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.
