Permadeath in Star Wars: Zero Company defines the game’s entire approach. If you were hoping for a light-hearted romp with blaster fire and wisecracks, this isn’t it. This is Star Wars viewed through an XCOM lens. Tactical, unforgiving, and more Rogue One than Rebels.
Bit Reactor has pedigree. People started calling this Star Wars XCOM the moment it was confirmed that it was being worked on, and with good reason. That nickname stuck – not because of marketing, but because of who’s behind it. The team includes several veterans from Firaxis. Now, with the official reveal of Zero Company, there’s no more guesswork. This is Star Wars XCOM. Expect the same layered strategy and high stakes, just set in a galaxy far, far away, and powered by modern tech.
Permadeath was at the heart of what made XCOM work. It was about consequences. You got attached to soldiers, gave them names, watched them level up, and then lost them in a single bad call. That tension, that sense of loss, gave the missions weight. Soldiers were stories in motion.
Zero Company picks that up without flinching. Permadeath isn’t tacked on. It’s built into the structure. Even key story characters can die, and when they do, the game adapts. Missions go on. The narrative shifts. There’s no reset button and no safety net.
Death isn’t limited to throwaway squad members either. The custom characters you build can die, but so can the named story characters. Fully voiced, with backstories, relationships, and narrative roles. If they fall during a mission, they’re gone. The game doesn’t pause for grief. It moves on, and the story shifts with it.
You can switch permadeath off in the settings, but that’s not how it’s meant to be played. Bit Reactor has made it optional to avoid locking out players unfamiliar with the genre, but the intended experience is clear. Characters are meant to be at risk. You’re supposed to feel the tension when you send them into the field.
What makes it interesting is that permadeath doesn’t just impact your squad, it affects the narrative. This is more than characters disappearing from the roster. Their absence changes how missions unfold. Dialogue changes. Storylines are cut short or rerouted. More than losing firepower, you’re losing context, momentum, and planned interactions. That weight is baked into the structure.
The decision to let named characters, with personalities, roles, and connections, die shows a rare level of commitment to consequence. Most games would flinch. They’d protect key cast members, wrap them in plot armour, and let the supporting grunts do all the dying. Bit Reactor isn’t doing that. If a key character is killed off in a failed mission on some Outer Rim backwater, that loss becomes part of your version of the story. No reloads. No cinematic save.
This is a Star Wars game where failure is part of the experience, not a reason to reload your last save file. The story doesn’t break when things go badly. It adapts. It folds your mistakes into the narrative and keeps going. That’s rare, especially in a franchise built on chosen ones and destiny arcs.
There’s still a long way to go before we can say how well all of this works in practice. But the intent is clear: Zero Company wants you to care about your squad, not just command them. And when they die, the game won’t flinch. Neither should you.