I've never played the wildly popular XCOM series, but despite my lack of experience with those games, when Bit Reactor, a studio founded by former Firaxis Games and XCOM veterans, announced its first project was a Star Wars game, I was keen to see what they had in store. Star Wars Zero Company is a turn-based tactics (TBT) strategy game, and I've recently been playing a preview build of the game, specifically the first "18 cycles" that resulted in more than 15 hours of gameplay, and so far, I'm very impressed.
Zero Company is set in 20BBY during the Clone Wars, which game director Greg Foertsch said during the preview event's presentation "was the perfect fit for us," and after my time hands-on with the game, I have to agree. The characters, story, and overall atmosphere of the game have a strong Star Wars authenticity that feels very gritty and grounded in this time period; it almost feels like a story arc pulled straight from The Clone Wars animated series.
