Here’s 15 things you need to know before you buy.

Every NHL Arena Has Been Re-Built

NHL 27 is poised to make every single game feel like you’re actually sitting in the stands of the home arena. Every building, from the rink to the rafters, has been re-built to reflect each individual team’s energy, traditions, and identity, with authentic chants, goal celebrations, lighting, and presentation. EA states specifically that the development theme this year was “Hockey Tourism”, including authentic Jumbotron graphics, crowd goal songs, arena landmarks, and licensed hype songs that kick in during high-pressure moments for all 32 arenas.

Every Team Now Has Its Own Playbook

Every team in NHL 27 now has its own Team-Specific Playbook, with each one built using real-world NHL EDGE positional data. This means that teams should behave differently on a fundamental level, creating distinct tactical on-ice battles depending on how they operate. Some favour high-speed controlled zone carries, while others lean into dump-and-chase strategies. Defensive positioning, forecheck speed, puck support, and the way AI teammates position themselves can vary depending on which team you’re controlling, too. However, if your favourite team’s strategy doesn’t suit your playstyle, you can switch up their playbook in the menu.

All-New Cohesive AI Makes Teams Think Like a Unit

A significant AI change coming to NHL 27 is Cohesive AI, designed to make teams behave less like individual players and more like a well-honed unit. AI teammates and opponents now read, react, and adapt to one another, with dump-and-chase execution, for instance, seeing AI players retrieve the dumped puck as a unit – one player pressures the puck, while supporting skaters throw body checks on retrieval, with remaining teammates covering passing lanes. Defencemen hustle back into the neutral zone with urgency, they’ll ice the puck under pressure, or dump the puck deep to execute a line change. Unlike NHL 26, AI players aren’t following their own X-Factors and tendencies anymore, and the result should be stronger, smarter team-wide plays built on spatial and situational awareness.

AI Behaviour Now Scales Dynamically Depending on Difficulty

And, Cohesive AI isn’t a static system either. AI behaviour in NHL 27 will scale according to your chosen difficulty, with higher settings increasing the aggression, speed, and positional intelligence of your opponents. On Superstar, for example, EA confirms the AI uses faster double-teams and aggressive positioning to suffocate control. Rookie, meanwhile, leaves plenty of space for newcomers to get a handle on the game’s systems.

Goalies Get Smarter as Difficulty Rises

Goaltenders are also receiving the same difficulty-specific scaling as the skaters, with their intelligence and reaction profiles dynamically adjusting depending on the setting you’re playing. Rookie and Pro goalies are designed to give casual players a greater chance to score goals, while upgraded All-Star and Superstar netminders will anticipate developing plays more effectively and react faster. This means that familiar scoring exploits like cross-crease passes and slow shots should prove less reliable at higher difficulties. On Superstar, EA says you’ll need to properly construct scoring opportunities rather than leaning heavily on your elite shooters.

Goalie Fatigue is a Bigger Factor This Year

NHL 27 is placing more emphasis on goalie fatigue, with gameplay tuning ensuring you’ll need to pay attention to a goalie’s energy. A fresh, rested netminder will be extremely difficult to beat, particularly after getting a clean look at several shots. However, their effectiveness should gradually decline as their energy drains. In essence: tire the opposing netminder out and your chances of beating them will increase, although EA warns that elite goaltenders can still pull off spectacular desperation saves even when gassed out.

Goal Variety Has Been Expanded

NHL 27 is also widening the variety of ways you can find the back of the net. While X-Factor sniping remains potent, EA has adjusted gameplay balance so that overly-relying on howitzers shouldn’t be the only viable strategy. On the lower Rookie and Pro difficulties, your high-tier shooters will still be lethal, but even they won’t bail you out of a bad play on higher difficulty. You’ll need to play creatively, use your team-wide cohesion, and work the offensive zone to create meaningful openings.

Strategies Change During Games

In real ice hockey, teams won’t follow a rigid strategy from the opening face-off to the final buzzer. No, they’ll alter their approach depending on the score, remaining time, and momentum of a game. NHL 27 replicates these shifting mindsets via the all-new Contextual Strategy Shifts, meaning you’ll need to keep adapting to the on-ice action. Some examples: a team chasing a late deficit might shorten their bench, they might throw more pucks at the net, and crash the crease more readily. Meanwhile, a team protecting a lead might retreat into a more defensively solid structure, while AI coaches will call timeouts to restore stamina ahead of a late-game push.

Defending Now Emphasises Manual Precision

Defending in NHL 27 is being rebuilt with a focus on precision, authenticity, and reward when you turn possession over cleanly. Poke checks, for instance, are receiving improved stick-on-stick collision detection, making it feel more responsive when you align your defensive stick correctly against an opponent’s. Stick lifts benefit from enhanced stick-on-stick collision detection too, leading to cleaner attempts and fewer accidental penalties. Elsewhere, defensive AI is now more effective at reading passing lanes.

Skating and Movement Is More Deliberate

Skating in NHL 27 is designed to feel more fluid, deliberate, and physical. In particular, repeatedly pivoting now comes with a larger speed penalty, while continually relying on this manoeuvre will make you more vulnerable to poke checks and body checks. The movement itself should remain useful if used sparingly, with EA looking to ensure it cannot be spammed for an easy exploit. In other words: purposeful staking will be rewarded, while repeating the same movement will leave you exposed.

Hits Have More Varied Outcomes

Hits ordinarily result in spectacular crashes and knockdowns, but NHL 27 makes ice hockey’s physical side more subtle and varied by introducing instances of players stumbling, losing their balance, or being pushed down without necessarily being flattened. These more varied outcomes take the size and speed of players into account, meaning the physicality of individual collisions will better reflect what’s actually happening on the ice.

The Orchestrator Completely Reimagines Presentation

Back to presentation, a huge part of NHL 27’s updated broadcast package is what EA dubs The Orchestrator, or dynamic ‘virtual arena director’ designed to read what’s happening on the ice and adjust the presentation to match. Monitoring game state, momentum swings, desperation, score context, and crowd sentiment, The Orchestrator then directs arena reactions and broadcast elements. This includes syncing beats to arena lighting, showing bench reactions, slow-motion replays, and even mascot antics. Furthermore, EA promises more varied post-goal sequences, eschewing the same broadcast cuts of earlier NHL titles.

Connor McDavid Is The First 99 Club Member

Connor McDavid has been inaugurated as the first-ever member of the EA Sports NHL 99 Club, receiving the maximum possible overall rating of 99 in NHL 27. Describing 99 OVR, EA says it is the absolute ceiling of its rating system, reserved only for players who demonstrate elite ability across every aspect of the game. In terms of gameplay, McDavid’s rating translates to on-ice dominance, with explosive speed, elite vision, and exceptional puck control enabling him to create opportunities and weave through traffic at an unmatched level.

Connected Franchise Lets You Build Your Own League

Connected Franchise is a brand-new mode to create and manage your own league with your mates. Ranging from a three-team league, expanded all the way to 32 teams, Connected Franchise gives you options to customise structure, schedules, playoff formats, gameplay settings, salary cap rules, and more. Once your league is established, each member is responsible for shaping their team through trades, roster management, and lineups. It’s basically your own highly-tailorable hockey experience, with the rules determined by its participants.

Commissioner Tool Suite Controls League Organisation

EA thinks managing a multiplayer league shouldn’t be as difficult as winning the Stanley Cup, so they’ve built a dedicated Commissioner Tool Suite into the Connected Franchise. The nominated commissioner can manage users, advance league stages, handle trades, and adjust a wealth of other settings, ensuring whoever runs the league can do so smoothly and with control. Things, then, shouldn’t unravel a few rounds into the season, but there is an open Feedback Portal where you can tell EA what you think the mode needs to enhance it further.

There are improvements to defending and playstyles, for starters, while the game’s different modes are also slated to receive new additions to an addictive, rewarding loop. Well, a new addition to that list comes via the game’s PC version, an area EA has paid special attention to this year, per its announcement.

Various resets should make it easy to take advantage of your hardware. There’s also an Ultra Enhanced graphical mode for those of you with truly high-end PCs that are already pushing the limits of visual fidelity. Improved keyboard and mouse support is also crucial, and should make things much easier to control this time around. Meanwhile, improvements to responsiveness, load times, and performance are welcome changes which seem to have emerged from all the feedback FC 26 received.

If you’ve been thinking about stepping onto the pitch with your PC, this is all probably good news ahead of the game’s global release on September 25th, though Ultimate Edition owners can start playing on September 18th.

This Madden NFL 27 guide is all about Evos and how to get them without spending a dime on Madden Points.

How To Get Evos For Free

The Ultimate Captain Evo is available right away, and allows you to evolve a single player of your choice, with an OVR ranging from 70 to 82.

Choose carefully, as the selected player is intended for evolution throughout your season.

Fortunately, you are not locked-in to whichever player you apply to, and a relatively token amount of 150 MUT Coins will allow you to essentially respec them to their original OVR, so that you can then apply the Evo to another player of your choice.

Bear in mind that while this unchainable Evo can be removed, it prohibits any additional Evos from being added.

An Evo is awarded for free by simply completing the free path of the Preseason Standouts Field Pass, and even that is easily accomplished through daily objectives and challenges that you would probably be grinding every day anyway.

The Training Camp Field Pass gives you a free Luther Burden III 76 OVR card, which has an Evo all its own. As a Training Camp item, the upgrade itself costs nothing more than 5 Training Points (TP). Be aware that the Evo cannot be removed nor can any more Evos be added.

A Premium 83 OVR Blueprint Evo can be had for 200 TP, or 25,500 MUT Coins.

A similar 82 OVR Upgrade Blueprint Evo can also be accessed by reaching Level 9 in the Pregame Access Field Pass.

The Store itself has free Evos on rotations, so always check back every now and then for more promotional items that cost zero real-world currency. The S1: 32 NFL Team Chemistry EVO is currently available to claim for free at launch.

If you happened to have pre-ordered the game, remember to open up all of your pre-order packs, as at least one of them has your 83 OVR Pre-Order Upgrade Evo. If you are eligible to receive it, you should see it with a lock icon among the available Evos under the Store tab of the Evolutions section.

Tips For Using Evos

While Evos are intended for boosting lower-OVR cards, you should avoid just needlessly throwing them away on players willy-nilly. The best choices are players that you would have overlooked for lacking in just one or two stats, while being about average in cost. The resulting stat multipliers applied with the Evo, would then have them running neck and neck with more expensive or overpriced players.

While attempting to assign an Evo to a player, always slow down and carefully note what the confirmation pop-up says regarding whether the Evo can be removed, and if additional Evos can be assigned. The warning clearly differentiates between ‘can’ and ‘can NOT’ for your visual clarification.

Remember that you can view all Active Evos, from the Active tab in the Evolutions section. You will need to select individual cards in order to see whether the Evo can be removed from the player it has been assigned to, or if it is permanently fused there. Any Coin charges applicable are clearly indicated, and tend to be quite low for the most part.

When you do strip a player of their Evo, all upgrades are reset. Skill Points are only reduced down to the intrinsic maximum of the item. Fortunately, any extra Skill Points are not simply lost, but will be stored for application to the next Evo assigned, assuming it too increases Skill Points above that base maximum.

Not a whole lot of Evos can be chained or stacked on the same card for a cumulative effect, at least not right now. This makes those Evos that do, extra precious, and so always be certain about assigning them.

The Premium 83 OVR Blueprint Evo and the 82 OVR Upgrade Blueprint Evo are two examples of chainable Evos.

That is everything there is to know about Evos and how to get some for free in Madden NFL 27.

This Madden NFL 27 guide lists the most widely accepted settings to adjust or toggle for a comfortable playing experience.

Passing Settings

Set Passing Type to Placement & Accuracy in order to have an accuracy bar that you can leverage for maximum manual control and perfect passing.

Turn off Passing Slowdown once you have a good grasp of the mechanics if you haven’t already, and it is of course purely offline anyway.

Set Pass Lead Increase to Small for tighter placement instead of random over-throws.

Reticle Speed should be in the higher single digits, ideally at 7, for the most thumbstick precision for the average player.

Catching Settings

Setting Offensive Timing-Based Catching to 5 yards spares you the dreaded timing meter in certain situations.

On the other hand, setting Defensive Timing-Based Catching to 10 yards gives you a nice wide window to act on interceptions.

Set Timing-Based Catching UI Feedback to On for a nice visual indicator of what to do and when.

Defensive Ball Hawk set to On will help out with defenders while tracking the ball in deep passes.

Other Settings

Auto Pass Protection ought to be set to either Base or Empty, but never entirely Off, for the slide protections.

Auto Flip Defensive Play Call set to On will make sure that defense aligns itself to the offense’s formation strength.

Switch Stick Delay set to Slight will help avoid unintentional player-switching in the heat of the moment, but with enough of a window to change if truly intended.

Coin Toss Choices

Kick should be your first choice in order to guarantee second-half possession with the former when you win the toss. 

Against Wind needs to be your second choice for coin toss losses, for the effect it has on field goals and passes.

Those are the best settings to apply in Madden NFL 27 for a smooth gaming experience.

This Madden NFL 27 guide lists every in-game currency and how to earn them quickly and efficiently.

MUT Coins

Madden Ultimate Team Coins are a staple of the Madden series, and are the free baseline currency you earn almost everywhere in the game. They are used for both buying standard packs from the in-game Store, and bidding for player cards in the Auction House.

The most reliable way to get them has always been through the completion of a variety of solo program challenges that rotate in and out over the course of the season, letting you earn more than enough to build a competent team if you are shrewd about it.

The Daily Objectives require you to login each day–which itself rewards you–and then perform short tasks for a relative pittance in Coins, but which will start to add up eventually.

Grinding solo seasons and head-to-head seasons online offers the highest returns for time spent in-game, and should be your go-to if you have neither the time nor the patience for challenges.

Limited‑Time Events that come and go are a great way to earn Coins, as well as Packs, and Tickets among other rewards, much of which can be traded away for even more Coins if you are so inclined. You will need to keep a weather eye out in order to participate in these within their specified window.

The Field Passes always have large lump sums of Coins to be unlocked along their tiered tracks. Also remember to complete free rewards within their specified time limit.

The Madden 27 Season 1 Field Pass expires on September 9, 2026 at 6:30 AM EDT.

The next expiry date to make a note of is on October 21, 2026 at 6:30 AM EDT, when some of the solo challenges will lapse, along with the Crystal Chemistry program possibly.

Completion of sets in order to dispose of the resulting higher-tier product is another staple of the economy. You will need to amass a lot of low-tier items in order to assemble something really worth your while, but you will have to be aware of an ever-shifting underlying market.

Quick-selling Platinum Cards yields a MUT Coin value that also forms the bottom price for a given card on the Auction House. They will never list for less than their Quick-Sell value.

True veterans of the series know that the Auction House is the ultimate source of all major MUT Coin income. Whether snapping up cheap, low-tier items in order to flip them for a small profit margin, or stumbling upon an undervalued high-tier card on auction, there is some degree of profit to be made.

Timing your trades are ever-important as you really want to capture the largest potential marketbase. This usually occurs on the weekends, Friday through Sunday. As for weekdays, they might have greater activity during the evening hours, east coast US timezone, when the playerbase finally gets home from work or school.

While the game itself is cross-play (except for the Nintendo Switch 2) at your discretion, the Auction House is not, and thus the player economies are segregated by platform.

Twitch Drops for watching Madden content broadcast live on the platform could potentially be a source for Coins, though it is currently known only to offer up Gridiron Tokens.

Never buy MUT Coins (as opposed to Madden Points) from online sellers, no matter how legitimate they may appear to be on the surface. EA Sports does not allow the exchange of Coins for cash or even Madden Points within their own ecosystem, let alone with third-party resellers. These entities grind for Coins using automated tools, which is in and of itself a violation of the terms and conditions.

Also prohibited is grinding for Coins within your own little circle of accounts in order to siphon it all off to your primary playing account.

Expect an EA account ban for violating these terms, one that effectively bars you from every other game you may own on that account as well.

Training Points

Training is a form of upgrade points, and is used to shape player attributes, unlock Chemistry slots on cards, and some very specific items in the Store.

Your source for these will be the Quick-Sell function on disposable items within your binder, with proportionately more Training being returned for higher OVR cards. These effectively destroy the item permanently, so be absolutely certain before making that final binding decision.

Season Tickets

Exclusively earned from leveling up the Field Pass, the free tier path should net you 10,000 Season Tickets throughout the season.

The paid premium track will only grant you around 7,000 Season Tickets in all.

Season Tickets can be exchanged for certain account-bound Packs.

Gridiron Tokens

Twitch Drops are a promotional tool that reward you with in-game items for watching content of the same title on the platform. In the case of Madden NFL 27, you simply have to link your Twitch and EA accounts together via the account settings in order to then begin accumulating watch time towards the progress meter.

Aside from Pack drops, specific streams broadcast by major partners will award you with Gridiron Tokens. These can be exchanged for account-bound Packs, as well as possibly a free Team of the Year player at some point over the next year, for 180 Gridiron Tokens.

You can group ten Gridiron Tokens together as a single Super Token.

Madden Points

The only premium currency to be acquired in the game, Madden Points are exclusively spent on Store items which are specifically priced for them. These include high-value bundles, cosmetics, and event Packs.

These cannot be swapped in any way, shape, or form, for MUT Coins, Training Points, Season Tickets, or Gridiron Tokens.

Discounted Madden Points packs may be available for purchase from third-parties, both official and unofficial.

That is every last thing to be known about the in-game currencies and economy in Madden NFL 27, and how to amass as much of them as possible.

You wouldn’t think Bit Reactor and Respawn Entertainment could pull that off with Star Wars Zero Company, and yet, to use a cliché, it’s scratching that XCOM itch like so few other titles have over the years. Yes, there’s the familiarity and comfort that comes with time-worn mechanics, but it doesn’t lean on them so much as leverage them to build on the tactical turn-based loop. Even with the odd graphical issues (at least on PS5), it feels like a sizable leap forward while also delivering an interesting, if not always super-compelling story with likeable characters.

"XCOM veterans will immediately feel comfortable with the usual mechanics – taking cover, flanking, Overwatch, maximizing Action Points, hit chances and so on."

Even with its non-typical set-up, the Star Wars feel is unmistakable. As Hawks, a disgraced Republican commander, you run a mercenary outfit known as Zero Company. Far from a hive of scum and villainy, it’s a roughshod operation that’s barely holding on and which owes a sizable amount of Credits to the Hutts (which is never a good thing). After a run-in with the Infinite Coil – whose Shadow Plague is slowly but steadily spreading through the galaxy – Hawks and his crew are tasked by the Republic to investigate and ultimately put a stop to their influence. Throughout all this, we learn more about the one driving the faction – Fathom – and what ultimately drives her.

Of course, Zero Company recruits its own notorious individuals, including Cly the Mandalorian, Tel-Rea the Jedi and so on, each with their own reason (and quest). Trick, a former Republic Clone Trooper, and Kabb Uppercut are along for the ride from the start, as is Runa, who serves as a manager of sorts when she’s not needling Hawks about the group’s depleting funds.

Admittedly, the story is slow to get going. Even as it introduces all the key players and teaches you its various mechanics, the characterization can feel a bit surface-level at first. But give it time, and they develop quite nicely, going beyond the current set-up to slowly incorporate other significant events in the Star Wars universe. And that’s not including run-ins with beloved characters like Anakin Skywalker. It can still feel very straightforward and low-stakes at some points, especially when it comes to the threat that Fathom possesses (at least, against the backdrop of everything else that the galaxy has to offer), but the pacing is brisk and the writing solid throughout.

The real star of the show is the gameplay. XCOM veterans will immediately feel comfortable with the usual mechanics – taking cover, flanking, Overwatch, maximizing Action Points, hit chances and so on. Not that I’ll gloss over how well Zero Company executes on those fundamentals, even on a controller. Movement feels snappy; there’s a weight behind damage, whether you’re shattering cover, pelting someone with Blaster shots or triggering explosions. Even relatively simple actions like bonking an enemy upside the head with a melee attack feel satisfying, and accessing all this on controller via the radial menu feels intuitive.

"Years of modded XCOM 2 aside, there is a decent enough variety to be had, whether you’re fighting off numerous enemies, taking out high-value targets, or interacting with objectives."

Where Zero Company excels is in how it evolves the typical XCOM formula. You can set the distance of Overwatch, which also affects your accuracy, making it more of a planning tool rather than a “set and forget” tactic. Allies can also call for backup, leveraging any nearby teammates to follow up with their own shots. Besides a guaranteed hit from the extra attack, it also costs zero Action Points and helps build Bonds.

So while enemies can initially seem tanky (or your weapons underpowered) early on, chaining together extra actions and Overwatch can whittle them down quickly. And that’s before factoring in Advantage, which the entire team generates and lets you unleash powerful abilities like Trick’s rocket launcher. Getting into the fray and pushing an enemy goes hand in hand with knowing when to play defensively and bait out their movement. It’s an ingenious loop that makes each skirmish satisfying from start to finish, even if the overall amount of challenge can feel a bit wanting as you progress further (and this is on the Normal difficulty).

As you complete missions, characters earn Focus Points, which go towards their own Talents and Skills. However, building Bonds allows for an array of incremental bonuses through cross-training. You can invest in more movement, higher damage, increased critical hit chance, or even Focus Points, which can go into Skills. This encourages you to engage in more actions to quickly build Bonds, which in turn encourages a faster sense of play, and repeat. Simple, yet very rewarding. And thankfully, the overall writing quality means you won’t regret interacting with characters for the cross-training benefits alone.

Of course, Zero Company doesn’t inextricably tie you down to these pre-made companions. You can bring in custom characters depending on available funds. Operations let you dispatch forces and make decisions to net more Credits and increase standing with different factions (though different choices can prioritize one or the other). The Armory expands with consumables like grenades, healing items, weapons and whatnot, thus letting you further outfit the squad and lean into their respective playstyles.

All of this isn’t necessarily groundbreaking, and the same goes for the mission types you directly control squad members in. Years of modded XCOM 2 aside, there is a decent enough variety to be had, whether you’re fighting off numerous enemies, taking out high-value targets, or interacting with objectives. It can feel overtly safe at times, but it works, and it’s bolstered by fantastic combat and production values.

"Even with these qualms and my own nagging complaints about the story, Star Wars Zero Company is a delight."

Which is where Zero Company somewhat falters. Don’t get me wrong – the attention to detail on characters and environments, whether it’s in cutscenes or combat, is quite good. Bit Reactor captures the seedier and more epic sides of Star Wars incredibly well, where every down-in-the-dirt skirmish coexists comfortably with the larger conflict at hand. Performance is also pretty solid, especially at 60 FPS, but as you’ll quickly notice, image quality takes a noticeable hit. It’s far from unplayable, but the degraded shadow quality and aliasing stick out more often than not. And I didn’t find Quality Mode to be a sizable enough visual upgrade in exchange for playing at 30 FPS.

At the very least, I haven’t faced any significant bugs, though it felt like there was sometimes a short delay between taking out that last enemy and triggering the victory screen. Otherwise, no crashes or game-breaking issues, which is a lot more than I can say for the PC version.

Even with these qualms and my own nagging complaints about the story, Star Wars Zero Company is a delight. Beyond simply presenting a new tactical turn-based title and throwing a bunch of Star Wars-themed covers and cameos, it offers a fundamentally rewarding experience that can stand alongside some of the genre’s greats, even if it doesn’t necessarily supersede them.

This game was reviewed on PS5.

Why, you ask? Well, that’s exactly why we’re here. We don’t know too much about her motivations or personality other than glimpses from the game’s promotional materials, but we do know that her presence, and potential absence, represent a part of the Star Wars franchise that other studios have bafflingly shied away from. Zero Company’s permadeath-anabled campaign isn’t afraid to deny the plot armor most other games would give a character of Tel-Rae’s narrative significance. In doing so, Bit Reactor has managed to make dealing with the loss of an ally a dynamic part of its gameplay loop.

Here’s why we’re very intrigued to see how this innovative twist to what’s easy to mistake as X-COM with a Star Wars overlay works in action.

Unexplored Corners of Faraway Galaxies

Any story needs a protagonist, and needs them to survive until its end in order for the plot to follow its natural course. It’s a thing most mainstream games allow for by treating death as a failed attempt at getting something right, allowing you to reload and try again, the mistakes of the past guiding your present. Your protagonist, and potentially other important cast members with more story to tell, survive because the story says they must, and no amount of terrible gameplay on your part isn’t going to change that.

If and when a character does die, it simply means that their story has reached the end of its road in the larger plot. As such, that death is then a scripted event, and not necessarily something that’s your fault, or actively under your control. Yes, other Star Wars games have come with choices that could lead to the death of important characters if you chose poorly, but a common thread is that the loss is narratively significant but perhaps not as woven into the very foundations of your experience as it could be.

How would that work? Would it even work? Well, Zero Company is trying to answer those questions with innovations that are insightful implementations of a team-building mechanic that has you investing in characters while balancing that out with the risk of one bad call on your part leading to losing them forever. Their loss is on you, and its you who must carry the consequences of those choices. It flips the script by taking control of those events away from it, and placing it squarely between your thumbs.

It’s a whole new perspective on permadeath that makes Zero Company a title that’s as intimidating as it can be intriguing. It’s going to be on by default, and is intended to convey a sense of loss as well as to weave in moving on from that failure into the gameplay loop. In practice, the game’s Standard difficulty has an Operator reaching a Downed state if their health is fully depleted. That counts as an injury and they can be revived by an ally.

So far, so good right? But it’s when you stack a third injury on that same Operator where things get interesting. It’s what triggers permadeath for that Operator, and they’re no longer a part of your adventure. It’s interesting because the warning signs are already baked into the experience, and you’re then on the backfoot with regard to an Operator you clearly like taking out into the field, but are now cautious about knowing that you’re actively threatening their life with every mission. You’ve seen them escape death twice, and you know what they say about the third time being the charm.

But how does Tel-Rae, a Jedi padawan who probably hasn’t spent enough time meditating to seriously consider the circle of life, fit into all of this?

The Plot Under The Plot Armor

Well, she’s an indicator that Bit Reactor is willing to put its money where its mouth is and go the distance when it comes to permadeath. It could have been easy to extend the system to any of the customizable recruits you get to add to your ranks as you progress through the game and call it a day. It would still have the consequences we spoke of while having no influence on the narrative structure, and be less of a pain all around.

But the fact that Tel-Rae is an authored character whose backstory involving her fallen Jedi master is quite interesting, as are her Jedi-specific combat abilities, can die just as easily as any of your other recruits immediately puts you in a position where you don’t want to make too many mistakes. You’re forced to think like a leader, and weigh the rewards against the potential risks every time you send a recruit out into the field.

When you think about that through the lens of a character and Operator as unique as Tel-Rae, you know you can’t simply replace her since her role’s pretty unique, but you’re going to think about when and where to use her skills based on how well she’s been taken care of over the course of your campaign progress. The developers have since stated that they wrestled with the idea of allowing authored companions to fall under the permadeath system’s purview, with concerns arising about what could be safely written into their stories.

But like many of the inspiring folks from its inspirations, Zero Company’s team decided to forge on ahead, not just with making those characters be vulnerable to a dangerous game of risk-and-reward, but by placing you squarely in the center of it. It’s at this juncture that the Bonds system comes into play. You’re not just accompanying these characters on their respective journeys, but actively finding ways to make them work well with the rest of your crew. In short, you’re leading, and building a close-knit unit where each member pulls their own weight while trusting their comrades to do the same.

Your characters build bonds with each other not just by fighting together, but by using synergies between their skill sets while backing up anybody who needs a helping hand. Those relationships unlock actual gameplay benefits and cross-training rewards, while also showing an unfolding camaraderie building between members who might otherwise not get along. Trick and Luco’s acrimonious first few hours and how that hostility can make way for the beginnings of a working relationship the more you send them out together on missions is a good example. It’s also equally important to know that the developers say that those relationships could also affect their fate.

But as the one at Zero Company’s helm, you’re the one building those bonds from the ground up, the game’s very foundations encouraging you to foster a budding friendship between misfits from all walks of life. You watch these people warm up to your command and even learn to like each other, all with the knowledge that all of you might make it back to the Den the next time you head out into the field.

All right, you care about your recruits. But mistakes happen, right? Yeah, and Zero Company sets itself apart by how it’s designed to respond to your errors in judgement.

Dealing With The Inevitable

Mistakes happen, and even more so in situations where the stakes are literally life and death. But when the worst happens in most video games, it’s a matter of thinking “I screwed up, time for a reload”. But Zero Company makes you think about what’s next instead, incorporating the loss into your story and gameplay with authored characters receiving protections only up until their essential narrative introductions are set up.

After that, anything can happen, and there is dialogue and content built around who’s remaining at any given point in time, which means that the whole squad can showcase the loss of a comrade. But to us, the players, those altered squads become our very own versions of the story, the melancholy of memories built with fallen friends contrasting very well with fond ones of shared victories, and moments of connection that you’ve actively chased.

On the gameplay front, your playthrough can vary as wildly as the story can, with the squad members you have coming with specific abilities to exploit even as you sorely miss ones that your former comrades might have brought to the table had you been just a little more careful. Losing stronger Bonds could mean losing out on those synergies you built with the rest of the crew.

It’s easy to see the metaphorical centerpiece of a well-built squad fall in battle only for you to be left unable to make use of the advantages that the character offered. Their loss is felt across the board, and reverberates along your playthrough in ways that make Zero Company a very compelling addition to the Star Wars lineup.

It touches upon an important narrative theme, forcing you to take losses and move forward just as the rebels did in their bitter fight against the Empire. This take on a galaxy far, far away has consequences to your actions, putting you at the very center of potential tragedies, or great victories earned through fighting as a united team, and taking care of each other in ways that only a well-trained, well-adjusted unit can manage.

Zero Company’s best moments might not come from finally taking down its mysterious villain, who’s hiding some potentially explosive Jedi secrets of her own, but from moments where one bad call leads to a chain of events that profoundly impact your story and gameplay. Your mistakes are as important as your successes, and that’s an aspect of the Force that could keep you coming to Bit Reactor’s eccentric cast of characters long after you guide them to victory in the story.

Note: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of, and should not be attributed to, GamingBolt as an organization.

XCOM Meets Mass Effect in the Star Wars Universe

At its core, Star Wars Zero Company is a turn-based tactics game shaped around the familiar XCOM mould. You’ll carefully position your squad, form team-wide synergies, and make difficult decisions against insurmountable odds. However, this is Star Wars; developer Bit Reactor, as such, is putting greater emphasis on character relationships and cinematic storytelling, with a cast who fight together through an original Clone Wars-era story. Because of the high-drama, hands-on previews suggest Star Wars Zero Company shares DNA with Mass Effect, too.

Hawks Is Your Customisable Commander

Throughout the adventure, you’re in command of Hawks, a war-weary leader whose species you can customise alongside their first name, appearance, clothing, combat specialisations, and more. Hawks is one of seven so-called Operators – that is, pre-defined characters built specifically to drive the story – who each bring distinction through looks and unique talents alike. Hawks, however, is the only Operator required to complete every story mission.

The Infinite Coil Is Your Main Enemy

The main threat you’ll face in Zero Company is The Infinite Coil, a separatist paramilitary faction led by the mysterious Kundri Fathom. Under Fathom’s leadership, The Coil are a fanatical group pursuing the spread of the Shadow Plague, a disease said to grant unnatural and deadly abilities of which every member – Kundri included – is infected. And, just another note on The Coil’s leader: speculation suggests she wields the Force, but Bit Reactor is keeping tight-lipped. The true extent of Fathom’s power could be under wraps until the game’s August 27th launch.

The Shadow Plague Makes Skirmishes More Dangerous

The Coil’s unflinching loyalty to their commander is powerful enough, but among their greatest weapons is the Shadow Plague itself. See, they aren’t simply suffering from it. No, they’re deliberately spreading it through their ranks and the galaxy at large. This potentially gives Zero Company an unusual headache to overcome, whether infected opponents could prove significantly more dangerous than their non-infected counterparts. When facing an army made up of various abilities, you’ll need to think carefully about which targets to eliminate first.

The Infinite Coil Isn’t The Only Enemy

The Infinite Coil may be the narrative’s primary antagonist, but Zero Company will contend with the Separatist Alliance’s droid army and the Outlaws’ overwhelming numbers too, forcing you to mix up your outfit’s tactical approaches and equipment. There are a couple of notable enemy leaders announced alongside Fathom too: the formidable Vissier often leads the Coil into battle, and Super Tactical Droid Typhon can command entire armies and fleets for precision strikes against vulnerable targets.

‘The Den’ Is Your Base Between Battles

Between missions, you’ll return to The Den which functions as Zero Company’s base of operations. Here you’ll gather intel, upgrade equipment, recruit Operators, and interact with your crew. At the beginning, you’ll have space for seven Operators in your micro-army, but through the Den’s upgrades you can eventually reach twenty. Elsewhere, four non-combat personnel operate at The Den, functioning, it seems, as merchants: Republic Intelligence officer Bennic Halloren, operations specialist Runa Blask, armoury and black market operator Neesh Renark, and medbay droid M-3VO.

Two Different Mission Types

There are two different mission types in Star Wars Zero Company: Operations and Tactical Missions. Both assignment types can expire, although story-centric missions become mandatory after a set period of time. Operations take place in the galaxy map, yielding rewards, narrative additions, and yet more operations. Some will even present meaningful decisions which can affect the bonds between your outfit – more on this bonding system later. Tactical Missions, meanwhile, involve your squad completing set objectives, encompassing sabotage, combat, rescue, retrieval, and story-focused sequences centred around a specific member of your team.

You Command a Four-Person Squad During Battles

Whatever mission type you undertake, combat takes place with a standard squad of four Operators, although certain missions will allow you control of additional characters. Each Operator has three action points to spend during their turn, giving you significant freedom in how you approach an engagement, whether that’s taking cover, repositioning, flanking, or firing at will, each ability plays an important role in making it through each encounter.

Operators Can Die Permanently

Away from authored Operators, you can also create your own with customisable appearances, names, equipment, and specialisations. And, in true XCOM fashion, your Operators can die permanently. Permadeath is enabled by default, meaning you’ll need to look after your most trusted squadmates or else experience losing them forever. It can, however, be turned off in the game’s settings if you prefer. Given that the story’s conclusion is largely the same for every player, your choices and the Operators you lose will affect character bonds and story elements along the way. Hawks, also, is unique – if they die it’ll cause an automatic mission failure.

Eight Specialisations Define Your Operators

Most Operators can choose from eight standard specialisations, with each providing three abilities: an Ultimate, a Standard, and a Passive ability. Assault is built around close-range fighting, while Gunslingers specialise in fast, multi-target blaster strikes. The Heavy specialisation are heavily-armoured frontline combatants, Scouts are trained in recon, and Sharpshooters excel at ranged precision. Medics provide healing, Scoundrels are opportunistic and improvisational, and Soldiers – a mainstay of your offensive unit – bring a versatile arsenal to close and medium range combat.

Your Squad Needs To Get Along

One of Zero Company’s most defining features is its Bonds system, where Operators can grow closer through shared combat experiences and their relationships eventually yielding tangible benefits. Strong Bonds can unlock new support abilities and cross-training benefits, for instance, with bonded units sharing skills and stats to improve their effectiveness as a team. So, the overall strength of your outfit doesn’t just rest on four individual characters, but how well everyone works together.

There Are Four Exotic Classes

Beyond the eight specialisations, Star Wars Zero Company also includes four exotic classes designed around specific story characters. As such, only one can enter the battlefield at a time, although the Astromech is an exception. See, the droid archetype – created through the in-game droid builder – can make up your entire team if you wish. Elsewhere, a Jedi Padawan and a Madalorian Warrior – locked to Operators Tel-Rea Vokoss and Cly Kullervo respectively – bring more ways to strengthen your squad. There is an as-yet unannounced fourth exotic class too, with Bit Reactor potentially leaving the final reveal until after the game releases.

There Are Four Weapon Classes

Your Operators aren’t restricted to their Specialisations when it comes to equipment. In fact, Bit Reactor confirms that you’ll have access to a “deep well of equippable weapons and utilities” that you’ll be able to customise and experiment with. All in all, the studio confirms there are four weapon classes, plus four-to-six cosmetic models per class. The level of tactical freedom promised suggests you can build loadouts granularly around specific problems or objectives.

Advantage is a Shared Resource

And, another one of Star Wars Zero Company’s twists on the tactics genre is its Advantage Points system. Through its shared resource pool, each Operator can access the most powerful abilities, with you choosing when to use them and in what order. The idea here is to provide more tactical flexibility and strategic decision-making. You can choose to unleash the Squad’s shared abilities immediately, for example, or save them for when your back is against the wall.

PC Requirements

Star Wars Zero Company is a demanding game to run on PC, even at the game’s advertised minimum requirements, which are: an Intel Core i5-8400 or Ryzen 5 2600X CPU, GeForce GTX 1080 or Radeon RX 5600 XT GPU, and 16GB RAM. Recommended spec, as per the game’s Steam page, details an Intel Core i7-10700K or Ryzen 7 3700X CPU, an Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 or Radeon RX 7800 XT GPU, and 32GB RAM.

According to a recent tweet, pre-loads are available on all platforms, with the tactics title slated to launch at 8 AM PDT worldwide. This applies to all versions, and if nothing else, we appreciate the uniformity.

Star Wars Zero Company launches on August 27th, and if you’re a fan of The Clone Wars or Andor, its gritty atmosphere may appeal to you. Set during the former, it follows Hawks as he leads a group of mercenaries to stop the Fathom. Along the way, you’ll also take out plenty of bandits and droids.

Bit Reactor makes no bones about the XCOM influence, but there is a twist to the usual turn-based, cover-focused gameplay: Advantage. By building Advantage, players can unleash powerful Ultimate abilities, although they’re shared across the team, so you’ll have to pick the right moment.

For more details on the gameplay loop, head here. It takes about 30 to 40 hours to finish, and the developer isn’t really sure if DLC is on the docket. Stay tuned for updates regardless.

It largely comes down to the fact that EA is banking on its biggest IPs to bring in a lot of revenue. To that end, incredibly popular games like EA Sports FC will likely continue to be made.

“I think everything is open at this point. I suspect that sports will remain the key focus for EA, particularly European football, soccer, because of the importance of that sport in Saudi and in Middle East territories. You see a lot of synergies in that context. You can also expect that they will push even more for esports, also given the popularity of esports in Saudi and in some other territories. The question mark is probably the second-tier or third-tier IP in the portfolio of EA.”

As for other blockbuster releases that don’t tend to be quite as popular as the yearly Madden, Rossier isn’t as optimistic. Speaking about BioWare, Rossier said: “They’ve been struggling as a studio, as a brand, have been struggling in recent years, and I don’t know if they will keep funding that one. I think that’s the biggest question mark for me.” When further asked about what this could mean for the long-in-development new Mass Effect game, he said, “I will believe it when I see it, the next Mass Effect game, let’s put it that way.”

“I’ve worked many years with BioWare; sometimes it can stretch for years and years until something comes. I think everything can happen at this moment. They can pull the plug very, very easily. And if the new investor doesn’t have that many feelings about the history of the portfolio, they will take the most financially sound decision most probably.”

The acquisition of EA was part of a deal valued at around $55 billion, and has led to the company going completely private, its stock having been delisted from various exchanges. On the deal’s completion, CEO Andrew Wilson spoke about plans to “invest boldly” to make sure that the company continues to grow.

“This moment recognizes the extraordinary people whose creativity, ambition and passion have made EA one of the world’s leading interactive entertainment companies. We’re entering this next chapter from a position of strength with partners who share our vision and ambition. Together, we’ll invest boldly, accelerate innovation, and build the next generation of games and experiences for the hundreds of millions of players and fans who inspire us every day.”

The conclusion of the deal has led to the PIF taking on ownership of 93.4 percent of EA. Silver Lake and Affinity Partners, on the other hand, have taken on 5.5 percent and 1.1 percent ownership, respectively. EA has also taken on quite a bit of debt to fund the acquisition.