When I first opened Release the Kraken 2, I couldn’t help but feel somewhat confused, as I was sure that Pragmatic Play’s first Kraken game had a much more dark and serious appearance. After digging out a demo of the original, it turns out I was wrong – the first Release of the Kraken has a similarly bright, colourful, and cartoonish graphical style. I eventually concluded that I must have got mixed up between the online slot and the label on the rum – an easy mistake to make, I’m sure you will agree. This game has 20 fixed pay lines, increasing to 40 during the bonus round, whilst the RTP can vary slightly between 96.50% and 94.50%. Winnings are capped at 5,000x your bet, which is usually a reasonable number; however, on this occasion, I feel like it should have been a little higher – more on that later.
On the bright side, Pragmatic Play has included a bunch of mods and features to keep you entertained. There is a wild re-spin feature, a shifting stacked wild feature, and a guaranteed win modifier, all of which can trigger randomly during the base game. The free spins bonus round awards up to 20 free spins with a maximum 10x multiplier, with the exact numbers determined by a pick-me feature that precedes the main bonus round. If the base game isn’t exciting enough for your tastes, you can opt to use the ante bet to increase your odds of hitting a bonus round or bypass the base game entirely using either of the two bonus buy options.
How do you feel about the legendary Kraken appearing in this much less intimidating form? If you aren’t sure and want to take a closer look, why not fire up our free demo slot of Release the Kraken 2? It’s available below:
| Provider | Pragmatic Play |
| Reels | 5 |
| Rows | 4 |
| Paylines | 20 |
| Bonus Rounds | 1 |
| Bet Range | 0.20 - 125 |
| Volatility | High |
| Max Win | 5,000x |
| Bonus Buy | Yes |
| RTP | 96.50% |
| Our Rating | 8.0 |
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Release The Kraken 2 Slot Theme, Stakes, Pays & Symbols
So just who or what is the “Kraken”, anyway? The Kraken is a legendary sea monster, reportedly of enormous size, and said to appear around the North Sea area between Great Britain and Norway. The Kraken first appeared in modern age texts around the turn of the 18th century, but the first description of the creature is usually credited to the Norwegian bishop Pontoppidan. Pontoppidan described the creature as an enormous octopus and claimed it could pull ships travelling on the surface into the darkest depths of the ocean below. The Kraken is just one of many well-known legends of enormous, terrifying creatures – you can find another example in our game Clash of the Seraphim if you crave a little more monster-themed mystery!
Let’s get back to the game at hand now, starting with the paytable. At the top of the table, you’ll see a shark who, it must be said, looks rather pleased with himself! He’ll pay you 10x your current stake for each completed five-of-a-kind payline and will even pay you 0.5x for just two of his symbols, unlike the rest of the table, which all require at least three symbols to award a prize. A spiky looking fish – perhaps the puffer fish? He takes the second-place spot, paying 5x your bet for all five of his symbols. Another chunky looking (fish) fellow sporting a huge, toothy grin is next, paying 4x the bet for a full pay line, whilst a strange looking snake-fish completes the high-paying symbols with a return of 3x for five-of-a-kind. The wild symbol also has a slight premium, paying 20x the current bet for a complete pay line of those. Including the wild, this gives a total of five high-paying symbols, matching the five royal symbols that make up the bottom half of the paytable with returns of between 1x and 2x your bet.
Pragmatic Play rarely mixes things up when it comes to choosing your stake – the minimum bet on this occasion is €0.20 per spin, whilst the maximum is set at €100.00, just like almost every other game from this developer. Note that these figures increase by 25% when using the ante bet feature, giving a min/max of €0.25 and €125.00 per round.
Base Game & Modifiers
The regular gameplay of Release the Kraken 2 takes place on a five reel, four row playfield, which has 20 fixed paylines normally, increasing to 40 lines whilst the bonus round is in play.
Twenty lines do feel a little on the low side during the base game, resulting in a relatively high number of dead spins. The additional 20 lines added during the bonus round go a long way towards improving this, but you are still certain to see plenty of spins which you believe should result in a win yet do not pay you anything.
Wild Respin Modifier
If four or more wild symbols appear on any single base game spin, the game will award you a free re-spin. The wilds from the previous spin will separate from the remainder of the grid before moving into new positions whilst the rest of the reels complete their re-spin. If any additional wild symbols happen to land during your free re-spin, the game will award an additional re-spin with the new wild symbols moving into new positions just like the ones remaining from the previous spin.
Guaranteed Win Modifier
Any base game spin that does not result in a win can trigger this modifier, which will change the contents of one or more symbols to result in a win of either 20x or 50x your bet.
Alternatively, the guaranteed win modifier may also cause an explosion that will drop three scatter symbols on the reels, instantly awarding the free spins bonus round. I never saw this outcome appear during my game testing, but it is listed on the paytable, so I hope some of you will hit it when you try the game yourselves!
Shifting Stacks Wild Feature
A stacked wild symbol only appears on reels two, three, and four. On any base game spin where one or more of these symbols appear, the stacked wilds will nudge themselves at the end of the spin until they are fully in view.
For each position a wild symbol moves, a multiplier will be increased by 1x. Once all stacked wilds are fully in view, winning combinations will be re-evaluated and multiplied by the resulting total multiplier.
Ante Bet
For a cost of 25% on top of the regular price per spin, you can increase your odds of hitting the free spins feature. The game does not specify exactly how much your chances are increased, which is a little disappointing – it would be nice to know that you do actually receive 25% of benefit for 25% more cash! My own feeling was that this option is probably worth utilising, but it is impossible to say for sure without a much more extensive test.
Release The Kraken 2 Slot Bonus Features
Hitting three or more scatter symbols during the base game will start the free spins feature. Before the bonus round begins, you will be shown several treasure chests and asked to either accept a random pick or begin to remove the chests from play in a “Deal or no Deal” type feature that will eventually narrow the number of options available to just two.
Free Spins
If this feature is triggered by three scatter symbols, the treasure chests will contain options ranging from four free spins at 2x up to a maximum of 15 free spins at 4x. When four scatters trigger the feature, the available options can reach a maximum of either 15 free spins at 10x or 20 free spins at 6x. Finally, a five-scatter feature is labelled the “King Kraken” feature, which significantly increases the value of all available options and offers a maximum reward of 20 free spins at a 10x multiplier.
The free spins bonus round works similarly to the wild re-spin modifier from the base game, meaning that all wild symbols that land on the reels will become sticky for the duration of the feature and will also move into new random positions in between each free spin.
Additionally, the bonus round is played with 40 fixed paylines rather than the default 20 offered in the base game. The feature cannot be re-triggered, sadly. During my testing, I have to be honest and say that my results were typically extremely underwhelming – this is definitely the type of bonus which will result in very small wins on the majority of the occasions but will occasionally throw you a curve ball and end up paying out several thousand times your bet.
Bonus Buy
If it is permitted within your jurisdiction, you can opt to skip the base game for a cost of 100x the regular price per spin. This will cause a three or four scatter feature to be triggered on the reels. The five-scatter bonus is reserved for a separate fee of 250x the normal spin cost – if you are willing to pay this, you can be sure that the chests will contain the much higher values mentioned previously.
Release The Kraken 2 Slot Review Final Thoughts
I have no qualms in calling this a great game, but my one reservation has to be the maximum winnings cap of 5,000x your bet. The bonus round awarded by this slot tends to pay very low, apart from the occasional lucky round where things go crazy and a bunch of those lovely sticky wilds drop into view.
When a game has this type of bonus feature, I would expect to see a larger winnings cap than 5,000x – I can imagine a whole lot of those “crazy” bonus rounds hitting this cap, which is sure to leave a sour taste in players’ mouths. I’d still recommend you give this game a try, but I would suggest ignoring the bonus buy facility, as it will deplete your bankroll in no time!
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