Robopocalypse

Robopocalypse: Slot Overview

Imagine if, in the future, we progress technology to the point where robots fight wars for us rather than having to risk human lives. After that, maybe we take it one step further, where warring parties compete with each other via video games in a virtual world. Then, maybe, just maybe, blowing up pixels to resolve our differences is perceived as a pointless act, and we all end up living in a world of peaceful harmony. Ah well, dreams are free, and so is demoing slots. Here's one called Robopocalypse from veteran developer Light & Wonder, which is all about robots, guns, warfare, bullets, a sort of military-industrial complex of the future type slot.

Robopocalypse's background depicts a glowing futuristic city, presumably under attack, but more interesting imagery appears on the gaming grid. The symbols there have a real Transformers, Pacific Rim, Bandai Namco feel to them, which was intriguing. It also lands a pair of special Gun symbols containing bullets that add wilds or multipliers to the action. Very familiar they were, thereby sparking a bout of detective work that ended up at an earlier Light & Wonder release titled Wild Showdown, which, it would appear, Robopocalypse is a close reskin/redo of.

The gaming is held on a 5-reel, 4-row grid matrix possessing a 1,024 ways to win pay system. Players click the coins button next to the reels to select a stake where the options go from 20 c to $/€10 per spin. On the opposite side of the screen is the Buy Pass button, with three bonus buy options on offer. When playing normally, the RTP is 95.96%, while the volatility is medium-high.

Robopocalypse's low pay symbols aren't as interesting as the others, simply made up of 9-A card royals worth 0.4 x to 0.6x the bet for a 5-of-a-kind result. More deadly are the high-pay choppers, tanks, planes, and battleships, awarding 1 to 4 times the bet for a 5 OAK hit. Wilds may appear on reels 2, 3, 4, and 5, but they are only triggered by the Wild Gun symbol. Wilds substitute for all symbols except the bonus scatter and the Gun symbols.

Robopocalypse: Slot Features

Robopocalypse contains a couple of special symbols known as the Multiplier Gun and the Wild Gun:

• The Multiplier Gun appears on reel 2 and acts as a wild. When it lands, the chamber spins to reveal a multiplier of x2-x10, which is applied to any wins on the spin.
• The Wild Gun appears on reel 4 and also acts as a wild. At the end of a spin, the chamber on this symbol spins to reveal a number of 1-5. This represents a number of wild symbols placed on the reels in random positions. Only one of each Gun type can land at a time, and values can change between Gun chamber spins.

Free Spins

Landing a scatter symbol on the center reel awards 8 free spins. If the scatter symbol lands without any Gun symbols present on the triggering spin, it acts as a sticky wild for the duration of the free spins round. If the scatter lands with one or both Gun symbols, the scatter symbol disappears during the first free spin and does not reappear during the bonus round, but the Gun symbols remain for the full duration. During free spins, if Gun symbols land on a free spin, they lock in place and stay there for the remainder of the bonus round, awarding a multiplier and/or random wilds on each spin. The free spins round cannot be retriggered.

Buy Pass

Clicking the Buy Pass button lets players buy one of three bonus rounds. The first is free spins with the Multiplier Gun for 96x the bet, the second is free spins with the Wild Gun for 89x the bet, while the third is free spins with both Guns for 450x the bet. When buying free spins, the triggering scatter symbol is a sticky wild for the full duration, and the RTP value is 95.75% to 95.88%.

Robopocalypse: Slot Verdict

For a slot about a titanic warzone, Robopocalypse is strangely low energy. Some of the imagery is quite cool, such as the robot on the scatter symbol, and the 80s cartoon show toy manufacturer tie-in concept is intriguing. But really, think about those shows, say, Voltron or whatever; they're full of action, big scenes, massive energy, fast-paced, colossal struggles between powerful entities that threaten to blast off the screen and drag viewers in, whereas Robopocalypse is the opposite. Not saying it can't produce big wins, but even when it's spitting out solid hits, Robopocalypse often manages to do so in the most lifeless way possible.

The game is pretty specialised, however, so gamblers partial to Japanese or Japanese-inspired cartoons may be delighted by Robopocalypse's visual components. The big robot, which zooms in to eye-zap the middle reel from time to time, was a nice touch. Shame there isn't more stuff like that going on to really bring Robopocalypse to life. Reusing Wild Showdown's mechanics might not have helped in this case since it wasn't a slot that really got hearts racing the first time around. Winning potential here is lower than its Western counterpart, too, at 7,680 times the bet, and to be honest, the Gun symbols felt out of place in a futuristic war slot compared to an olden-timey Western one.

All in all, Robopocalypse provided an okay time. It's got a few mechanical parts that look good on paper, and the presentation is quite unique. If Robopocalypse had more pizzazz, more oomph, or extra energy, it might have punched harder, but as it is, a lot of the session was a sleepy, low-key event.