Star Wars Zero Company Xbox Playstation PC Gaming

[Tom]

A fresh gameplay trailer has just been released, giving us a closer look at the game's engaging turn-based battles. If you're a fan of strategy and tactics, this one is definitely worth checking out!

In this showcase, we start to understand what Bit Reactor meant when they said they wouldn't sacrifice elegance for depth. The gameplay offers a plethora of ways to gain an Advantage in combat, which can be built up to unleash powerful Ultimate attacks. However, timing is crucial since Advantage is a shared resource among your team. Each character has three Action Points to utilise their unique abilities, making strategic planning essential.

 

[BlackEyed Pete]

From the starwars.com press release;

Star Wars Zero Company features a gritty and authentic original story set during the twilight of the Clone Wars that puts players in control of Hawks, a former Republic officer who's in charge of an elite squad of cunning operatives. As an unconventional outfit of professionals for hire hailing from across the galaxy, Zero Company must set aside their differences to take on an emerging threat that will consume the galaxy if left unchecked.

Here are some snippets from the developer panel at Star Wars Celebration in Japan:

• Despite being a TBS game, they want it to feel cinematic and immersive
• Some characters have been authored specifically for the game but are still customisable, but other squad members will be fully customisable (species, class, voice, name etc)
• "You're always free to create, recruit, and deploy a full squad of entirely custom heroes if you want to" (even a squad full of repair droids, apparently)
• Permadeath/no save on higher difficulties. Permadeath even applies to authored characters and their deaths will affect how certain story elements will play out
• Squad members will have different opinions and viewpoints, but bonds between characters can strengthen and thus unlock new squad abilities e.g. "teamwork reaction shots"

The authored player characters include:

• Hawks, disgraced Republic officer now in charge of the squad
• Trick, a clone trooper
• Luco Bronc, anti-Republic sniper
• Cly Kullervo, Mandalorian gunslinger
• Tel-Rea Vokoss, Jedi Padawan

It's not out until next year but given that Bit Reactor is made up of a lot of former Firaxis people, there are reasons for XCOM fans to be optimistic about this. Of course, given that EA are publishing, there's plenty of potential for disappointment too.