Nolimit City is a software provider who’s taken the iGaming world by storm. In the last two years, they’ve gone from a fairly unknown, small-time game developer to one of the world’s most successful slot development companies, and players appear to love the high variance nature of their games. While the highly-volatile math model built into many of their games means “dry spells” are common, the insane win potential is often enough to compensate for this – and The Border slot, the game developer’s latest release, isn’t shy of delivering that big win potential.
Offering a maximum win of 44,288x your stake, Nolimit City’s latest release comes in three different RTP settings; 96.17%, 94%, and 92%. Online casinos are free to choose the RTP setting that best suits their business needs; we always recommend finding casinos that offer video slots at their highest RTP.
In this review, we’re going to be giving you an in-depth look at what the video slot has to offer. Firstly, we’ll cover the game’s theme and design – and later, we’ll be talking about the bonuses and features inside.
The Border Slot: Theme, Design, and Layout
The Border – unsurprisingly – is designed around a border… the treacherous US-Mexico divide. Running for some 3,145km, it’s one of the longest land borders in the world, and some 350 million legal crossings are made over it each year. Of course, there’s also a large number of illegal crossings – something that’s been largely politicized in the last decade or so.
Nolimit City’s latest release is themed entirely around this US-Mexico border – and the setting for the game is a well-guarded portion of the border, with large metal fences and barbed wire fences designed to keep people out.
The game takes place on a 6×6 game grid, and it’s a “cluster pays” slot. This means that wins are formed by matching five or more identical symbols vertically or horizontally. Visually, the slot looks fantastic, and there’s an intense – yet fitting – soundtrack accompanying the gameplay, too. You may find this game as some of the best bingo sites and bets range from £0.20 to £100 per spin.
Special Symbols, Bonus Features, and Gameplay
There are a total of eight paying symbols in the game, and the low-value ones include scorpions, snakes, vultures – and there are five different character symbols which make up the game’s higher-paying icons. Unlike conventional video slots, wins are formed by matching paylines, and you need to form clusters, instead, in order to win.
For example, if you make a low-tier five-symbol cluster, you can win between 0.2 and 1x your bet, while a 160+ sized cluster can award you up to 2,214x your stake. Now, given that the game is played on a 6×6 grid, you may be wondering how it’s possible to form 160+ sized clusters – and that’s something we’ll be taking a look at below.
The Border Slot: Bonus Features
Like most Nolimit City slots, The Border is packed with bonuses and features – and you’ll see the familiar xWays and xSplits features present. These features are joined by xNudge Cluster Wilds, which can nudge up and down if they form part of a winning cluster. xBomb Wilds, introduced for the first time in Fire in the Hole, also make an appearance, and when they land in view, they remove all adjacent symbols and increase a win multiplier by +1.
If you land six of the scatter symbols anywhere in view, you’ll trigger the Mule Spins bonus. This awards you with 10 free spins, and during this bonus, any time an xWays symbol forms part of a winning cluster, other symbols around can become “infected” – splitting themselves into two or four symbols. This is a similar mechanic to what we see in the Mental slot, and it’s this mechanism that allows the game grid to, essentially, expand.
If you manage to get seven of the scatter symbols anywhere in view, you’ll be awarded 12 Coyote Spins. During this bonus round, when one of the xWays symbols lands in view it infects all cluster symbols – not just those directly adjacent to it – giving you the potential to massively open up the game grid. There is also a win multiplier present during this feature, and it does not reset between spins. This is where the major win potential comes from, although the standard feature isn’t shy of handing out 1,000x+ wins either.
If available to players in your country, The Border also contains a bonus buy option. You can purchase the standard bonus round for a cost of 98x your stake, while the Coyote Spins feature costs 914x your stake.
Conclusion
The Border slot is yet another highly-volatile game from Nolimit City. With players able to win upwards of 44,000x times their stake, it’s sure to be attractive to those going in search of bigger wins. However, it’s also the game developer’s first cluster paying slot, which could be somewhat of a love/hate feature for some players.
Nolimit City is well-known for its xWays and xNudge features, and to see these included in a cluster pays game is great – but from a player’s perspective, it’s going to take time to see whether this format catches on or not.
If you are looking for a game with a fantasy theme, make sure you check out Beastwood slot, or alternatively for something more grounded, Dead Riders Trail slot is a worthy choice.
