Mass Effect Meets Firefly In This Thrilling New Sci-Fi RPG

Star Wars Zero Company Is The Firefly Game I Always Wanted Custom image by Steven Garrard using assets of Mal from Firefly and background from Star Wars Zero Company Published Sep 7, 2026, 4:08 PM EDT Steven is a seasoned writer specializing in the video game and technological fields, with years of experience creating reviews, features, and industry analysis. Passionate about the gaming world and its evolving culture, Steven has always wanted to combine his enjoyment of writing and love for gaming in a way that can provide insightful coverage for players and enthusiasts alike. There is a reason that Firefly is still talked about well over 20 years after the series ended, offering a mix of incredibly charming characters and an iconic space western setting that few projects ever have come close to replicating. Although we’re still waiting for updates on Firefly’s official animated revival, one completely unrelated release is already the closest thing we’ll get to a true-to-form successor in the modern era. While the differences in medium make the latest spiritual successor far from a 1:1 recreation of Firefly’s unique storytelling experience, Star Wars Zero Company shares striking similarities that fans of the beloved sci-fi series will notice the second they jump into its critically acclaimed narrative. Zero Company Feels Like A True Firefly Successor Following an ex-soldier named Hawkes who left the Clone Wars to start his own morally dubious organization, taking on dangerous missions, helping people across the galaxy, and killing those who get in his way, Star Wars Zero Company’s initial story picks up almost exactly where Firefly starts. On top of the similarities between their sci-fi setups, the gameplay loop of Zero Company puts you in full control of your own ragtag mercenary group, just like the show. In addition to the overarching storyline, you’ll come across dynamic encounters that force you to think on the fly about how to handle them, with decisions that can have drastically different outcomes and affect how your crew perceives you or each other. Each of these decisions and character stories across Star Wars Zero Company also offers plenty of opportunities to roleplay as whatever kind of captain you want to be, whether it's a noble hero, a smuggler who does anything for profit, or somewhere in the middle, like where the Serenity’s captain typically falls. Of course, while the random events and ever-evolving space opera narrative are the core of both Firefly and Zero Company’s stories, it's the characters and their interactions that set both outings apart from most sci-fi franchises. The Characters Are The Biggest Selling Point Of Both Stories Echoing the style of Firefly even further is how Star Wars Zero Company handles its unique dialogue interactions and wide range of character archetypes. Offering a vast array of backgrounds, both in the pre-made story NPCs and procedurally generated ones that you can recruit on your own, the banter and evolving relationships of your crew can create plenty of unscripted storylines on their own worth remembering. With each character having their own personality and gameplay specialties, even the randomized ones you add to your party can be a core part of your expanding organization based on your own experiences. Your crew will also start to form genuine bonds as they evolve alongside each other, both story-wise and in-game through teaching each other new skills. As bond level increases, characters can teach each other skills based on their classes, encouraging new pairings and relationship growth. Although the randomized characters feel surprisingly alive, Star Wars Zero Company definitely shines when it comes to the main characters, with the casual conversations and nicknames between Hawkes and the rest of the cast making for some snappy and charming interactions that are always a highlight to hear while playing. Even more so, like Firefly, the characters of Star Wars Zero Company also incorporate plenty of unique slang, accents, and factions that make it feel like a lived-in sci-fi world rather than a simple Star Wars spinoff set in the Clone Wars era. Even with just a few of the characters you start alongside, from a stern right-hand woman named Runa, your ex-clone companion Trick, or a sassy medical droid, each makes you want to explore everything their character stories and relationships have to offer in full, so long as you can keep them alive. Zero Company Goes Far, Far Beyond The Bounds Of The Genre While the mode is entirely optional, Star Wars Zero Company recommends players play on permadeath mode for all characters but its protagonist, adding even more stakes that Firefly certainly wasn’t afraid of shying away from towards the end of the live-action series, for better or worse. While Star Wars Zero Company has plenty of the hallmarks of a classic Firefly-themed adventure, the gameplay still makes it feel like an original project of its own right, while expanding upon several familiar characters, factions, and other assets from across the Star Wars franchise that fans of the more successful sci-fi saga will appreciate. This isn’t to say that Zero Company excels at everything at once, as the RPG side of things can often take a backseat to the tactical XCOM-style gameplay. Leaving only a few examples where you can have choice-based conversations with your party outside of scripted story sequences, which fall somewhat short compared to the more detailed offerings of a CRPG like Baldur’s Gate 3 or Rogue Trader. If you aren’t satisfied with the tactical sci-fi gameplay of Star Wars Zero Company, however, or are simply looking for a more immersive multiplayer experience, Firefly does have more than a few officially licensed tabletop RPGs and even a board game that have received plenty of praise for their original gameplay mechanics and premise. Although these require a dedicated group of players as opposed to the more streamlined single-player narrative of Star Wars Zero Company, they’re still worth checking out if you can find a few interested friends. Even with these alternative options, however, every Firefly video game adaptation, like the Firefly Online MMO that got canceled well over a decade ago with no word on its development since. In their absence, Star Wars Zero Company is likely the best we’ll have for quite some time when it comes to filling the void left behind by Firefly, making it well worth checking out if you're a fan of the beloved sci-fi series. Released August 27, 2026 Developer(s) Bit Reactor Publisher(s) EA Franchise Star Wars PC Release Date August 27, 2026 Genre(s) Turn-Based Strategy, Tactical, Sci-Fi