What Do You Get the ‘Star Wars’ Fan that Has Everything? ‘Zero Company’

What I’m writing doesn’t start by telling a story of Star Wars. It starts with a story about XCOM 2. I have installed and uninstalled and re-installed and modded and named all my soldiers in XCOM 2 (War of the Chosen if you nasty) so many times y’all. A game that came out in 2016 and got its last big expansion in 2018. Why? Simply because so few turn-based strategy games played like it. Beyond the memes of missing a shot that had a 95% success rate, there’s a reason almost all turn-based games get compared to it. The mechanics, expansion, customization and the brutal progression of permadeath are still the gold standard. Was I looking for a Star Wars strategy game? Not necessarily, though once it’s mentioned to you, it does sound like a great idea. But what I and many, many people have wanted was an XCOM 3. That has become more and more unlikely. First when we got Midnight Suns (a very good, albeit socially clunky successor). The combat mechanics are outstanding with that game, even with the daring decision to go in the direction of a deck builder.

A New Game Emerges When Bit Reactor with a bunch of XCOM alums announced Star Wars Zero Company, it did seem that this would be the next best thing OR would it just be a holdover until the mythical third XCOM game comes. I’m happy to say that it more than makes up the difference. Star Wars Zero Company does enough of the game mechanics, a ton of customization but even more story and character development than any turn-based strate…