Planet of the Apes review

Theme and Storyline

Planet of the Apes is not based around the movie of the same name but on its reboot / prequels Dawn of the Planet of the Apes (2014) and Rise of the Planet of the Apes (2011) which put humans back in the picture.

Much as those movies created two competing worlds of the humans versus the other apes, the game represents that duality in the mix of human and non-human characters and in the twin slot nature of the game (details below in Gameplay).

Graphics, Sounds and Animations

Being a movie tie-in the graphics are as good as you would expect from a NetEnt's slot. The game has enough funding to pay off 20th Century Fox for the rights, so there is more or less no way it would come out anything less than polished.

That said, the photographic symbols might have been better served by adopting an art style that was less literal and the difference in scope and style of the two films makes the Rise side look rather bland compared with the Dawn side.

Despite these issues, the slot comes with great animations and a superb soundtrack lifted from the films which overall make the design elements feel like an overall positive for the game.

Gameplay

Planet of the Apes plays out on an interesting twin slot screen. Rise of the Planet of the Apes on one side and Dawn of the Planet of the Apes on the other. Each plays as a separate slot machine, except in the cases where certain features are triggered that transfer sets of symbols from one slot machine to the other.

These features include the Dual Feature which chooses a random symbol on each game. When that symbol lands in its chosen area it sticks. If it lands on the other game it is transferred across to the other game.

In addition to this random feature there are several bonus features described below.

Wilds, Bonuses and Free Spins

Wild symbols are individual to each of the games and substitute for any symbol except the Bonus or Scatter symbols.

The Wilds come in stacks. Should a stack fill an entire reel, then the same reel in the other game will also be changed to be all Wild symbols.

Scatter symbols pay out if you hit three or more in a given spin. Again they do not transfer across the twin slots. So a Rise Scatter cannot pair with two Dawn Scatters to generate a win.

Scatter symbols also trigger free spins. In the Rise game three or more Scatters give you ten free spins where all the Wilds are collected after each spin and then they are randomly placed on the play area in the last free spin.

In the Dawn game the Scatters trigger fifteen free spins with a set of extra symbols which fill up metres to provide extra multipliers, Wilds and respins.

There is also a Bonus symbol in each game - the Rise Bonus symbol. If it lands on the first reel, it will trigger a coin reward where every human or non-human ape symbol will be given a random coin value which is added to your win.

The Dawn Bonus, however, transforms all the ape/human symbols into the same randomly chosen ape/human symbol.

Bet Sizes, RTP and Variance

Planet of the Apes has a medium level volatility. We prefer high volatility to pair well with our preferred strategies.

The return to player is a pretty average 96.33%.

The bet ranges on the site we tested ranged from £/$/€0.20 to £/$/€200.00.

Conclusion

While well made and absolutely bursting with cool features, and varied bonuses, Planet of the Apes fails to impress with its average return to player and volatility. Both of which we like to maximise in slots we recommend.