20fps mess for me.Minor issues aside, Star Wars Zero Company is one of the best games of 2026 and a new all-timer Star Wars videogame. While I don't see it having the modding/sandbox "forever game" gravity of XCOM 2, it is excellent, substantial, and highly replayable. I've found it to be a mic drop of a debut from Bit Reactor, a sense that's only compounded by its crowd-pleasingly anachronistic price tag of $50. 2026 games: All the upcoming gamesBest PC games: Our all-time favoritesFree PC games: Freebie festBest FPS games: Finest gunplayBest RPGs: Grand adventuresBest co-op games: Better together