Narcos Free Play in Demo Mode by NetEnt

Narcos review

Theme and Storyline

Narcos is a licenced slot machine adaptation of the popular Netflix series about the head of the Medellin cartel, Pablo Escobar, and the law enforcement officials who eventually caught and killed him.

It is an exciting world rendered in rich detail by the artwork which mirrors modern comic books in their digital painting style.

Although the actual likenesses of the actors are rather loosely rendered, they are close enough to be recognisable and the slot does a good job of capturing the tone of the show. So if you’re a fan or just enjoy a cross between neo-noir and neo-western, dive on in.

Graphics, Sounds and Animations

The graphics are one of the strongest features of the Narcos slot. The artwork is perfect, capturing the warm South American feel in the colour palette of a spaghetti Western. The symbols are detailed without being busy and each of them has their own animation when they are part of a win.

The other animations are also varied and theme-driven. Each feature uses different borders, colours and animations to make them distinct from each other, while the sound effects match up to the movements perfectly.

The whole deal is then tied together with a nicely cinematic and grown-up version of a mariachi band on the soundtrack.

Gameplay

Narcos is a five reel by three row slot, with an any way wins system. This means symbols need only to appear on consecutive reels starting with reel one to form a win. This results in 243 ways to win.

There are also several features of gameplay that are triggered randomly in the base game. For example, the Drive By Feature changes some of the high-value symbols into Wilds.

Couple this with the walking wilds and bonus games (details below) and you have exciting gameplay that is as varied and exciting as the lives of drug smugglers and the cops who hunt them.

Wilds, Bonuses and Free Spins

The Wild symbol substitutes for all symbols except the Scatter symbol and the Locked Up symbol.

A Walking Wild can appear at random during any spin and will remain on the reels, moving one space to the left with each spin, adding a little bit of variety to the everyday spins.

Scatter symbols only appear on reels one, three and five. One Scatter on each of those reels give the player ten Free Spins.

The big winnings come from the Locked Up symbol though.

When three or more of these land anywhere on the same row, they are moved together and assigned a random value between one and ten times the player’s bet per spin.

The player then gets three Locked Up Spins. During Locked Up Spins the symbols are either blank, Locked Up Symbols, or Golden symbols. Any non-blank symbols that land lock in place and when a group of three symbols forms, or a new symbol lands next to a group, then the spin number resets to three. Golden symbols add either larger values or can increase the value of symbols already in a group.

At the end of the last spin the value of all symbols in a group are added up and the amount paid out to the player.

Bet Sizes, RTP and Variance

The return to player of this game is 96.23%, a little 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 $/£/€0.20 up to a maximum of $/£/€400.00 per spin. This kind of spread easily covers most players.

The volatility of this game is on the cusp between medium and high. As a result, this slot is a pretty good match for our preferred slot machine strategies, which target the highest possible volatility.

Conclusion

Narcos is a beautiful game with a pitch perfect ear and eye for setting the tone and style of the TV show from which it borrows its name. By itself, the slot’s design could have sold us on this slot.

The RTP (96.23%) and volatility (medium-high) are also in the zones that we like and would match well with our slot strategies.

In fact, we have very little to narc on when it comes to this slot. We give Narcos a wholehearted recommendation.