If you're reading this you probably know by now that Bit Reactor, the studio behind Star Wars Zero Company, is made up (for now) of a lot of the same folks behind the success of the XCOM series. Which is cool, but today I want to talk about how much I love seeing the bones of another, unlikely Firaxis game turn up in the Star Wars universe: Civilization.
Civ does not have a strong history with either sci-fi story-telling or turn-based tactics, but the one thing Zero Company does have in common with Sid Meier's long-running series is that some animators, artists and cinematics folks from Civilization VI also worked on Zero Company.
I once wrote a whole blog called "Civilization VI Has The Most Incredible Animation", because it did: The leader animations you'd encounter in diplomatic scenes were some of the funniest, most evocative works of video game art I have ever seen, and went a long way towards filling the game with a real sense of humour and character that it was otherwise sorely lacking. Just look at this, it's such wonderful work:
It doesn't take long after booting up Zero Company to see some of the same juice in action. I'm not saying Zero Company's characters and animations are done by all the same people responsible for Civ VI's, but a quick check on Linkedin revealed there's a few who have worked on both (and Midnight Suns in between), so there's some DNA (or even just influence) being shared here.
Nearly every cutscene in Zero Company is full of the most human (or alien!) touches: Characters will throw their arms up in the air, point angrily, roll their eyes and sigh as deeply as a 3D model existing within a video game that doesn't actually need to breathe can sigh. It not only looks cool, but it really brings a sense of warmth and togetherness to the whole thing. These aren't a collection of nameless soldiers, these are your guys. I can't stress enough how important this seemingly minor touch is to the overall experience!
A big part of what's sucking me into Zero Company between missions is that I get excited about hanging out with this wacky crew. I love seeing Hawks exhale as someone says some extremely dumb shit, I love seeing Runa flail her arms around while she tries to brag about something, I love seeing Tel--who is wearing a dead, lifeless mask--somehow have more expression in her actions than other games can manage with a fully mo-capped face rig, all expressed through the gentlest of finger motions.
The tiniest movements in a character's face can make a huge difference to their ability to convey an emotion!
They're all so real and alive and full of sass (a big thanks to the voice actors here as well) that it makes this game feel more like an epic RPG than a mildly repetitive turn-based tactics game. Normally this genre would need to get you romancing its characters to make you feel this strongly about them (I'm looking at you, Fire Emblem), so to have me feeling so fondly towards almost the entire cast just on the strength of their glares and folding arms is one hell of an achievement.
