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If you were wondering if Star Wars Zero Company would contain permanent death for its characters as part of its campaign, the answer is yes. Developer Bit Reactor believes it’s the best way to play the game and suggests leaving it on.
During a recent virtual preview presentation and Q&A, narrative and cinematic director Aaron Contreras confirmed that permadeath can be toggled on or off. With the option enabled, almost every character in the game can be permanently killed, though there are some exceptions.
Hawks, the player-created leader of Zero Company, is the major exception. If Hawks dies, the mission ends and must be restarted. Characters introduced during a particular mission, or those central to a specific mission, can also trigger a mission failure rather than permanently dying.
Once those first, or important missions are passed, the rules no longer apply; however, authored characters are vulnerable like anyone else. Contreras used the Jedi character Tel as an example, explaining that a major character with their own story can still be killed by a stray blaster bolt and removed from the campaign.
Lucasfilm Games executive producer Orion Kellogg said the team sees that consequence as part of Star Wars storytelling, particularly the idea of pushing forward after an emotional loss.
This permanent death system also ties into one of the game’s core themes and systems in ‘Soldier Bonds.’ Relationships grow as operators fight and complete missions together, unlocking support abilities, shared skills and stats, focus points and eventually secondary specialisations. Dialogue changes as relationships improve or decline as well.
For players who would rather focus on the story, Zero Company includes a forgiving Story difficulty alongside Normal, Hardened and Expert options.
Star Wars Zero Company is set to release on August 28 on PC, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S.
Read more about my time with Star Wars Zero Company and what I learned from the press briefing in the articles below:
