Dead West – Overview
NetEnt is no stranger to western themed slot games. One of their most popular slots ever is Dead or Alive. And now NetEnt has released another new western themed game called Dead West.
Dead West comes which a much more dark theme than Dead or Alive. It seems to be set in a ghost town and everything is pretty dark and grim. Which fits perfectly with the upcoming Halloween.
The game uses 6 reels that are each 7 symbols high and comes with a scatter pays mechanism. 8 or more of the same symbols, anywhere on the reels, count as a winning combination. And the game, like Gonzo’s Quest, comes with their avalanche feature. Winning symbols are removed, all remaining symbols fall into the empty spots and new symbols are added on top. Creating another option for a winning combination. Which keeps continuing until no new winning combinations appear.
Besides low paying card symbols, medium paying items and high paying characters, you will also find scatter symbols on all reels. There are also wilds and a bunch of other, special symbols, but these will be explained below and can’t appear normally.
Dead West comes with a pretty big maximum payout of 10.863 times bet and is a high volatile slot game.
Features
Hot Zones
During each spin at least 2 random spots on the reels will be highlighted and count as a Hot Zone.
A Hot Zone comes with a multiplier of x1, x2 or x3. When a symbol in a Hot Zone is part of a winning combination it is multiplied by the total of all Hot Zone multipliers within that winning combination. After all wins are paid, for the next avalanche, all Hot Zone multipliers that where used will go up by x1.
Wilds
There are two types of wild symbols on Dead West.
Normal wilds that are 1×1 symbol big and colossal wilds that are 2×2 or 3×3 symbols high.
Normal wilds can only appear on the Feature Lane and become active when they drop onto the reels because of a winning avalanche. Colossal wilds can be added randomly onto the reels and count as the same number of symbols as the size, so for instance, the 3×3 wild counts as 9 of the same symbols.
Feature Lane and Special Symbols
Above the normal reels you will find an extra reel, called the Feature Lane. When normal winning combinations are removed from the reels, if there is a special symbol above that reel, it will drop onto the reels, before other, normal paying symbols, are added.
The corresponding feature will trigger when all winning combinations are done.
- Bomb – will explode and destroy all symbols that are adjacent, except scatters, wilds, swap symbols and any unused multiplier symbols.
- Swap – will transform itself and all adjacent symbols, except scatters, wilds and any unused multiplier symbols, into one and the same normal paying symbol.
- Multiply – comes with a multiplier of x2 or x3 and will multiply the values of any multipliers in hot zones on the reel it landed on and any adjacent reels.
- Expand – will become a hot zone. If it lands on a hot zone, it will become an upgraded hot zone, adding all multipliers on screen together. If it lands on an upgraded hot zone, it will do it again and becomes a persistent hot zone.
- Expand+ – will become a hot zone and up to 8 adjacent spots will also become hot zones. It upgrades in the same way as the normal Expand when it lands on a, existing hot zone.
Free Spins Feature
3, 4, 5 or 6 scatter symbols will award 5, 8, 10 and 12 free spins respectively.
Hot Zones will stay on the reels between all free spins and don’t lose their multipliers.
3, 4, 5, or 6 scatter during free spins will add 5, 8, 10 and 12 more free spins.
Bonus Buys
Dead West comes with several bonus buy options. They call it Elevate Features.
- Scatter Hunt – 1,5x bet – increased chance to trigger free spins
- Feature Lane Max – 5x bet – the Feature Lane will be filled with symbols during each spin
- Hot Zone Frenzy – 30x bet – every spot on the reels will have a Hot Zone
- Free Spins Feature – 100x bet – between 3 and 6 scatter symbols will land, triggering free spins
- Super Free Spins Feature – 300x bet – free spins start with the Feature Lane fully filled with symbols
Verdict
Yes, Dead West is one of those slots with a lot of moving parts. Hot Zones, Feature Lane and avalanches. And it might seem a lot at first. Once you start playing it’s pretty self explanatory and easy. It all is logical.
And a lot of fun. I really like this game. It comes with enough features to keep the base spins and the free spins exciting. And you can get some great rewards. Especially when a lot of those special symbols are used and the multipliers go up high.
NetEnt seems to have a second great release in a row, after Gonzo’s Quest 2, with Dead West. And I would highly recommend giving it a try.
Leave your opinions and comments about Dead West, or maybe NetEnt in general, in the comments section below. And try out Dead West today.
