Star Wars Zero Company: the Clone Wars, XCOM veterans, and one single prayer, EA, do not ruin this

Let us start with the good news, the part that made me look up: Star Wars Zero Company is set during the Clone Wars. Which is to say the best period of Star Wars. Yes, that is my opinion, and it is the one that counts here. If yours differs, be aware that we are hiring writers, so apply and come defend it in my place.

Out on 27 August 2026 on PC, PS5 and Xbox Series, developed by Bit Reactor with input from Respawn and Lucasfilm Games, published by EA. Single-player turn-based tactics, in the twilight of the Clone Wars.

Please, not another Sith

The trailer shows a number of very pleasing things: BX droids, those genuinely classy commandos, command droids with their magnificent gold trim, and a character with a red lightsaber. That last one made me wince, because we know this tune: another Sith invented for the occasion, another dent in the Rule of Two.

So let me give you the answer straight away. It is mixed, but it is good.

Yes, the antagonist is a brand new character. Her name is Kundri Fathom and she leads the Infinite Coil. No, she is not a Sith. She is a charismatic strategist heading a dark side cult allied with the Separatists, seeking to spread through the galaxy a plague that increases the physical strength of the infected. She is supported by Visser, her most dedicated fighter, and by Typhon, a super tactical droid obsessed with the plague.

A dark side cult is not a Sith order. The Rule of Two is therefore not trampled, it is sidestepped. And while we are here, allow me to sharpen the usual list, because it deserves to be defended with the right weapons: Asajj Ventress was never a Sith either, nor was Savage Opress. Both were acolytes, unofficial apprentices, tools of Dooku. That is precisely the sleight of hand Lucasfilm has always used to populate the universe with red sabers without ever touching the dogma. Zero Company is not doing worse than its elders, it is following the same recipe.

And the name you were reaching for, Luminara Unduli's student who framed Ahsoka Tano for the Temple bombing, is Barriss Offee. Season 5, the arc that ends with The Wrong Jedi. Probably the best arc in the whole series, incidentally, and further proof that this period remains the richest in the franchise.

That said, yes: seeing Ventress turn up would have been a treat. Maybe later.

What we actually know about the game

You play Hawks, a former Republic officer who assembles Zero Company, an off-books special operations unit outside regular command, recruited to face an emerging threat. Eight authored operators make up the field roster: Hawks, Trick, Tel-Rea Vokoss, Cly Kullervo, Luco Bronc, Kabb Uppercut, Jae Mordant and M-3VO.

Two pieces of good news in there. First: Cly Kullervo is a Mandalorian bounty hunter, so yes, the Mandalorians are present. Second: M-3VO confirms that droids are full squad members. You were right to be pleased, and right on the substance: in this universe droids are regularly and unapologetically war criminals, Chopper and R2-D2 chief among them. Seeing that tradition continue is a legitimate guilty pleasure.

On the enemy side we get B1s, B2 super battle droids, droidekas and those BX commandos. The voice cast looks serious, with Erica Luttrell as Hawks, Dee Bradley Baker as Trick, which is the most obvious and most correct casting in the world given that his voice simply is the clones, and Rekha Sharma as Kundri Fathom.

Mechanically you alternate between a base of operations and a shifting battlefield, with archetypes ranging from scoundrels to astromechs by way of a Jedi, tactical abilities to combine, and combat synergies that unlock as the squad learns to work together. The studio stresses that your decisions change how a playthrough unfolds.

The veterans holding the pen

Your hunch about Bit Reactor is correct, and it is the strongest reason to believe in this. The studio was founded by Firaxis veterans, including Greg Foertsch, art director on XCOM Enemy Unknown and XCOM 2, who spent over twenty years at Firaxis. The team includes people who worked on XCOM, on Civilization and, yes, on Elder Scrolls Online. Their stated ambition is to push turn-based tactics up a level in production values and storytelling.

So the right school is holding the pen. What remains to be seen is whether the emotion follows, because that is your real demand: that losing a character tightens your throat the way XCOM did, where deep customisation turned every soldier into a comrade. On that front, the game promises permadeath not only for the mercenaries you create, but for the scripted squadmates too. If that holds, it will hurt. In the good way.

What the community already fears

The Reddit thread that followed the PC Gamer article, the one describing the game as more than a mere Star Wars XCOM, a Mass Effect with turn-based tactics and permadeath, is very instructive. It is overwhelmingly enthusiastic, but three worries keep coming back, and they are fair.

The first concerns the base. Many loved Marvel's Midnight Suns, but almost all describe the Abbey as a chore between missions. The most repeated wish is explicit: that the hub feels more like the Normandy from Mass Effect than the Abbey, that is, a place you visit to talk to your crew because you want to, not because you must.

The second concerns the maps. Midnight Suns is criticised for flat terrain, described as parking lots with three destructible objects. Players are asking for verticality, interiors, floors, destruction. Several claim to have spotted some already in the gameplay clips, which is reassuring.

The third, the most divisive, is permadeath itself. Part of the thread demands it, another part dreads it and hopes for a toggle, with an argument I find solid: pairing permadeath with XCOM-style randomness means risking the loss of a beloved character on a 95 percent shot that misses. One comment notes, correctly, that the player character probably is not at much risk, but that everyone else is fair game.

The music, and the chill that never came

I have to raise this, because it is the one thing that left me cold. The trailer's music made me feel nothing. Not a shiver. Nothing.

That is not a detail in this franchise. Star Wars is John Williams before it is anything else, and a successful theme does half the emotional work. I am 36, I saw The Phantom Menace in cinemas, and this trailer did not give me a tenth of what Duel of the Fates still produces today. If Zero Company wants the loss of an operator to move me, it will need a theme capable of carrying that moment. Tactics are designed; emotion is composed.

For the rest, I want to believe. EA has already proved it can make very good Star Wars games with Cal Kestis, in Jedi Fallen Order and Jedi Survivor, and it is Respawn, the studio behind both, lending a hand here. The chosen period is the right one, the development school is the right one, the droids are well drawn and the Mandalorians have shown up.

So one single request, EA, and I promise to stop grumbling: do not break Star Wars any further than it already is. Give us a fine adventure and music that raises the hairs. We will handle the rest. Hope, in this galaxy, we all know how that one goes.

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