For years, tactics fans have been waiting for something to hit the same way XCOM 2 did. Plenty of games have borrowed pieces of the formula: cover, percentages, squad abilities, turn-based combat, and painful mistakes. But not many have captured the full feeling, that mix of tension, attachment, strategy, and rage-inducing 95 percent shot misses.
That is why Star Wars Zero Company caught my attention so fast during the Games Fest showcase. Finally, we have something that looks like it understands the assignment. After watching the gameplay trailer, it gave me exactly what I wanted to see as someone who likes Star Wars, loves tactics games, and has been waiting for another game to scratch that XCOM itch.
I know a lot of fans are hoping for XCOM 3: Terror from the Deep, but it looks like we may get XCOM 3: Deep Space in a Galaxy Far, Far Away. And I am 100% okay with that.
What stood out to me was the way it moved. The gameplay looked fluid, stylish, and more alive than tactics games usuallt look in trailers. Characters moved with personality, abilities had impact, and the squad looked fun and diverse. With the newer XCOM games, the visuals mixed with the solid gameplay are the sauce.
I’m not gonna lie, if my clone trooper misses a 95 percent shot on a battle droid standing in the open, I’ll lose my mind. But then we will know it’s a real XCOM game.
The Star Wars side of this makes a stupid amount of sense. Zero Company is set near the end of the Clone Wars, before the Empire fully takes shape, which is probably the smartest window for this kind of game. You get clones, Jedi, droids, Mandalorians, mercenaries, Separatist threats, and all the shadow-war craziness. It gives the game room to feel familiar without just turning into another Rebels-versus-Empire story.
The Clone Wars already feels like a tactics campaign: small squads, dirty missions, strange alliances, specialists with different roles, and commanders making bad calls under pressure. Star Wars has been sitting on this kind of setup forever, so part of my reaction was, why has this not been done already?
It made me think about other universes that could pull from the same formula. Halo, Mass Effect, and more Marvel tactics games all feel like easy fits if someone actually commits to the XCOM structure. Squad identity, battlefield roles, upgrades, injuries, consequences, and a campaign that makes you care about the people you are sending into bad situations. It would just make sense.
So far, we have seen gameplay, but it is not a full combat deep dive yet. I still want to see how missions are structured, how smart the enemies are, how much variety there is, how difficulty works, and whether the tactical layer holds up across a full campaign. We can only hope this becomes one of those “one more mission” games where you look up and realize it is 2 a.m.
We’ve been duped before, though.
Phoenix Point was the head-scratcher for me. It had the pedigree, the hype, and the “this could be the next XCOM” energy, but it never fully clicked. It was interesting in theory, but overall, it felt more ambitious than satisfying. That is why Zero Company got my attention. It is not just borrowing the shape of XCOM. From what they showed, it looks like it understands XCOM.
Zero Company probably won’t be a true XCOM 3. I bet it plays closer to something like Chimera Squad or Midnight Suns, with more emphasis on character identity, squad composition, and missions. The trailer showed what looked like permadeath, and once characters can actually be lost, every bad call matters more, unless you love save-scumming. That fear of losing a high-ranking powerhouse character is where tactics games start getting personal.
Right now, I am cautiously optimistic. But from what I have seen, Star Wars Zero Company is probably a day-one buy for me. It has the right universe, the right genre, the right timing, and enough XCOM energy to make tactics fans pay attention.
It’s got a 95 percent chance. Let’s see if the shot lands.
Editor
