Sticky Bandits: Trail of Blood is the latest release from Swedish game developer, Quickspin. This is the fourth installment in the software provider’s popular Sticky Bandits series – and this installment offers the most win potential, with players able to win up to 17,000x their stake!
The volatility of Sticky Bandits: Trail of Blood slot is rated by Quickspin as high, and the game comes with a fixed RTP of 96.23%. It doesn’t appear as though Quickspin are offering this video slot game in multiple RTP settings.
In this Sticky Bandits: Trail of Blood slot review, we’re going to be showing you everything you need to know about the game. We’ll look at the layout, theme and design – and later, we’ll cover the different bonuses and features.
Sticky Bandits: Trail of Blood Slot: Theme, Design, and Layout
The slot is built around a fairly standard 5-reel, 3-row format. There are 10 fixed paylines in play at all times. You can spin the reels at your favourite casino sites from as little as 0.10 credits per spin, and the maximum bet is set to 100 credits.
The game’s back story is quite interesting – and dark – and it tells the story of a deputy sheriff called Tex Talionis. He’s managed to lose his family – and he’s now going in search of revenge against those who were responsible for his family’s deaths.
Special Symbols, Bonus Features, and Gameplay
A number of different symbols are used in Sticky Bandits: Trail of Blood. The low-value symbols are four playing card values; J, Q, K, and A. These pay between four and 10 times your bet for a 5-of-a-kind combo.
The game’s higher-paying symbols include fire bombs, brass knuckles, knives, and revolvers. These higher-paying symbols pay between 20x and 75x your stake for a 5-of-a-kind combo.
There are also five wild symbols. Each reel has its own wild symbol – a different character – and these wilds are a core component of the main free spins bonus round. Details of this free spins are covered in the following section of this review.
Sticky Bandits: Trail of Blood Bonus Features
Sticky Bandits: Trail of Blood tells you in the name what the main bonus round is all about; sticky wilds. During the base game, you’ll want to land 3, 4, or 5 of the scatter symbols anywhere in view to trigger the main free spins bonus round. Doing so will award you with 10, 12, or 15 Revenge free spins respectively.
Before the free spins begin, any wild symbols that are currently in view lock in place. These wilds then stay locked for the duration of the free spins bonus round. If you manage to land any additional wilds during the free spins bonus round, the wild will also lock in place. You will be awarded one additional free spin for each additional wild that you manage to land in view.
The main appeal of the free spins bonus round is to land a full line of wilds; this means you will be paid out for a 5-of-a-kind wild-line on each spin – and a wild line pays 300x. As you can probably see, Sticky Bandits: Trail of Blood’s main free spins bonus round is very similar to the one found in NetEnt’s Dead or Alive 2. However, if you manage to land a wild symbol on each reel you don’t win an additional five free spins like you do in NetEnt’s iconic release.
In some online gambling jurisdictions, the game displays a “bonus buy” button. This allows you to purchase direct entry to the free spins bonus round – and there are two options to choose from. Firstly, you can choose the standard round, guaranteeing a trigger with at least three wilds. This costs 100x your bet.
Secondly, you can pay 400x for a bonus that starts with a guaranteed four wild symbols. This is a very high price for a bonus buy – and we can’t see too many players choosing to take advantage of it! The RTP of the bonus buys are 96.36% and 96.68% respectively, so the RTP does increase slightly.
Conclusion
While Sticky Bandits: Trail of Blood slot is the fourth installment in Quickspin’s Sticky Bandits series, in our opinion, it doesn’t quite deliver – something that’s been the case with all of the games in the series so far. The first two games were incredibly low variance – and didn’t see the levels of popularity the game developers were probably hoping for. While this installment of the series aims to up the win potential and increase volatility, Quickspin haven’t been very creative; the game is, in essence, a clone of NetEnt’s Dead or Alive 2, albeit with less win potential.
We do like the fact that additional free spins are awarded for landing just one additional wild symbol during the bonus round. However, when we tested the game, we purchased a lot of bonuses – and it appears that landing extra wild symbols is pretty uncommon.
There is some win potential to be found – although you’ll generally need to land a wild line before any real win potential is seen – and this doesn’t appear to be an easy feat! Still, the graphics and visuals are fantastic, and with players able to win up to 17,000x their bet, we’re confident it will be more successful than the previous installments in the series!
If you’re looking for games with a different theme, we recommend Nolimit City’s Road Rage slot, or Mad Cars from Push Gaming. Both offer great winning potentials.
