Quickspin Launches New Beastwood Slot Universe
Just like Hollywood, the slot world has increasingly been pursuing expanded universes that allow them to release sequel after sequel. Quickspin has taken their latest swing at building out a universe with the release of Beastwood slot.
According to a press release from the company, Mr. Beastwood will be a recurring character that will appear in sequels. The slot also introduces a new product line for the casino built on the new-to-Quickspin expanding reels mechanic. What that likely means is that you can expect a lot more slots that look and play like Beastwood slot in the future. So, is that an exciting prospect or a horrifying one?
It’s monster hintin’ time
Beastwood slot’s main party piece is its expanding reels mechanic. Unlike many other slots that expand their reels upwards, the slot’s reels expand to the right almost endlessly. The way it works is that following an initial win, an extra reel is added. If symbols on the added reel expand the existing winning combination, another reel is added. This process continues to occur until no additional expansions to the winning combination are unlocked.
According to Quickspin, the expanding reels mechanic in Beastwood slot gives it up to 1 quintillion ways to win. If you’re curious how much a quintillion is, it’s a billion billion written as one followed by 18 zeros.
As the reels are expanding, you’ll notice multipliers pop up just above the reels. If you strike it lucky and expand your winning combination, it will be multiplied. These multipliers appear infrequently in the base game. However, during free spins, a reel multiplier will appear above each and every reel added to the slot.
Talking about free spins, those are unlocked with the appearance of four or more wax seal bonus symbols. Each additional bonus symbol that you collect to unlock your round of free spins will add three more free spins to your total. Once you have triggered and started a round of free spins, each additional bonus symbol you collect will add one more free spin to your total.
If you’re not keen on waiting around for the monsters to go bump in the night, you can choose to purchase a round of free spins.
Is Beastwood slot magnificent or meh?
Let’s start with the good. Beastwood slot is close to perfect. The graphics are stunning with an incredible amount of detail put into the character design. The gameplay also doesn’t let the side down. The way the expanding reels mechanic is implemented isn’t totally novel, but it’s definitely rare making it a nice change of speed. The bonus features that operate around the main party piece of the slot are also great.
The high volatility does put a brief dampener on the action, but that’s really more than made up for with a healthy 96.11% RTP and a 29,541x max multiplier that’ll see you playing for the €177,246 max win at just €6 a spin.
As a standalone slot, Beastwood may be one of my favorites of the year. However, this idea of making it another slot that will get endless cookie-cutter sequels with little thought put into making each one unique sours things for me. And maybe they won’t do that. Maybe Quickspin will put in the effort and make each one a unique adventure that I can’t wait to embark on. In my experience, however, that’s unlikely.
If you’re looking for a few other super slots from Quickspin, I recommend giving Slugger Time and Hammer of Vulcan a try.