Hellcatraz

Get ready to escape from Hellcatraz on the slot from Relax Gaming. Reminiscent of the world-known prison dubbed The Rock for its location on an island off the shores of San Francisco, you will be spinning on a pixelated 80s-style reel set with cascading symbols, reactive wins, wild substitutions, Mystery Reveal symbols and a collectable Super Free Spins round that can lead to wins of up to 51,840 times your bet.

Slot Details

Hellcatraz is a cascading video slot in a 6×6 format with 46,656 ways to win. Pays are awarded for three to six matching symbols on adjacent reels, starting from the left only. You can visit the notorious reel prison on desktop or mobile from 0.20 to 20 credits per spin. The game is highly volatile with an RTP of 96.30% or 96.46% based on which mode is selected (more to that shortly). Using the Buy Feature option will increase that to 96.88%.

The San Francisco skyline at night complete with the famous Golden Gate Bridge appears in the background of the island-like game window. The reels are held on a pile of stones surrounded by patrol boats and a guard tower. A display to the left is the collection meter for the Super Spins while also holding the Switch Mode and Buy Feature buttons.

The pay symbols start at the low end with the card suits – diamonds, clubs and hearts – plus yellow stars, awarding 0.4x your bet for a single six of a kind. They are followed by a set of handcuffs, guard badges, sharks, a prison inmate and a guard. Hit six across the reels to win 0.6x to 2x your stake. A pixelated W is the wild symbol, appearing on reels two to six only and substituting for all regular pay symbols. A prison window with bars and marked with a number acts as the mystery symbol.

Hellcatraz Slot Features

While the inmates at Alcatraz had their daily fixed routines, none of that orderly action can be found on the reels of its slot pendant. Relax Gaming went to great length to deliver an action-packed game with ample features to keep us glued to the screens.

Core to the gameplay is the cascading symbol mechanic. At the start of a spin sequence, symbols drop onto the six reels which are fixed at 46,656 ways. Any winners will shatter and disappear to allow more symbols to tumble into place, potentially leading to a series of winning cascades. The process continues as long as new wins land after a tumble.

Demo Video courtesy of Relax Gaming

Before starting to spin the reels, players have two choose between two game modes which will affect the Mystery Reveal symbols. They appear on every spin and will be marked with a countdown number between 1 – 5. The counter will reduce by one after each winning cascade within a spin sequence. All mystery symbols reaching zero will reveal a common pay symbol, which is all fine and dandy if you manage the feat before the spin concludes. However, if they don’t then the mystery symbols act more or less like blockers on the reels, reducing the number of ways to score a win. Here’s what sets apart the two game modes:

• Mixed Mode – High Volatility: Two independent counter values are assigned to the mystery symbols in view, which could be identical.
• Lockdown Mode – Extreme Volatility: All mystery symbols in view have the same counter value.

The main feature and moment to score monster wins of up to 51,840x your bet is the Super Free Spins round. To trigger the bonus AKA escape from Hellcatraz, you will need to accumulate 2,000 keys in the Key Collector on the left of the game window (desktop version). They appear randomly attached to pay symbols and will add anything between 1 and 10 keys to the meter for each occurrence. Once filled up, it will trigger 5 Super Free Spins. The round is played at an average bet used throughout the collection period.

The kicker in the free spins is that all mystery symbols landing on the reels will instantly reveal a common symbol without any countdown, no matter which game mode was active during the key collection. Plus, golden mystery symbols can land on any spin. You will need to have minimum two winning cascades within the same spin sequence for them to reveal +1 super free spin, no limits.

Lastly, for those impatient among us, there is an opportunity for an instant escape from Hellcatraz. Clicking on the Buy Feature button will allow you to purchase a Super Free Spins round at 200x your base bet. Alternatively, you can use the collected keys and buy the additional amount of keys needed to reach the required 2,000 keys. For the latter, the feature is played at an average of the bet sizes used during collection and for the purchase of the extra keys. The feature will be restricted in some jurisdictions.

Final Verdict

To be honest, at first sight, I thought Hellcatraz is a Megaways slot. Six reels and 46,656 ways to win point towards the popular BTG game engine. However, at closer inspection it turns out not to be the case as the reels are not dynamic, meaning the number of ways is fixed at all times. Still, it is an intense game that will deliver a high-volatility cliffhanger in every session with a win potential to match.

Last Update: 13th October 2020

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