Fishing is basically standing around pretending you’ve achieved inner peace while secretly beefing with a creature that has a brain the size of a peanut. You sit there for hours, armed with overpriced gear and blind optimism, trying to outsmart something that would absolutely eat its own reflection if given the chance.

Needless to say, I don’t see much point in using it, and it continues to surprise me that so many developers keep using it as a theme. This week, we’ve got Hacksaw and its new Marlin Masters: Atlantis slot.

Can I look inside your tackle box?

The Marlin Masters Atlantis slot from Hacksaw Gaming features 26 paylines set across five reels. You can place bets ranging from $0.10 to $35 per spin. With a 10,000x max multiplier, betting at the top end gives you a shot at winning up to $350,000.

With medium volatility, the gameplay strikes a balance between smaller, more frequent returns and the potential for larger payouts. The slot’s expected RTP is 96.27%.

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Much of the slot’s bonus feature action revolves around the Marlin symbols, which carry instant-win values ranging from 1x to 100x your bet. These values are paid when they appear on the same spins as a Fisherman symbol or when they form part of a winning LootLine. A LootLine consists of a payline made up of Marlin symbols, Jackpot Marlin symbols, or a mix of both.

Jackpot Marlin symbols can award 25x, 100x, 500x, or 10,000x your bet, corresponding to the Mini, Major, Mega, and Max Win outcomes.

Fisherman symbols may also appear with a multiplier of up to x20. This multiplier is applied to the total value of all collected Marlin symbol values. Up to three Fisherman symbols can land during the same spin, allowing multiple collections to occur.

The Kraken Collector symbol is restricted to the leftmost reel. When it lands, it expands to cover the entire reel after any payline wins have been paid out. This triggers a respin sequence involving the remaining reels.

During a respin, all Marlin and Jackpot Marlin symbols remain locked in place while all other symbols are removed. Only Marlin symbols, Jackpot Marlin symbols, or dead symbols can land in the respins. The respin feature continues until no additional Marlin or Jackpot Marlin symbols appear.

Fisherman symbols cannot land on the same spin as a Kraken Collector. In addition, Marlin and Jackpot Marlin symbols cannot appear on the same reel as the Kraken Collector.

A round of the Sunken Empire free spins is triggered by landing three scatter symbols, awarding 10 free spins. During this free spins feature, all base game mechanics remain active.

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A Trident Bar is introduced alongside the reels during free spins. Each time a Fisherman symbol lands, the bar increases by one step, regardless of whether any symbols are collected. Every fifth Fisherman symbol activates an upgrade level and awards an additional eight free spins. 

At upgrade levels 1, 2, and 3, Fisherman symbols are guaranteed to land with a minimum multiplier of x2, x3, and x5, respectively.

Landing four scatter symbols triggers a round of Pose for Poseidon free spins. You will be awarded 15 free spins, and the gameplay retains the mechanics of the Sunken Empire Bonus Game. You will, however, have an increased likelihood of progressing through the Trident Bar and reaching higher upgrade levels more quickly.

The slot also includes a feature buy option that allows you to purchase a round of each of the rounds of free spins at a cost of 100x and 200x your bet, respectively.

Is the Marlin Masters: Atlantis slot more of the same

The Marlin Masters: Atlantis slot is the third entry in Hacksaw’s Marlin Masters series, and it does very little to separate itself from what came before, beyond a fresh coat of paint. The underlying mechanics feel overly familiar, and not just within Hacksaw’s own catalog. Similar systems have already been seen in Evoplay’s The Greatest Catch series and Booming’s Fish Tales titles.

As a result, the Atlantis theme ends up doing most of the heavy lifting, and it doesn’t quite manage it. The aesthetic feels underdeveloped and doesn’t add much substance to the experience.

Taking all of that into account, this is a five out of ten. It works, but there’s little here that would justify returning to it over the many near-identical alternatives.

While this one is a miss, Hacksaw slots normally get my highest endorsement. If you’re looking for a few that I keep going back to, try out Epic Bullets & Bounty and Aiko and the Wind Spirit.