EA finally let everyone have a sneak peek at the upcoming space extravaganza, Star Wars Zero Company. So, I’ll be honest: I know more about Star Wars through cultural osmosis than active engagement. I dug Clone Wars, and I like at least, uh… …30% of the video games centering the franchise. I’m a major mark for Knights of the Old Republic. And Star Wars Zero Company is everything that intrigues me the most about the IP!
When I heard Star Wars Zero Company would be an XCOM-esque turn-based tactics game, I recoiled. “Ew. That’s an interesting choice.” I’m not a fan of most tactics games — unless it’s Marvel’s Midnight Suns. Judging from the above trailer and a subsequent interview with Bit Reactor’s Game Director Greg Foertsch and Lucasfilm Games’ Executive Producer Orion Kellogg? I’m in. It’s now abundantly clear that Bit Reactor knows what’s special about Star Wars.
“‘This isn’t just a Clone Wars game,’ Kellogg adds. ‘This is a game in the Clone Wars, but from a new angle. This is really Bit Reactor’s vision. It’s their Star Wars story and we’re here to help them tell it. So you’re also going to see influence from the political intrigue of Andor; you’re going to see the gritty battles of Rogue One. You’re going to see the wit and wisdom of A New Hope. It’s a Star Wars game through and through,’” Kellogg emphasizes.
“wait, you said you aren’t even a big fan of ‘star wars’? who cares what you think, then?”
I know, I know. At best, I’m a filthy Star Wars casual. But I do understand the soul of the franchise, which is conveyed brilliantly in Knights of the Old Republic 2. It’s more than just cool beam swords, solid choreography, and vague allusions to religion. I love Kreia (or “Darth Traya,” if you’re nasty). Her views on the nature of the Force and how it itself may be a corruptive force (heh) were something the franchise hadn’t done to that depth.
With Zero Company, it seems that Bit Reactor genuinely cares about reinventing what people know about the Star Wars canon and doing something unique. Marvel’s Midnight Suns became one of my all-time favorite games despite me historically disliking the tactics genre because Firaxis Games cared about the project past cashing in on an “easy” property. And if Zero Company is shooting to prioritize meaningful relationships between characters over “Ahyuck, XCOM in a Star Wars skin-suit”? Hell, Zero Company might join Midnight Suns in being a game I eternally cape for whenever it’s brought up!
The post ‘STAR WARS Zero Company’ Drops Its Announcement Trailer Along With New Details, and It’s Exactly What It Needs To Be appeared first on VICE.
