Narcos (NetEnt): Review
And so it finally arrived at our doorstep. Close to a year and a
half after the grand3️⃣ announcement at the London iGaming conference, Narcos, one of the
most anticipated branded titles, has finally left the production table3️⃣ and rolled out
across all NetEnt casinos. Right off the bat, it becomes entirely clear to us why it
took3️⃣ so long. To call Narcos an ambitious undertaking would be an understatement to say
the least. In NetEnt's take on3️⃣ the American crime series Narcos, the drug-fueled drama
effectively expands its world into the online slot format where the traditional
3️⃣ boundaries between videogames and slots are becoming increasingly blurred.
Everything
our sources told us about Narcos, and which was exclusively reported3️⃣ on our site,
turned out to be true. It does indeed come with a setup of 5 reels, 3-rows and3️⃣ 243 ways
to win. This is a great format and one that is actually a bit unusual for
NetEnt.
Unsurprisingly, there3️⃣ are quite a few features to keep you busy here. In the
main game, you'll benefit from the Locked Up3️⃣ feature which is a win-streak mini bonus,
capable of delivering quite decent wins. There's also the Drive-by feature where you'll
3️⃣ see bullets flying across the screen, randomly transforming high paying symbols into
wilds. Available both in the main game and3️⃣ the free spins are the Walking Wilds,
similar to the feature that was made famous in Jack and the Beanstalk,3️⃣ another popular
title from NetEnt. Finally, there is the big showdown - the Free Spins feature.
Frustratingly hard to trigger,3️⃣ but the key necessary to unlock the true potential. You
can play it from between 0.20 and 400€ per spin3️⃣ across all devices.
Produced by Gaumont
for web television company Netflix, the first two seasons of Narcos are based on
druglord3️⃣ Pablo Escobar who became a dollar billionaire through the distribution and
production of cocaine. In NetEnt's version, we're taken to3️⃣ the bustling streets of
Medellín where we're immediately thrown straight into the crossfire. With Grand Theft
Auto-inspired graphics, symbols on3️⃣ the reels include J, Q, K and A royal values with
piles of cash, grenades, machine guns and handguns on3️⃣ them. You'll also see flamingos
and Cessna's as well as the characters from the TV series, namely José Rodríguez Gacha,
3️⃣ Connie Murphy and DEA agents Steve Murphy and Javier Peña. The latter two are the most
rewarding and will give3️⃣ you 15 times your stake for 5 across a full payline.
The wild
symbol is represented by the DEA badge and3️⃣ is of the same value as the agents. As per
usual, the wild substitutes for all standard symbols bar the3️⃣ scatter and other special
symbols. When part of a winning combination, the wild triggers the Walking Wild
feature. You've seen3️⃣ similar features before - the wild stays on the reels and moves
horizontally one position left with each spin. This3️⃣ continues until there are no
winning wild symbols left.
Narcos (NetEnt): Features
In the main game, the Drive-by
feature may trigger randomly3️⃣ on any spin. When activated, a sequence is played where a
thug unleashes a hail of bullets from a getaway3️⃣ car onto the reels. This is followed by
random transformations of premium symbols into wilds.
There's also a kind of mini-bonus
3️⃣ known as the Locked Up feature. It becomes activated when 3 or more Locked Up symbols
(with a picture of3️⃣ Pablo Escobar) appear on the same row. Once inside the feature,
which is played on a new set, the Escobar3️⃣ symbols are moved together and assigned a win
value of between 1 - 10 times your stake.
Fundamentally, what you get3️⃣ here is a
win-streak cluster mechanics based feature. Starting with 3 spins, only Locked Up and
Golden briefcase symbols will3️⃣ appear on the reels. When 3 or more symbols connect, they
form a winning cluster - when an Escobar symbol3️⃣ connects to a winning cluster, a random
value of 1 - 10 times your stake is awarded. If, on the3️⃣ other hand, a Golden briefcase
connects, one of the following will apply:
Multiplier - all coin values connected to
the cluster3️⃣ are multiplied by x2 or x3.
- all coin values connected to the cluster are
multiplied by x2 or x3. Upgrade3️⃣ Symbols - multiple upgrade values in increment of 1
times your total bet are added to the symbols.
- multiple upgrade3️⃣ values in increment
of 1 times your total bet are added to the symbols. Big Starting Value - the Golden
3️⃣ briefcase symbol is given an extra starting value.
Each time a symbol connects to the
cluster, the spin count resets to3️⃣ 3. The feature ends when no new symbols are added to
the cluster. With a hit frequency of 1 in3️⃣ 124 spins, the Locked Up feature triggers far
more frequently than the Free Spins feature which, by comparison, has a3️⃣ hit frequency
of 1 in 351 spins. The Locked Up feature gives you a chance to pocket up to 2713️⃣ times
your total stake.
Last, but certainly not least, we have the epic climactic Free Spins
finale - a shootout that3️⃣ is played when you land three scatter symbols on reels 1, 3
and 5 on the same spin. Starting with3️⃣ 10 free spins, you'll benefit from the Drive-by
feature being in play on every spin which also means there's potential3️⃣ for the Walking
Wilds feature to come into play. As you've already seen, the Free Spins feature is hard
to3️⃣ trigger, but it's also where most of the monies at. When the smoke clears, you could
be looking at a3️⃣ win of up to 1506 times your stake.
Narcos (NetEnt): Verdict
Narcos
brings with it some serious firepower but seems to have3️⃣ forgotten to load the guns. For
some reason, NetEnt keeps insisting on these low max wins and ultimately, Narcos just
3️⃣ falls into the same old NetEnt cliché, which feels like such an incredible waste given
the fact that it otherwise3️⃣ has everything going for it. The visuals are excellent and
the overall production quality is jaw-dropping, but it lacks punch,3️⃣ simple as that.
Not
only is Narcos trying hard to entertain the player through impressive in-game
cut-scenes, it's also quite a3️⃣ feature heavy slot as you have seen. What it leads to in
this case is a Free Spins feature that3️⃣ seems to drop less frequently than the D in
Bonanza. The difference here is that the relatively low potential hardly3️⃣ makes it worth
the wait.
It pains us to say this, but we're afraid NetEnt's Narcos only manages to
reach the3️⃣ rank of a simple drug dealer rather than the mighty drug lord it was aspiring
to be.
