The next addition to the ‘Dare 2 Win’ series of casino games from Hacksaw has landed in my in-tray with the seemingly innocuous title of ‘Hi-Lo’. Given what I know about the Dare 2 Win franchise, I guessed that this would be a card-based table game of some description – it couldn’t be as simple as literally guessing higher or lower though, could it? Ah, I’m getting ahead of myself again! Let’s start with the basics – Hi-Lo offers a very high RTP at 98%, which is much more generous than a typical online slot. As for the maximum win, that’s a little more tempered – 5,000x the total stake is only average in today’s slot market, but on the other hand, very few games of this type offer anything close to that figure.
My curiosity was reaching fever pitch by the time I finally opened the game information page – how does this game work? To quote the developers, Hi-Lo is a game where the aim is to guess the next card! The current card is displayed in large format in the centre of the screen, and you’re free to scroll through the deck as much as you like before you place your bet. That seemed a little odd to me – surely I just wait until I see a two or an ace and bet accordingly then? Aha, not so fast there –the game pays out according to the risk level you take when you place your wager! Bah, those sneaky Hacksaw guys are determined to stop us from getting rich, aren’t they?
If you’re fed up with the same old spinning reels every time you fire up the online casino, then games like this offer an interesting change of pace. So, why not try our free Hi-Lo demo, available to play below?
| Provider | Hacksaw Gaming |
| Reels | 0 |
| Rows | 0 |
| Bonus Rounds | 0 |
| Bet Range | 0.20 - 100 |
| Volatility | Low, Medium, High |
| Max Win | 5,000x |
| Bonus Buy | No |
| RTP | 98.00% |
| Our Rating | 7.5 |
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Hi-lo Demo Play
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Hi-lo Theme, Stakes, Pays & Symbols
Whenever I visit a land-based casino, I always spend a fair amount of time at the blackjack tables. The fast-paced card game is well over a century old now, but it’s beautifully simple and remains one of the most popular games on the casino floor despite its relatively tiny payouts. Playing online seems different somehow, however – I don’t tend to bother with the computer-generated blackjack games offered by online casinos anymore, but new-style casino games such as Mines, also from Hacksaw, interest me much more thanks to their slot-style jackpots and generous return-to-player percentages.
So, how much can you win from playing Hi-Lo? That’s quite hard to say – let’s say you start with an ace and you now have four choices of bet – predicting another ace will pay you 12.7x your total bet, whilst going higher will only return 1.06x. You can also choose red or black, both of which will pay 1.95x if you guess correctly. I went higher, the next card was a queen, and this time picking ‘lower’ would pay 1.15x whilst ‘higher or the same’ was much more generous at 6.9x; the red and black options were now worth a little more too, at 2.1x each. I went lower this time and lost! After some more testing, I was able to discern that the payouts for the red/black options continue to increase exponentially with every extra card that you take, but it’s impossible to know how these payouts work as Hacksaw has not given those details in the games information pages – a huge omission in my opinion.
It makes sense to offer a fairly wide betting range in a game such as this, and Hacksaw has wisely made the minimum/maximum wager limits €0.20 and €100.00 per round, respectively. Be careful when betting towards the higher end of the range though – the rounds can be over in the blink of an eye, so your bankroll may not last long if your luck isn’t in!
Base Game & Modifiers
After loading Hi-Lo, you’ll be presented with a huge playing card and several controls. Your first job is to select how much you wish to bet; your second is to choose a starting card. You might as well choose a card that is easy to predict from to give yourself a head start – an ace or a king, for example – and you do have the option of requesting a new card up to five times if you don’t like the one you are given next. The more cards you take, the more risk you are subjecting yourself to and the more you can win. If you decide that you are happy with your accumulated winnings, you can collect them and start again from the beginning if you wish.
Hi-lo Bonus Features
Unfortunately, there are no bonus rounds or anything of that sort, it’s a very simple game, but it’s also a lot of fun and makes a nice change from just playing slots.
Pros
- A 5,000x jackpot is very high for a table game.
- The 98% RTP is also very high compared to slots; it’s even higher than European Roulette!
- Anybody can play and enjoy this game; no previous knowledge is necessary.
Cons
- The simplicity of Hi-Lo can be a double-edged sword – it’s the sort of game you’ll only play in short bursts.
- A bonus round of some kind would have gone a long way towards keeping things fresh.
Final Thoughts
The last Dare2win game I played was Mines, a casino game that instantly reminded me of the old Minesweeper game that was included with older versions of Windows. Hi-Lo lacks the same nostalgia factor, but it’s beautifully simple – you probably won’t play it for very long each time, but it’s something I think you’ll keep coming back to.
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