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.
