Star Wars Zero Company takes place right at the end of The Clone Wars, my favorite period in Star Wars’ huge timeline. That conflict begins with the Battle of Geonosis in Attack of the Clones and concludes with the deaths of the Separatist leaders in Revenge of the Sith, but a vast majority of the galaxy-spanning war is covered in the seven seasons of Star Wars: The Clone Wars. As such, Zero Company makes several references to the earlier seasons of the TV show that debuted in 2008. The biggest one, of what I’ve seen of the game so far anyway, comes right at the start of the story: Protagonist Hawks was made the scapegoat for a battle that went very wrong while working under General Pong Krell.
And, man, that name does a tremendous amount of narrative heavy lifting in characterizing Hawks. With one name, Bit Reactor basically gave me all the proof I needed that Hawks had not only seen some truly horrendous war crimes, but that whatever they were accused of was almost certainly not true.
“The intended effect of the line worked, then,” Bit Reactor narrative director Aaron Contreras told me. “Like, [Republic Intelligence] is talking about whether they can trust this guy, because he’s a washout and a loser–he worked for Pong Krell. And so every [player] who knows this guy is like, ‘It’s not [Hawks’] fault then. That’s the worst boss ever.”
So even if you don’t need to know Pong Krell to play Zero Company, I highly recommend you familiarize yourself with him beforehand. And the best way to do that is by watching The Clone Wars. Or, at the very least, one specific arc: Season 4’s four-episode Umbara Arc.
The Clone Wars is always a tough show for me to recommend because it has some absolutely stellar episodes of television hidden in between mind-numbing episodes that are too silly or simply excruciatingly dull. I can only see Jar Jar Binks on my screen for so many minutes before I contemplate punching my TV.
But the show’s gems are really, really good, largely for how they toe the line for what’s typically acceptable for a children’s show and include storylines that respect that kids can handle dark material in what is a show all about war, child soldiers, and the fall of a democracy. I’m still floored by some of the stuff that the showrunners were able to include, especially as the show departed from its sillier tone more often post-Season 2.
