Star Wars Outlaws Hutt Reputation Misses a Rancor-Sized Opportunity

Star Wars Outlaws thrives when players are taking their time and indulging in each open-world planet’s tinier beats as well as interactions with criminal syndicates. Indeed, Star Wars Outlaws’ gratifying reputation system is rich with rewards and allowances, and it’s fantastic seeing which factions hold dominance in a planet as represented by district and hideout zones throughout. This can fully recontextualize the decision-making process when players are repeatedly asked which syndicates to gain favor with, such as whether they’ll need to access a certain area and can do so freely as long as they have a Good reputation with them.

The Pykes and Crimson Dawn are more or less ubiquitous in Star Wars Outlaws as players can bump into them in several places while the Hutts and Ashiga are a bit more particular in where they choose to hole up. It’s obvious that the Hutt Cartel will have its biggest presence on Tatooine since that’s where Jabba’s palace is, for example, and anyone who’s watched the original Star Wars trilogy will have some understanding of how intimidating that presence is. Sadly, the Hutts and their reputation don’t amount to as much in gameplay as they need to, even if the right pieces are in place to have the palace’s epic moment in the story be impactful.

Star Wars Outlaws Copies Return of the Jedi’s Rancor Scene, But with an Uninspired Twist

Entering Jabba’s palace to rescue Nix covertly seems novel to a degree until players come across Jabba himself in the throne room. Here, the scene plays out almost identically to how it goes for Luke Skywalker in Return of the Jedi—Kay Vess is dropped into the rancor pit below, though she’s accompanied by the bounty hunter-turned-friend Vail and a soon-dead Hoss.

After defeating a pack of massiffs in this claustrophobic and iconic hole, a loud thud can be heard against the metal gate before players. The rancor’s release is anticipated, and yet it never occurs—rather, Kay and Vail are free to leave. It’s only when they’ve reached the throne room’s sail barge hangar that a rancor boss fight is finally initiated and centers more around dodging than actually attacking.

Star Wars Outlaws’ Rancor Being Tied to Reputation Would’ve Given It Narrative Weight

Considering how anticlimactic and basic the ensuing palace hangar fight arguably is, it would’ve been neat if the rancor being unleashed on Kay was a consequence of players having a Bad reputation with the Hutts when they reach that point in the story. Hutt reputation actually goes down following this boss fight with players needing to increase it again before getting to return to the palace, ensuring that a high reputation with the Hutts is narratively worthless when it comes to the whole Jabba sequence.

Moreover, the rancor being unleashed if players had a Poor or worse reputation would’ve made sense as Jabba could be happy to dispose of someone who hasn’t shown any dedication to the cartel. However, even if it would’ve made more sense narratively, the rancor being scripted to a lower-end reputation would’ve meant that players are locked out of exciting content if they managed to secure a Good or Excellent reputation with the Hutt Cartel beforehand.

Players would have to either intentionally or inadvertently have a lackluster reputation with the Hutts by the time they get to Jabba’s palace and that wouldn’t feel organic unless players were already devoted to gaining reputation with the Pykes, Crimson Dawn, or Ashiga instead and those efforts all contributed to their Hutt reputation rapidly declining somehow. Either way, Kay’s reputation with the Hutts not mattering much in this scenario is another example of how Star Wars Outlaws’ story and reputation system are mutually exclusive to a fault.