Turn-based tactics games are the best kind of spin-off. There are very few names that wouldn’t translate well to the genre. Call of Duty? Sure, the multiplayer maps are already built to facilitate two teams facing off against each other, with considerations for distance, lines of sight, and cover. GTA? Add in some car combat, and heist levels to earn resources, and you’ve got a winner. Gears of War? Already happened.

So, I was pleased to see that a galaxy far, far away is finally getting a turn-based tactics game in the form of Star Wars Zero Company. There isn’t a ton of information available yet — that’s coming soon — but so far we know that it’s single-player, launching on Xbox Series X|S, PS5, and PC, and is being made by Bit Reactor in collaboration with Respawn and Lucasfilm Games. Bit Reactor is largely composed of former Firaxis devs, so the game is powered by XCOM know-how.

Turn-Based Tactics Games Have A High Floor

Turn-based tactics games almost always hit the spot for me, whether they’re RPGs that happen to have tactical combat (Baldur’s Gate 3) or pure strategic exercises (Into the Breach, UFO 50’s Bug Hunter). I love this kind of gameplay so much that it can get me all-in on a franchise game even when I don’t care about that franchise.

I was extremely sick of Marvel stuff when Marvel’s Midnight Suns launched at the end of 2022, and its post-GOTY list release date made it a low priority. But once I got around to it, it ended up being one of my favorite games in years. Its satisfying strategic gameplay and the fun haunted castle setting were a great pairing and got me excited about the Marvel license for the first time in years.

I like Star Wars a lot more than I do Marvel, but I’ve been experiencing some similar fatigue with the series thanks to the overexposure of the brand on Disney+. I’m basically at the point where I’ll show up for Andor and little else. But if Zero Company is good? I’ll be all-in on Star Wars again.

Going tactical works for basically everything. Action game franchises, like Gears of War, worked well as Gears Tactics. John Wick Hex got decent reviews. The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles are starring in a forthcoming tactics game from Strange Scaffold, and The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance even got a tactics game not long after the series hit Netflix. RPG series like Final Fantasy and Fallout have gotten tactical spin-offs, too — sometimes multiple. Even Mario, the king of action-forward gameplay, got a pair of thinky spin-offs in the Mario + Rabbids games.

Don’t Joke About My Tactics

You know how, on April Fools Day, developers will make joke posts about how they’re making a dating sim based on their property? The joke is that players are unrelentingly horny for their characters and that the developers are finally giving them the supposedly low-effort thing they want. Sometimes they even actually make the visual novel in question, like when Sega released The Murder of Sonic the Hedgehog in time for April Fools in 2023.

It wasn’t released on April Fools, but I Love You, Colonel Sanders! A Finger Lickin’ Good Dating Simulator got attention the same way: actually doing the thing that plenty of others have joked about.

The joke speaks to an underlying truth: a solid section of fans absolutely want to play those games. Turn-based tactics games are never positioned as a joke and they’re too high-effort to release on a lark. But in the same way that a subset of every franchise’s fans will eat up a dating sim, every franchise has fans who will show up for a tactical spin-off. I’m glad Star Wars is giving the people what they want.

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