Even if Marvel’s Midnight Suns and Star Wars Zero Company don’t share much in the way of gameplay mechanics, a compelling thread to tug on is that the latter’s developer, Bit Reactor, is a new studio that includes ex-Firaxis XCOM veterans. Taking relatively bold swings in a lot of its design choices, Marvel’s Midnight Suns’ story is excellent as it touches on a bunch of niche characters and concepts in the Marvel universe that are rarely seen beyond comic books, and characters like Magik or Nico Minoru arguably wouldn’t have the same popularity as they do now without Firaxis’ marriage of turn-based tactics and the Marvel IP. Now, from those ashes or some stroke of oddly timed fate, Star Wars Zero Company is born.
Not long after the potential future of Marvel’s Midnight Suns had supposedly become rocky, it’s interesting that another colossus IP would choose to tackle the turn-based tactics genre. Marvel’s Midnight Suns wasn’t a game for everybody, even if it did have a character on the roster for fans of every Marvel recess imaginable, and yet it’s suggested in what little has been shown and discussed by Lucasfilm Games, Respawn, and Bit Reactor that Star Wars Zero Company will be a standard tactics game, for better or worse.
To be clear, Marvel’s Midnight Suns and Star Wars Zero Company do not have any current correlations besides XCOM being an inspirational parental figure to both.
Why XCOM and Civilization Fans Should Keep an Eye on Star Wars Zero Company
Fans of XCOM and Civilization might have a fun turn-based option on their hands with newly announced Star Wars Zero Company.
Star Wars Zero Company’s Turn-Based Tactics May Be a Return to Formula
Marvel’s Midnight Suns led with a card system that is wholly straightforward as a vehicle for players to obtain, organize, and order abilities. Of course, a deck and card system would apparently and understandably enable the game to read as a deck-builder to the uninitiated.
Star Wars Zero Company’s Star Wars Celebration 2025 panel revealed tidbits about Bit Reactor’s upcoming game, including the fact that players will be able to fully customize their squad to their liking. The game’s reveal teaser did divulge a sliver of gameplay footage—perhaps in an effort to inform Star Wars fans of exactly what game genre they should expect beyond an atmospheric cinematic, but hardly anything has been revealed about turn-based tactics in Star Wars Zero Company otherwise.
According to pre-alpha gameplay, which is subject to change minorly or majorly between now and Star Wars Zero Company’s scheduled release window of 2026, players will disseminate strategies between miscellaneous recruits via an ability wheel. Opting for what appears to be a much more classic, XCOM-inspired take on the genre, Zero Company may not be taking any polarizing risks when it comes to presentation.
Star Wars Zero Company’s Den Might Live in the Shadow of Marvel’s Midnight Suns’ Abbey
Marvel’s Midnight Suns could easily be the most anomalous Marvel game due to its unprecedented amalgamation of a dark, occult narrative, turn-based tactical gameplay, and a rich social system. Indeed, the other half of Marvel’s Midnight Suns is a meaty social simulator with plenty of conversations, hangouts, and friendship levels, as well as a lore- and collectible-driven exploration of the Abbey and its open-zone environs, which are traversed in third-person as players’ custom protagonist, the Hunter.
It doesn’t sound quite as immediately elaborate as Marvel’s Midnight Suns’ Abbey from what little of it was discussed at the panel, but Star Wars Zero Company will feature a hub on the Ring of Kafrene called the Den.
None of this is to say that Star Wars Zero Company should have to meet some sort of bar established by Marvel’s Midnight Suns, but it’ll be fascinating to see how another preposterously extraordinary and celebrated IP will follow it. In the meantime, it’ll be a shame if Marvel’s Midnight Suns never gets to pursue the dangling throughline of Doctor Doom, the Hunter, and Lilith in a sequel.
WHERE TO PLAY
- Genre(s)
- Turn-Based Strategy, Tactical, Sci-Fi
- Platform(s)
- PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S
