Star Wars Zero Company could have taken place in any Star Wars era. There’s always the High Republic era or the Age of Resistance, but developer Bit Reactor chose to zoom in on the Clone Wars. It’s a part of the fiction that has been explored in the Clone Wars animated series, in addition to Tales of the Jedi, yet modern video games have mostly left this time period alone. However, according to Bit Reactor, this chunk of time is the perfect fit for Zero Company.
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Executive producer Orion Kellogg explained a bit about what the Clone Wars gave to Zero Company and how it introduced the web of complexities players will witness on their journey.
“The Clone Wars gives Zero Company a really dramatic canvas,” said Kellogg. “Aaron [Contreras, narrative director] and the team have crafted an authentic, immersive story that takes players into what we like to call ‘the war beneath the war.’ It’s one shaped by conflicting loyalties, uneasy alliances, and an entirely new enemy. Along the way, the story explores corners of the Clone Wars timeline that we haven’t seen before and introduces an all-new cast of characters that will appear for the first time Zero Company.”
Star Wars Zero Company‘s New Threat Exploits Clone War-Era Fear
Contreras spoke about some of the new enemies player will face: a faction called The Coil. They are a separatist-aligned paramilitary cult that “softens up planets for the droid armies though insurrection, terror, and sabotage.” Their trademark is in their blood, as they literally infect each other with the Shadow Plague as an initiation. Survivors are not only granted membership in the cult, but they also get endowed with special powers and added resilience.
Kellogg made sure to note that, while The Coil plays a big role, Zero Company is still a “Clone Wars story through and through.” The conflict between the Republic and separatists will still cast “long political and military shadows” players will get to see. In his words, “Zero Company operates in those shadows where loyalties are complicated, and the right path forward is not always clear.”
Contreras chimed back in, noting how this strife is, again, true to the Clone Wars era.
“The galaxy is increasingly polarized, the war is dragging on, economies are crumbling, and the democratic foundations of the Republic are being sabotaged from the inside,” he said. “Caught in the middle, ordinary people are trying to pass judgment on others based on political or cultural identities. It’s just the sort of powder keg environment where an amoral manipulator, like the leader of The Coil, is most dangerous. She offers disenfranchised people a sense of belonging, reduces all conflict into ‘us versus them,’ and preaches that the only path forward is through power and violence.”
Zero Company‘s Gameplay Is Meant to Reflect the Tension of the Story
Of course, players can recruit clone troopers for their team and customize them to their heart’s content. It’s the sort of gameplay-related feature that would make sense for a title like this. But the Clone Wars-era gameplay hooks go a bit deeper than squad members and armor colors. Tactical games like this are all about creating a group of misfits and having to make choices and live with the consequences. Characters will even have different previous alignments and political biases, meaning some will favor certain missions over others.
This push and pull of unlikely allies and high stakes sums up the tension surrounding the Clone Wars rather well. Kellogg said the game is “holistic” in this way since it is constantly reinforcing its tone and story through every facet, be it the turn-based tactics, the pressure of allies that lingers when taking a mission, or its highly produced cutscenes. While said pressures are magnified during this period, it also echoes out to Star Wars as a whole and is a marriage game director Greg Foertsch said he couldn’t believe hadn’t been done before.
“Star Wars shines with groups of people thrust into uncommon situations to overcome insurmountable obstacles,” said Foertsch. “Honestly, we couldn’t believe [a tactical game] hadn’t been done [in the Star Wars universe] before.”
Whether or not more Clone Wars games are coming is hard to say. But with the tight bond between its gameplay and story, it seems like Bit Reactor is trying to not only make Star Wars Zero Company the first modern game of that era, but its definitive one, too.
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