Van der Wilde and The Outlaws

Van der Wilde and The Outlaws Overview

Internationally renowned slot designers iSoftBet invite you to travel with them back in time to an era of gunslingers, saloons and vigilante justice in their new slot - Van der Wilde and the Outlaws. Like other games of a similar ilk, this game introduces players to the high-octane period of the Wild West, where official lawmen are thin on the ground, and daring outlaws are always looking for their next heist. In terms of the playing dynamics for this game, it is a five reel, ten pay line slot with a decent top prize of 8,827x your total stake.

The features for Van der Wilde and The Outlaws are as exciting as the theme. They begin with the expanding wins feature. This bonus is triggered when you land a winning combination that includes an outlaw scatter. First of all, the initial winning combination is paid out. After that, the standard symbols that materialised the win expand to cover their respective reels, resulting in a second payout. The other features are a free spin feature and a super spins feature, both of which give you access to several free spins with some modifiers present to help boost your wins.

Theme and Symbols

As briefly mentioned in the introduction, the theme for this slot is a Wild West theme. Specifically, this game follows the narrative of the famous highway criminal Van der Wilde and his band of outlaws. The rough idea is that landing said outlaws would put them behind bars, and you (the player) collect some handsome bounties. The graphics, cartoon animations, and setting are all finished to a high standard, giving the game’s visual appeal a real boost. If you love Westerns, you’ll love the way this game is put together.

The background for this slot is an old western pioneering town. The perspective that players get is one looking down the main high street. On the left and right of the board are a number of shops, residences and amenities such as a hotel and what you can imagine is a saloon. The background has been designed to look like it is the peak of the day, with powerful sunshine radiating through the town, glinting of the high windows and soaking the mainly wooden facades in a warming yellow glow
The playing board for this game looks like a shop entrance or the back of a wagon. Either way, the board has been created out of wood and is in keeping with the rest of the board’s rustic cowboy aesthetic.

The symbols for Van der Wilde and The Outlaws are split into low-value, high-value and special symbols. The low-value icons are the 10, J, Q, K and A in playing card royals decorated in a western font. The most you will get for landing combinations of these symbols is a payout of 8x the stake. On the other hand, the more valuable symbols are the four members of the Van der Wilde gang. These begin with Mad Dog, the red bandana-wearing outlaw. Next is Buffalo Butch, then Bonney Cassidy and finally Van der Wilde himself. He is the most valuable icon on the board, paying a maximum of 250x the stake for the top combination. The specials finally are the scatter and the wild.

Game Play

Van der Wilde and The Outlaws is played on a 5-reel, 3-row machine with 10 fixed pay lines. To win combinations, players must land three or more matching symbols on pay lines moving from left to right, starting from the leftmost reel.
The betting range for Van der Wilde and The Outlaws is 10p to £10 per spin. To adjust their bet levels, players can toggle their stake up and down using the tool located at the bottom left-hand side of the screen.

Further information, including a short tutorial and a display of the paytable, can be found via the menu button in the right-hand corner of the screen. The spin and auto spin buttons are located in the centre of the screen.
Volatility for this slot is rated in the very high range. The return to player percentage for Van der Wilde and The Outlaws is 96%, which is about average. The biggest payout that players can win on one spin is 8,827x your stake.

Features

The first feature included in this game is the expanding wins feature. To activate this bonus, players need to land a winning combination that includes one outlaw scatter in it. The initial win that you registered will be paid out. After which, all of the standard symbols that made up the win will expand to cover the reels they landed to deliver a second payout.

The next feature is the free spins bonus, triggered by landing three or more scatter icons on the same spin. This will reward you with eight free spins. Before you begin these spins, however, you will first spin the bonus wheel. On this reel, there are different segments, each of which relates to a character in the game - Van der Wilde, Bonney Cassidy, Buffalo Butch or Mad Dog. The character you land on will then be the Super Symbol for the duration of the free spins.

This Super Symbol is important as it will expand to fill the reel it lands on whenever it is part of a winning combination. Also, unlike in the base game, they do not have to be attached to a wild to deliver the expanding dynamic. You can also retrigger the bonus by landing an additional three scatters.

Finally, the last feature is the Super Spins bonus. In addition to the four bonus characters in this game, there is also a section that says Super Spins. If you land on this section, you will be awarded 5 super spins on four sets of reels. Each set of reels will have its own super symbol, which means that you are much more likely to trigger an expanding symbol mechanic than in the regular free spins. Like the previous feature, you can also retrigger this bonus by landing another three scatters in the super spins, awarding you another 5 spins.

Conclusion

With a wildly popular theme, an excellent collection of features and a decent RTP, Van der Wilde and The Outlaws is a solid prospect for gamers of all types. The only letdown is the relatively small top prize, which is disappointing considering the game’s prestige.