The creators of Star Wars: Zero Company pulled back the curtain on their upcoming tactical game during an IGN Live panel Sunday, walking through how permadeath coexists with Star Wars canon and how deeply players can customize their squads.
Director Greg Foertsch and Lead Designer James Brawley discussed a game positioned in the waning days of the Clone Wars, where the main action unfolds in the shadows of the larger conflict. "There's so many things going on. Lots of different backroom dealing, lots of politics at play," Foertsch explained. "While the Clone Wars is happening, there's this other war happening beneath the war."
The studio is threading a specific needle with canon. Even though Zero Company features permadeath for squad members in the style of XCOM, the game still feeds into official Star Wars lore. Foertsch clarified the approach: "All the stuff that happens in the middle, your experience will be different from mine, but in the end where it all wraps up, that's where it funnels into the Star Wars canon." In other words, your squad losses shape your unique story, but the narrative's conclusion aligns with established continuity.
Gameplay splits between tactical combat missions and The Den, a hub area where players manage downtime between deployments. At The Den, squads regroup to access shops, modify weapon loadouts, upgrade character abilities, and handle various management tasks. From there, players access a Galaxy map to dispatch teams on non-combat reconnaissance missions that yield intelligence and resources. This cycle repeats until players select their next combat mission and choose squad members to deploy.
Character options are robust. The game ships with a cast of designed characters, but players can also create custom operatives from scratch who function identically in combat. The player character, Hawks, defaults to a human male but can be reshaped into any species and gender the player wants. "Hawks can be anything you want Hawks to be," Foertsch said. "You can make Hawks a Twi'lek or a Zabrak, a male, a female... It should be however you want to express yourself as a player."
Progression hinges on what Brawley calls the Bond System. As characters fight together, their relationships strengthen, unlocking focus points used to level up abilities. "That's really the backbone of how our characters progress," Brawley noted. "As the relationships develop, they gain more and more focus points to spend on leveling up their skills."
The recently released official story trailer confirmed Anakin Skywalker appears in the game. A separate glimpse showed a mysterious figure wielding a red lightsaber, prompting questions about whether players encounter Anakin before or after his fall to darkness. The developers declined to clarify, leaving speculation open until launch.
Star Wars: Zero Company launches August 27 on PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X/S.
Author Emily Chen: "This is exactly how to make a licensed Star Wars game feel fresh without breaking canon, and the Bond System hooks squad-building in a way that makes permadeath sting."
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