The Studio: XCOM Veterans Building Something New

Bit Reactor was founded specifically to build this game. Led by Greg Foertsch — a veteran of Firaxis Games who worked on XCOM: Enemy Unknown and XCOM 2 — the studio assembled a team stacked with tactical game expertise, brought together with the explicit goal of creating a Star Wars tactics game worthy of standing alongside the best in the genre.

Working in close collaboration with Respawn Entertainment (the creators of Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order and Survivor) and Lucasfilm Games, the team spent years researching the Clone Wars era — reading Star Wars novels, deep-diving into Wookieepedia, and watching The Clone Wars animated series — to build a world that feels authentically Star Wars while telling an entirely original story.

The inspirations are broad: XCOM for the tactical framework, Mass Effect for the character-driven narrative and crew dynamics, The Dirty Dozen for the tone, and Andor for the gritty, grounded aesthetic. PC Gamer's preview called it "more than just XCOM with lightsabers — it feels like Mass Effect but with turn-based tactics and permadeath."

The Story: The War Beneath the War

Zero Company is set during the final stages of the Clone Wars — approximately 20 years before the events of A New Hope — and focuses on a part of the conflict that the films and animated series rarely explore: the shadow war fought in darkness, away from the front lines.

You play as Hawks, a disgraced former Republic officer who now leads Zero Company — an unconventional outfit of professionals for hire drawn from across the galaxy. Hawks is fully customizable: gender, appearance, and voice are all player-defined at the start of the game. The squad Hawks commands spans multiple classic Star Wars archetypes — soldiers, scoundrels, Jedi, Mandalorians, astromech droids — united by necessity rather than ideology.

The overarching threat is a Dark Side-aligned cult connected to the Separatists — a new faction that poses a danger the Republic's conventional military is neither equipped nor positioned to stop. Zero Company operates in the shadows: "the war you don't see, the one fought in the shadows. The war beneath the war."

Narrative director Aaron Contreras emphasized that characters will have sharply differing personalities and worldviews. A specific example: Trick, a clone trooper, and Luco Bronc, an Umbaran sniper — given that the Battle of Umbara was one of the Clone Wars' most morally complicated and costly engagements, these two characters carry a deep, specific grudge against each other that plays out through the game's systems and story.

The Gameplay: Tactics, Bonds, and Permadeath

Zero Company's core loop combines turn-based tactical combat with squad management, base operations, and strategic galaxy-level decisions.

In combat, players control a squad of five characters, issuing orders that consume action points — move, attack, take cover, use abilities. Each character has a class with distinct abilities: the game features 12 classes total — 8 standard ones (Assault, Heavy, Sharpshooter, Scoundrel, Soldier, Gunslinger, Scout, Medic) and 4 exotic classes available only to specific story characters. Only the Jedi Padawan Tellia Trea can use the Jedi Padawan class. Only the Mandalorian Clyde Clervo can use the Mandalorian Warrior class. A 12th secret class exists — Bit Reactor may not reveal it until the game releases.

Enemy placement is procedurally generated within handcrafted levels — meaning no two playthroughs of the same mission unfold identically.

Between missions, players return to the Den — Zero Company's base of operations — where a galaxy map presents new combat missions and non-combat operations each cycle. Intelligence gathering, strategic sabotage, and long-term planning determine what advantages or complications await in future missions. Choosing wisely matters: certain operations permanently deny the enemy capabilities through sabotage.

Permadeath is real on higher difficulties: squad members who die are gone permanently, and the narrative continues regardless of who is lost. Characters can also sustain lasting injuries that affect their performance in future missions.

The bond system tracks squad members' opinions of Hawks and each other. Regularly running missions with specific pairs of characters builds tactical synergy bonuses — concrete gameplay rewards for investing in relationships. Conversely, characters who are deeply dissatisfied will not desert the party but will trigger specific narrative consequences and story moments that reflect their discontent.

Exploration Between the Fights

One of Zero Company's deliberate design choices is giving players meaningful things to do in environments beyond pure combat. Animation lead Hector Antunez explained: "We pick our battles. The heart of the game is in the tactical combat. But we really wanted to add an element that allowed players to spend even more time in the Star Wars environments." Between tactical encounters, Hawks can explore areas from a third-person perspective, discover environmental storytelling, and interact with squad members at the Den in conversations that deepen relationships and reveal character.

The Clone Wars Setting: Why It Works

The Clone Wars era was chosen specifically for the storytelling freedom it provides. Unlike the Skywalker Saga, where every story exists in the shadow of Darth Vader and the Force, the Clone Wars supports grounded, morally complex narratives about ordinary soldiers, mercenaries, and survivors trying to do what they believe is right in an impossible situation. Jedi are present in Zero Company — but as extraordinary allies willing to sacrifice themselves for the Republic, not as invincible superheroes.

The tone targets Andor's grounded political tension, Rogue One's sacrifice-driven drama, and the Clone Wars animated series' willingness to explore the human cost of war. This is not a game about being the chosen one. It is a game about the people who fight in the dark so others never have to know how bad things got.

Platforms and Release Window

Star Wars: Zero Company launches in 2026 on PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC via Steam and Epic Games Store. No specific release date has been confirmed — but a showcase at the Xbox Games Showcase on June 7 is a likely venue for a date announcement.

Conclusion

Star Wars: Zero Company is the Star Wars game that tactics fans have been dreaming about for decades. Built by the people who helped define modern turn-based strategy, set in one of the franchise's richest eras, grounded in the gritty shadow war that the films never showed, and built around characters whose bonds and deaths actually matter — this is Bit Reactor's debut, and everything shown so far suggests it could be one of 2026's most remarkable games.

The war you don't see is coming. Zero Company deploys in 2026.