Dead or Alive 2 Free Play in Demo Mode by NetEnt

Dead or Alive 2 review

Theme and Storyline

Dead or Alive 2 is a slick Western themed slot from NetEnt. The game casts the player as a no good bounty hunter looking to reap the rewards of finding, and bringing in, the villains of a small fictional town in 1800s America. Pony up and you’ll be hunting varmints in no time, bringing them in either dead or alive.

The set up is good, the world well built, and the characters varied. The game manages to build its quite wide ranging character roster using clever gameplay variations, symbols and bonuses.

If you’ve never played at being a cowboy before, now’s your chance.

Graphics, Sounds and Animations

The game benefits massively from some well thought through visual features.

Small details in the animation, like the way the bottles hanging from the reels sway on their strings when the player spins the reels, make the game feel immersive and alive despite the abandoned desert town that makes up the backdrop.

The reel and win animations are also perfectly blended with the sound and the music to make the whole game feel integrated and responsive. Coupled with the charming and varied characters that make up the symbols along with the miscellaneous artefacts of Western life, this makes for a game that is both recognisably part of the Western genre, and distinct from other similarly themed slots.

Gameplay

The base game is played on five reels with three rows, and nine win lines.

There is no gamble feature, but Dead or Alive 2 makes up for that with multiple bonus games.

What features it does have are all given a nice lift by musical stings, animations, and gameplay twists that keep the player engaged and pace the game out beautifully.

Wilds, Bonuses and Free Spins

The Wild symbol substitutes for all symbols except the Scatter symbol. There are five different Wild symbols but the differences are purely visual.

Two or more Scatter symbols anywhere on the reels result in a payout. Two symbols get the player twice their bet per spin, while five nets 2,500 times their bet per spin.

Three or more Scatter symbols will also trigger one of three Bonus games. Each Bonus starts with twelve free spins. The type of bonus is selected at random.

During Old Saloon Free Spins, all wins are multiplied by two. If at least one Sticky Wild lands on every reel during a spin, five additional spins are added to the total number of spins.

During High Noon Free Spins, when multiple Wilds land on the same reel, they transform into a multiplier wild – x2 for two Wilds on the same reel and x3 if there are three. If at least one Sticky Wild lands on every reel during a spin, five additional spins are also added to the total in this Bonus too.

During Train Heist Free Spins, a counter is added to the reels. This records the current multiplier, which increases by one whenever a Wild symbol lands on the reels. When a Wild lands, an additional free spin is also added to the total. If the counter reaches x16, then another five additional free spins are added to the total number of free spins.

Bet Sizes, RTP and Variance

The return to player of this game is 96.80%, well over our yardstick for average of roughly 96%.

The range of bets on the site we tested ran from a minimum bet per spin of $/£/€0.09 up to a maximum of $/£/€9.00 per spin. The high bet here is strangely low, and your mileage may differ on other sites.

The volatility of this game is high, which makes it a perfect match for our preferred slot machine strategies. Especially when coupled with the nice return to player.

Conclusion

Dead or Alive 2 is hugely popular and with good reason.

It has a lot of visual flare and atmosphere, generating a bleak dog eat dog world in a parched desert town.

On top of that, NetEnt have built a slot with high volatility, an RTP of 96.80%, and the kind of quality gameplay mechanics you would expect from a studio that have been in this business for so long.

We highly recommend this slot.