Invaders Takeover

Invaders Takeover: Slot Overview

Lock up your cows, folks; the aliens are coming in the online slot Invaders Takeover from game provider Light & Wonder. It's been a while since a Light & Wonder slot came along that got the pulses racing. The last one of note, from memory, was 300 Shields Mighty Ways. Sad to say, it is unlikely Invaders Takeover is going to rock too many worlds either since it's a reskin/clone/remake of the already average slot Wild Outlaws.

Invaders Takeover takes place on the bridge of a ship overlooking a glowing orange planet (depending on the screen size) somewhere out there in the vastness of space. It doesn't seem as though the aliens are taking over Earth this time, so we can all breathe a sigh of relief. Then again, maybe they are just passing through on the way to probe earthlings. Hard to say, so players are free to let their imaginations run wild on what the scenario is. However, Invaders Takeover's so-so audiovisuals were such that they didn't inspire much in the way of wildly imaginative thoughts. Destroying planets to calculate the number of awarded free spins and the UFO battle in the bonus round is kind of fun, though.

Hovering in the middle of the spaceship's viewport is a 6-reel, 4-row grid matrix with 4,096 ways to win rather than paylines. As well as picking a stake of 20 c to $/€10 per spin, users are free to activate the Premium Play function and the Gamble feature, both of which are covered in the next section of the review. With a highly volatile math model, Invaders Takeover has a default RTP of 96.1%, but lower values are available, too, depending on the market.

Pay symbols time, so that means 9 to A card ranks for lows, then a cow, an alien, a scientist, and the game's logo. A 6-matching low pay symbol win is worth 0.4 to 1 times the bet, while the same outcome made of premium symbols pays 1.5 to 10 times the bet. Also appearing on reels 2, 3, 4, and 5 is Invaders Takeover's wild symbol, substituting any regular pay symbol.

Invaders Takeover: Slot Features

Invaders Takeover recalls the same features found in Wild Outlaws (renaming some of them), such as the Alien Attack bonus, free spins, Premium Play, and the Gamble extra.

Alien Attack Bonus

When 2 scatter symbols land (in the base game or in free spins), there is a chance they trigger the Alien Attack bonus – if the onboard computer displays 'Threat Detected', the bonus is triggered; if the computer displays 'No Threat Detected', it will not. When the bonus is triggered, the 2 scatter symbols turn into wilds, and a laser gun shoots symbols, transforming them into wilds, too. The laser can create wilds on the leftmost and rightmost reels for this feature. Between 3 to 5 wilds are added in this bonus, keeping in mind the Alien Attack Bonus and free spins cannot be triggered on the same spin.

Free Spins

Landing at least 3 scatter symbols triggers free spins. Each scatter symbol gives the player 1 of 3 planets to pick, which explodes when selected, revealing the number of free spins. When all planets are destroyed, the free spins round starts. For the round, 4 reel positions appear above reels 2 to 5. The new positions are empty until they get activated. If a wild lands on reels 2, 3, 4, or 5, it awards any wins, then the wild flies up into the special position above the reel and becomes active for the next spin. Any wilds that get added above the reels lock in place till the free spins end. When more than 1 wild is awarded per reel, it displays a multiplier on the wild symbol. The multiplier value represents how many wild symbols are locked in place per reel. It appears that wilds are multiplicative for each wild symbol included in a winning combination. If 3 or more scatters hit, extra free spins are awarded.

Premium Play

Premium Play increases the stake by 50% when switched on - the RTP remains the same at 96.1%. With it on, the Space Wheel bonus is triggered in the base game when a win worth more than 1.6x the Premium Play bet occurs. The Space Wheel spins to award one of the following: free spins, 5x, 4x, 3x, 2x, or 1x. If a multiplier is won, it multiplies the win from the base game spin. If free spins are won, play returns to the base game where the reels spin in the free spins award. The Space Wheel bonus is not awarded if free spins are triggered in the base game. If the Space Wheel bonus and the Gamble feature are awarded on the same spin, the Space Wheel plays before the Gamble. Free spins triggered by the base game or the Space Wheel bonus can trigger the Gamble feature, however, free spins awarded by the Gamble will not trigger the Gamble again.

Gamble

When the Gamble feature is active, and players win 5x the bet (or 2.5x the Premium Bet), the Gamble feature triggers. The Gamble screen has two options – free spins entry and cash value, which may or may not be won on green and red segmented wheels.

Invaders Takeover: Slot Verdict

The scenery might have changed between the Western-themed Wild Outlaws and the intergalactic spot Invaders Takeover finds itself in, but the lasting impression remained about the same. That is, somewhat ambivalent when all was said and done. There is a simple cartoon charm about Invaders Takeover, which some gamblers may warm to, fair enough, but the standard of the looks and sounds felt subpar compared to a lot of other sci-fi/space-centric slots reviewed recently. For example, Money Train 4, 6 In the Chamber, and Cygnus 4 were three contemporaries that made Invaders Takeover feel a tad dated by comparison.

Features were a tad on the low thrill side, too. Not so much what they can technically accomplish - all the way up to 14,596x the bet, which is pretty impressive, but they're not the most dynamic in the slot solar system. Optional gambles are all good for those who like to make use of them, whereas the Alien Attack bonus is a simple add wilds to the reels feature (if a threat is detected), while free spins are all about stacking wilds with multipliers. Not bad, actually, when you think about it, but Invaders Takeover might have been more enjoyable if the presentation hadn't been so lightweight.

And so ends an attempted takeover by an intergalactic species more advanced than our own. That's more than can be said for Invaders Takeover, which felt like a return to an earlier era, like a movie where CGI was yet to be invented, so you can see wires holding up model spaceships.