It’s human nature to take inspiration from our heroes, and when it comes to online slots there can’t be many games which deserve such a label more than NetEnt’s classic “Dead or Alive”. Slotmill clearly agrees with me, as their Outlaws video slot is close to being a clone of the almost decade old NetEnt game. I have no doubt that Slotmill would be quick to point out the key differences between the two titles – Outlaws features 20 pay lines, more than double that of Dead or Alive, but that isn’t a metric that most Dead or Alive players would use to judge a competing slot. With an RTP of 96.03% and a maximum win cap of just 5,000x, Slotmill are going to have an uphill battle on their hands to impress me as a huge fan of their source material.
Of course, I know I have to stay objective and judge Outlaws online slot on its own merits. But is it to Outlaws merit that the wild symbol does not appear on reels one nor five? The “dynamite blast” modifier is new to this game, but its appeal seems limited judging from my testing of the slot. We have a sticky wilds free spin bonus, but three scatters only get you eight spins instead of twelve; you’ll need all five scatter symbols to receive twelve free spins. It’s a shaky start, from my point of view.
Are you a fan of Dead or Alive? Do you think Slotmill have picked a good title to clone? If you fancy trying this title yourself, fire up out free demo of Outlaws below.
| Provider | Slotmill |
| Reels | 5 |
| Rows | 3 |
| Paylines | 20 |
| Bonus Rounds | 1 |
| Bet Range | 0.20 - 50 |
| Volatility | High |
| RTP | 96.03% |
| Our Rating | 7.4 |
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Outlaws Slot Theme, Stakes, Pays & Symbols
I would probably be comparing the Wild West theme of outlaws to ancient movies if it had not been for NetEnt’s classic game “Dead or Alive”. NetEnt’s slot appeared at online casinos years ago and was an instant hit with lovers of high variance slots. The game offered huge prizes for hitting five scatters, but it’s real draw was the sticky wilds bonus round – a unique idea for its time. It wasn’t long before players were posting their pictures and videos of monster wins scored from that bonus round, and the slot became something of a legend within the online gaming community.
When Dead or Alive 2 was finally released around three years ago, it received critical acclaim for somehow managing to repeat all these things once more – players could not believe it when they began to see jackpot hits of 111,111x stake appear on YouTube. For me, this represents a serious problem for anyone interested in trying Outlaws – why would you choose to play this game when the same casino almost certainly has NetEnt’s game available for play?
I’m glad you asked, as despite having very similar appearances the two games are far from being identical. Jackpot spins are a rare occurrence, and I have only had a handful of “wild line” bonus rounds after years of spinning NetEnt’s award winning game. Outlaws online slot is clearly intended to appeal to a different audience – one who might prefer to have a lower win cap that they have a much better chance of seeing within their lifetime.
That leads us nicely into the paytable, which offers only a few extra free spins for hitting all five scatter symbols as opposed to the mammoth 2,500x stake returned in NetEnt’s game. I feel that Slotmill made a mistake here, considering that reviewers like myself were always going to compare their game to DOA, as Outlaws still only awards the same number of free spins as NetEnt’s game when hitting all five of the scatter symbols. The two outlaw figures have a return of 50x stake each for hitting five-of-a-kind, which again does not compare favourably to the 166x and 111x returned by DOA’s top two symbols. It’s worth remembering, however, that this is a 20 payline game which means you have around twice as much chance of actually hitting these combinations whilst playing Outlaws.
It does feel a little bit harsh to constantly be comparing this game to DOA, but when the “inspiration” goes as far as the two games having almost identical sets of symbols, it really is difficult not to. Both games feature a belt & holster symbol, paying 12.5x for all five in Outlaws but 83x in DOA. Both games feature a whiskey bottle & tumbler, paying 10x in Outlaws but 23x in DOA. Everywhere you look there are obvious comparisons to be made, and Outlaws only comes out on top when you factor in that this is clearly a much lower variance online slot.
As far as the bet limits are concerned, you have a reasonable spread here of €0.20 per spin at the bottom end and €50.00 per spin at the other. These seem like fair numbers, and I can’t imagine anybody that loves low variance games is going to be put off at being limited to fifty euros a spin.
Base Game & Modifiers
We’ve said a lot so far about the Outlaws slot game, so let’s have a quick recap of the basics. This is a 5×3 reel game that features 20 fixed pay lines and the standard payout mechanic of awarding wins for matching three or more symbols from left-to-right. Wild symbols appear only on reels two, three, and four, while scatters appear on all five reels.
Dynamite Blast Modifier
This is the first of two features which are unique to Outlaws that have no direct comparison in Dead or Alive. The modifier activates randomly at the beginning of any base game spin and throws a bundle of dynamite onto the reel; when the dynamite explodes it can reveal cash prizes, a win multiplier, or additional scatter symbols which can end up triggering the bonus if you already have two on screen.
This is a decent mod which breaks up the base game a little, something which DOA could sorely have done with. At the same time, there isn’t much potential for big wins here, and some players are bound to ask what the point of the whole thing is when it has no capacity to reward players with even a medium-sized win.
Outlaws Slot Free Spins Feature
I guessed long before I ever saw the Outlaws bonus round that it would be a sticky wilds feature; Slotmill had gone to so much effort to copy the look, feel, and style of Dead or Alive that it would have been madness for them not to copy this aspect of the game as well. There is a novel twist here, but I’m not sure it will be enough to convince players that this is the best bonus round out of the two games:
Hitting 3, 4, or 5 scatter symbols during the base game will award 8, 10, or 12 free spins respectively. As mentioned earlier, it is nice to receive a few extra spins for hitting the additional scatter symbols but because Dead or Alive awarded 12 free spins AND 2,500x your bet for hitting all five scatters, it’s difficult to understand how Slotmill could have imagined players considering this to be a fair alternative.
This feature does have a unique aspect to it which makes it a tad more interesting than the game it was copied from. At the beginning of every free spin a crosshair will move randomly around the centre three reels. If the crosshair lands on a regular symbol, there is a 50/50 chance that it will transform that space into a sticky wild symbol for the rest of the feature. If the chosen space already contains a wild symbol, a 1x multiplier will be added which can continue increasing multiple times if the crosshair continues to land on the same spot. The bonus round can not be retriggered and there is no way to win additional free spins, unfortunately.
Outlaws Slot Review Final Thoughts
There has obviously been a huge influence from Dead or Alive in the creation of this slot, but that doesn’t make it a bad game to play. In fact we’re sure you’ll still have lots of fun spinning the reels of this slot title, but it just lacks the big win potential that Dead or Alive clearly has.
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