Release the Kraken 2: Slot Overview
Time for some deep sea diving with developer Pragmatic Play as it heads beneath the ❤️ waves once again for the sequel slot Release the Kraken 2. The original release clearly struck the right note with ❤️ enough underwater adventurers with its bounty of wild types, pick-me treasure chests, and Roaming Kraken Free Spins. For the reboot, ❤️ Pragmatic Play has rejigged much of the gameplay, wedging in Wild Respins, Shifting Stack Wilds, Guaranteed Wins, and a Deal ❤️ or No Deal element to the free spins feature. It sounds like a lot has changed, and it has, but ❤️ the same bubbly spirit has remained, let's take a look.
If anything, Release the Kraken 2 is even bubblier than the ❤️ original game, located at the bottom of the sea, full of weeds, fish, and colourful coral. Injecting extra life into ❤️ the game is a cheeky set of characters on the reels that do this little animation thing when they create ❤️ a winning line. Okay, a small thing, but details matter, and Pragmatic Play is good at combining a bunch of ❤️ details into one big glossy whole. Gotta say the vibe is actually a lot more cheerful than it was in ❤️ Release the Kraken. The original game had more of a menacing feel emanating from its lead Kraken characters. This has ❤️ largely been erased in Release the Kraken 2, replaced with a playful attitude rather than hints of an ominous one.
One ❤️ thing that has remained constant is the game's layout. Release the Kraken 2 is played once again on a 5-reel, ❤️ 3-row game grid with 20 paylines utilised in the base game, increasing to 40 paylines in free spins. It's highly ❤️ volatile, rated as 5 out of 5 by the studio, and has a variety of RTP values depending on how ❤️ you play the game and on the model. At max settings, playing regularly generates a theoretical return of 96.03%, picking ❤️ stakes of 20 p/c toR$/€100 per spin. This increases by 25% when activating the Ante Bet, which in turn increases ❤️ the chance of triggering the feature, as well as altering the RTP to 96.01%.
Nine regular pay symbols appear on the ❤️ grid, divided into 10-A card ranks as the low pays, then four denizens of the deep as the high pays. ❤️ Landing a five-of-a-kind winning line pays out 1-2 times the stake when made up of card symbols or 3-10x the ❤️ bet when consisting of premium tiles. A Kraken is displayed on the wild symbols which appear on all five reels. ❤️ Wilds substitute for all symbols except the bonus symbols and are worth up to 20x the bet for a five-of-a-kind ❤️ line.
Release the Kraken 2: Slot Features
Release the Kraken 2's extra bits can also be divided up into base game random ❤️ features such as Wild Repsins, Shifting Stacked Wilds, Guaranteed Wins, plus a free spins bonus round with win multipliers and ❤️ sticky roaming wilds.
Wild Respin
If 4 or more wilds hit in the base game after the payout has been made, respin ❤️ mode is activated. The wilds stay on the grid, moving to a random position, while the rest of the symbols ❤️ are respun. The game pays for any winning lines after each respin, and if more wilds hit, one more respin ❤️ is awarded. When no more wilds hit after a respin, the feature ends.
Shifting Stack Wilds
The Shifting Stack Wild symbols can ❤️ appear on reels 2, 3, or 4 in the base game at random. When the spin stops, Shifting Wild Stacks ❤️ are moved, so they cover all positions on their reel. For each position a Shifting Stack Wild is nudged, its ❤️ multiplier is increased by +1. After the nudging, wins are paid, where multipliers are added together before being applied.
Guaranteed Win
Randomly, ❤️ on a non-winning base game spin, the Kraken may come into view and rearrange the symbols to create a win ❤️ worth 20-50x the bet. In addition, randomly on a spin, 3 scatter symbols can appear as the result of an ❤️ explosion to award free spins.
Free Spins
Landing 3 or more scatter symbols triggers the free spins feature. Before free spins start, ❤️ a mini bonus game occurs to determine the number of free spins and the win multiplier Deal or No Deal ❤️ style.
3 scatter symbol trigger – 4 to 15 free spins with up to an x6 multiplier.
– 4 to 15 free ❤️ spins with up to an x6 multiplier. 4 scatter symbol trigger – 5 to 20 free spins with up to ❤️ an x10 multiplier.
– 5 to 20 free spins with up to an x10 multiplier. 5 scatter symbol trigger – 6 ❤️ to 20 free spins with up to an x10 multiplier.
For the mini-game, 16 boxes are presented, each one containing a ❤️ mix of free spins and a win multiplier from the limits laid out above. One box is selected, which players ❤️ can either accept or reject. Accepting the box awards its free spins and win multiplier, and the feature begins. Rejecting ❤️ the box means several boxes are removed from the list, and the player is presented with a free spins/multiplier offer. ❤️ Accepting the offer starts the feature; rejecting it removes more boxes, repeating the sequence. Going all the way to the ❤️ end means one final box and the starting box are left - players must choose one to open.
During free spins, ❤️ the win multiplier applies to all wins, and the grid increases the number of paylines to 40. Also, when wild ❤️ symbols hit, they remain on the reels until the round ends, moving to a random cell after each spin. If ❤️ a golden wild symbol hits, it also increases the win multiplier by +1. Free spins cannot be retriggered.
Buy Free Spins
If ❤️ available, players are able to buy two types of bonuses. Standard Free Spins costs 100x the bet to land 3-5 ❤️ scatter symbols (RTP 96.03%); the second one, VIP Free Spins, costs 250x the bet to guarantee a 5 scatter symbol ❤️ trigger (RTP 96.05%).
Release the Kraken 2: Slot Verdict
On the whole, Release the Kraken 2 was a fun fish-filled game to ❤️ play. It has an infectiously positive attitude that's hard not to get on board with, this time playing down the ❤️ sinister side of the Kraken character. The Kraken certainly looks a lot friendlier than before. Perhaps the influx of so ❤️ many fishing-themed slots since Release the Kraken was released is an indicator that players prefer a lighter side of the ❤️ underwater world than a menacing one?
The gameplay mechanics are surely more important than the tone anyway, and here it'll be ❤️ interesting to see how fans of the first react. Gone are a lot of the pick 'n click elements, the ❤️ choosing one of three random features bit, and the Sunken Treasure Bonus. Gone too are the giant symbols, Kraken Locking ❤️ Wilds, and Infectious Kraken Wilds. In their place, the features that come with Release the Kraken 2 have merit. Wilds ❤️ Respins work well as a sideshow, as does the Shifting Wild Stacks, and who can say no to a guaranteed ❤️ win?
The Deal or No Deal part of free spins is a little strange, though. It adds an extra dab of ❤️ excitement over simply being given a random number of free spins and a win multiplier the moment the feature triggers. ❤️ Again, this particular method isn't a detractor in any way; it's just a bit unexpectedly odd. What might put more ❤️ of a dampener on fans' spirits is the decision to half the max win by setting the win cap at ❤️ 5,000x the bet. The reduction is not a deal breaker as such, but it's unusual to see a sequel go ❤️ smaller rather than larger, although at the time of the release of the original, Pragmatic had a tendency to exaggerate ❤️ their max win claims.
In the end, there were no real complaints about the Release the Kraken 2 experience. It looks ❤️ neat, has a fun feel, and possesses a good number of features it can deliver onto the reels. It's tough ❤️ to say whether Release the Kraken 2 is an outright improvement over the game which preceded it or not, so ❤️ let's be diplomatic and just call it different.
