Mr. Chips' Wild West Adventure: A High-Stakes Review
Title: Wanted Dead or a Wild
Developer: Hacksaw Gaming
Reels: 5
Rows: 5
Paylines: 15
RTP: 96.38%
Hit Freq: 19.3%
Max Win: 12,500x (€1.25m)
Volatility: High (4/5)
Min/Max Bet: 0.20/100
Release Date: September 29, 2021
Wanted Dead or a Wild: Slot Overview
Get ready to saddle up, hat up, and load your revolvers because Hacksaw Gaming’s Wanted Dead or a Wild, a Wild West-themed slot promises a unique blend of looks, sounds, features, and gameplay. The Wild West has been a popular theme amongst online slot developers, and Hacksaw Gaming is no exception. In this game, players will find themselves in an unsettling environment, shunning the typical dusty one-horse town setting in favor of something darker and more foreboding.
The game grid is a 5x5 layout, set outdoors with the sun smoldering over twisted trees and a barbed-wire fence. The scene is not your typical Wild West slot; it makes players wonder where exactly they are and how they ended up here. The atmosphere is heavier than most Western slots and shares many similarities with Hacksaw's 2020 hit, Chaos Crew.
Wanted Dead or a Wild is available on any device and has a stake range of 20 p/c to £/€100. Its overall volatility has been rated as 4 out of 5, so it's rather high. However, the three bonus rounds have individual volatilities that range from medium to very high, which is clearly labelled if players choose to buy one of them. Its default RTP has a value of 96.38%, but be aware that it is configurable, so it may be set at a lower level. The theoretical return varies when buying the bonus game, from 96.27% to 96.43%.
Unlike other recent Hacksaw Gaming releases, Wanted Dead or a Wild is not a cluster paying slot. Instead, it follows a payline system, providing 15 fixed ways to win. There are ten regular pay symbols in the game, including 10-A card ranks, skulls, outlaw getups, money bags, liquor bottles, and bullet chambers. A combination of five premium picture symbols is worth a payout of 5 to 20 times the stake. Wilds can land in any position, replacing pay symbols, and are worth 20x the bet when a line of five wilds hit.
Wanted Dead or a Wild: Slot Features
Wanted Dead or a Wild offers players a range of exciting features to keep the action going. The game includes full reel wild multiplier symbols and three bonus rounds that can be triggered from the base game or bought if the option is available.
VS symbols appear in both the base game and the Duel at Dawn feature. When they land, they expand to cover all positions on the reel and turn wild. These symbols also display a win multiplier of x2 to x100, and if more than one VS symbol is in view, the multipliers are added before being applied to any winning combination.
When three or more Train Robbery symbols land in the base game, The Great Train Robbery feature launches, awarding 10 free spins, with all landed wilds remaining sticky for the remainder of the feature. Hacksaw rates the volatility of this bonus as medium.
Landing three or more Duel symbols triggers the Duel at Dawn bonus feature, awarding 10 free spins. The key difference between this bonus and the base game is that more VS symbols are loaded, making this bonus highly volatile.
Also highly volatile, the Dead Man's Hand bonus is triggered when three or more DEAD symbols land. This feature is split into two parts. In part one, three spins are awarded, and only wild symbols, multiplier symbols, or placeholder symbols land. When wilds or multipliers hit, they are collected and reset the number of spins back to three. It is possible to collect up to 20 wilds and a win multiplier of x31 from this phase. When three consecutive non-winning spins occur, this phase ends, and play moves to the Showdown, where three spins are awarded. The collected number of wilds is added to the grid on each spin, and the multiplier is applied to any wins.
For players who can't wait to trigger the bonus rounds, Wanted Dead or a Wild offers the option to buy The Great Train Robbery, Duel at Dawn, or Dead Man's Hand for 80x, 200x, or 400x the bet, respectively.
Wanted Dead or a Wild: Slot Verdict
Wanted Dead or a Wild by Hacksaw Gaming is a slot that takes a grittier and darker approach to the Wild West theme, which sets it apart from other Western-themed slots. With its high volatility and unique blend of features, Wanted Dead or a Wild offers an exciting and thrilling gaming experience. The three bonus rounds, including The Great Train Robbery, Duel at Dawn, and Dead Man's Hand, provide different opportunities to win big, and players can even choose to buy features if they prefer. Hacksaw Gaming's skill at refining and reusing their features is on full display here, and the game's unique vision of the Wild West adds to its appeal. Overall, Wanted Dead or a Wild is another top-notch release from Hacksaw Gaming that's definitely worth checking out.
Chips Stack: 9.5 out of 10 Chips
“It’s not afraid to get its hands dirty, offering a chance to experience the harsh reality of the Wild West and come out on top with some impressive payouts.”