I can, with no uncertainty, say that Star Wars Zero Company has been my most anticipated game of 2026. Yes, even more so than something like GTA 6. A peek at my personal page will show you that I’m a massive fan of Star Wars, and a visit to the website has probably revealed that I’m quite an avid fan of strategy games, especially the turn-based variety. I haven’t, for nearly a decade, bought a game at full price, and for more than twenty years I haven’t pre-ordered a thing. That all changed with Star Wars Zero Company, for better and for worse. I have played around 10 hours so far, so these are my first impressions.

I want to get this right out of the way, and yes, my enjoyment of the Star Wars franchise is a massive part of why I’m enjoying the game so much. Seeing the universe you love come alive with new characters who are charismatic and fun to be around, as well as witnessing the return of fan favorites, is a major highlight, quite possibly even more so than the gameplay itself.

Zero Company is a turn-based strategy game where players take on the role of Hawk, the leader of the titular mercenary company. Currently undergoing some dire financial straits, Hawk and his team are approached and recruited by the Republic Intelligence to find out more and help them stamp out a new threat: The paramilitary cult of the Infinite Coil.

The game is heavily based on the 2011 XCOM formula, while borrowing some elements from other excellent strategy titles like Gears Tactics and Marvel’s Midnight Suns. Instead of two action points, the game gives you three, and the grid-based map is replaced by a free-moving one. Between battles, you return to base, and instead of clicking through menus, players can walk around their station and see it come alive as more and more members join the fray. It’s very similar to the Abbey in Midnight Suns, where you can interact with your team members, learn more about their stories, and even get side quests from them. If you enjoy these RPG-lite moments, you’ll be having a blast.

Some missions also have some third-person perspective navigation, but I really don’t see the point in this, and it looks like one of those ideas that the team wanted to explore a bit more, but just ended up not using it all that much, so what you end up having is just wandering around in some locations. Given that they’re very well done and a lot of time and effort went into making them as detailed as possible, there’s nothing you can do aside from clicking on some hovering blue indicator to move forward.

As for combat, I’m currently diving deep into it, and what I have seen so far is as traditional and as safe as it could possibly be, but it’s fun, challenging, and rewarding. I wasn’t expecting a Star Wars game to be this challenging, but Zero Company has no qualms about throwing players into some rough situations very early on. 

The combat is what you would expect from a game like this, a very traditional turn-based style affair overall, with a couple of novelties here and there, like the already mentioned three movement/action points, and a skill that allows units to join up and attack the same enemy. Aside from that, there’s not a whole lot new going on here, and that’s quite a good thing. The combat is kept familiar to a system that works exceptionally well, with most of the changes coming from the different classes, their abilities, and weapons. Each of the 12 existing classes plays very differently from one another in terms of skills, but you can actually change their weapons, meaning that you can have a scout that carries a pistol instead of a sniper, for example. It allows for some experimentation. Yes, you’ll eventually come across a Jedi and a Mandalorian class too.

Before we go into the bad stuff, I just want to mention that of the 10 hours I have put into the game, a solid 2 have been spent on the customization menu tinkering with the looks of my team. You can edit almost every team member to make them look however you like, even going as far as to make them all look like clone troopers. The developers knew this was something people would want to do, and while that kind of removes some of their unique personality, if you want to run a faceless team of different colored clones, you can do it. There are dozens of armor and cloth sets, and each has its own color slots that can be exchanged as you feel like it. The same goes for helmets, gloves, boots, and trousers. Players can even tinker around with their drones too. The pre-order version of the game and the deluxe editions do pack a lot more cosmetics, so have a look into that. I normally don’t care much about this sort of stuff, but with this being Star Wars, and me being an action figure collector, I cannot stand here and say I’m not enjoying these extra options, because I am. You can also edit the look of your weapons.

However, despite the game being hot on the trail of becoming one of the best Star Wars games of all time, it’s important to highlight that it suffers substantially from a technical standpoint. While there’s no denying the game looks amazing at all times, the framerate is widely inconsistent, even on a powerful machine like mine, with it oscillating between the mid-100s and the low 60s. Fortunately, it rarely drops below 60, but the constant up and down is impossible to ignore. Some of the cutscene animations stop, but the voice acting keeps going, and there are some obvious missing assets from the game too.

There have been some reports of crashing, but I haven’t had any so far.

The sound mix is especially poor sometimes, and there was a moment early on when you can pick up Hawk’s guitar, and a mellow scene follows of what’s clearly supposed to be a very emotional moment, completely ruined by the fact that the sound of the guitar is so low, it’s almost impossible to hear.

Some of the UI decisions are also quite baffling. The game’s interface was obviously designed to be a console game first, with its radial menus and slow camera movement that’s optimized for thumbsticks, instead of keyboard and mouse. PC first players will have to adapt and get used to the slow response of the game if any enjoyment is to be had. 

I must admit that after a while I was going through battles unannoyed by this fact, but don’t go into it expecting the same quality of controls you would find in any other game, from XCOM to Xenonauts 2 and Marvel’s Midnight Suns. I can deal with the radial menus, but Zero Company’s map movement always seems to lag behind your input, and keeps going after you let go of the key; it feels like I’m navigating a ship, and cannot ever find the angle I need. I understand the need for console controls, but at least give PC players the option of snappy map traversal.

Overall, after my first 10 hours of gameplay I have to say that the fundamentals of a great strategy game are all here: The adaptation of the excellent XCOM basics to the Star Wars universe, the charismatic characters, a new and intriguing galactic threat to thwart, and the constant fan service has be hopeful that the remaining hours I still have with it will have me come out of it having played one of, if not the best Star Wars game ever made.

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