// KOTAKU — GAMING
Some Early Star Wars Zero Company Reviews Call It A Potential GOTY Contender
Bit ReactorRespawnReview Round UpStar Wars: Zero CompanyTacticsXCOM
A great Star Wars game? In 2026? That’s what the streets are saying. Early reviews for Star Wars Zero Company are buzzing about its excellent characters and fun tactics gameplay, with some even suggesting it should be in the running for Game of the Year.
A joint collaboration between Respawn Entertainment and Bit Reactor, the latest Star Wars video game adaptation takes the galaxy-changing events of the Clone Wars and funnels them through an XCOM-like turn-based tactical formula, complete with moments back at base to debrief with your squadmates and permadeath if you want to experience maximal heartbreak for missing a 99-percent hit rate attack.
The embargo lifted for the initial wave of reviews earlier today, registering the game at an 86 on the score-aggregating site Metacritic. PC Gamer‘s Ted Litchfield suggested Star Wars Zero Company is “one of the best games of 2026.” Windows Central called it a new benchmark for the genre. Not everyone’s praising it, however. Shacknews‘ Lucas White called the experience “weighed down by sauceless writing and a plot with the narrative weight of a non-canon shonen anime film.”
While Kotaku will eventually publish its own review in the days ahead, here’s what people are saying in the meantime.
Star Wars Zero Company is an excellent tactical game that does a fantastic job of slathering on the same cinematic look and feel we saw in Respawn’s Star Wars Jedi games, incorporating strong characters and a storyline that’s refreshingly centered on non-Force users and a non-traditional villain. There’s more of an emphasis on cooperation and flexibility, and a tighter focus on smaller maps that encourage a radically different and more aggressive playstyle. It might not have the legendary level of replayability that’s kept XCOM 2 in my rotation for a decade, but its lengthy story campaign is more than worth at least a couple of playthroughs before you can see everything and get the hang of its nuanced combat and synergies. – Dan Stapleton
Not only is the writing genuinely funny and quick-witted, but the game gets across what it’s like to be a background player in a way that more Jedi-centric stories can’t. Members of your squad have allegiances to either side of the war (or neither), but like most people with political opinions, these views don’t define their every action. [Protagonist] Hawks’ squad isn’t helping the Republic military out of patriotism, but because their short-term goals happen to align. This friction eventually comes to the forefront in an incredibly satisfying way, as what was once background noise becomes an ever-present reality. While not as directly tuned into political happenings as Andor, this story works as a surprisingly incisive prequel, depicting a slow descent into fascism with uncomfortable poignancy. – Elijah Gonzalez
Sometimes you play a game where its inspirations are never in question. Rarely has that been more evident in recent memory than with Star Wars Zero Company from Bit Reactor, a studio founded by former XCOM developers. While it’s more than just an XCOM-like tactics game with Star Wars stylings, the description still holds up under scrutiny – with the excellent tactical gameplay and resource management buoying what is otherwise just a competent if unremarkable story and characters. – James Galizio
The biggest achievement of Star Wars Zero Company is how much it made me care about a universe that has grown achingly dull and predictable in recent years. It rarely innovates with its combat or characters, but it doesn’t have to when they’re both this well executed. Battles are nuanced games of chess where every single move matters, while the personal stories of each companion tugged at my heartstrings in ways I would have never expected from a title like this. By replacing the light and dark with a demonstrable shade of grey, Zero Company is able to show us exactly what Star Wars is capa