Stockholm Syndrome

Stockholm Syndrome: Slot Overview

In August 1973, convicted criminal Jan-Erik Olsson attempted to rob Kreditbanken at Norrmalmstorg Square in Stockholm, Sweden and ended up holding four employees hostage. It was the first crime covered by live TV in Sweden, and in an unusual turn of events, when the hostages were released, none of them testified against their captors (Olsson and friend Clark Olofsson) but instead raised money for their defence. And so was born the term 'Stockholm syndrome', to describe a positive psychological bond a captee forms towards their captor. Olsson later said, 'Why didn't any of them attack me? They made it hard to kill. They made us go on living together day after day, like goats, in that filth. There was nothing to do but get to know each other.' With that, we come to Nolimit City's slot, Stockholm Syndrome, which explores this unusual connection between hostage and captor.

The last few Nolimit City reviews have been outpourings of colour, from the anarchic Punk Rocker 2, the end of society as we know it Apocalypse, to a back to the neon 90s of Outsourced. Stockholm Syndrome bucks the trend by being quite drab on the colouration side of things. Players get an onlooker's eye view of a bank at night, where law enforcement people have pointed their guns in the hopes of hostages being released and an end to the standoff. The audiovisuals, while getting the job done just fine, aren't the sensory explosion they often are from Nolimit City, nor as monochromatically memorable as Tombstone RIP or Deadwood RIP.

Stockholm Syndrome's base game is played on a 3-4-3-4-3 reel area with 432 ways to win. Winning symbols explode off the reels, and new symbols fall in, which provides extra chances to win. In addition, during a game round, a randomly selected character symbol may get a win multiplier of x2, x3, x4, x5, or x10. Bet selection is 20 c to $/€100 for the base value, and two Nolimit Boosters may be added on top if you so choose. One is the Cam_Bet, which increases the stake by 50% to guarantee a scatter on the rightmost reel. The other is the Con_Bet, which is 10x the bet to guarantee a Con Man Wild on the third reel. Of the three possible RTP configurations, 96.08% is the highest, while the volatility is extreme, at 10 out of 10.

Old Swedish police car fonted P, O, L, I, S, letters are Stockholm Syndrome's low pay symbols (though they can lead to much larger wins when linked to the features), paying up to 0.5x-0.75x for 5 OAK or 1.5x to 2.25x the bet for 6 OAK. Above them are 4 hostage character symbols and 1 captor symbol as the highs, worth 0.9x-2.5x for 5 OAK or 2.7 to 7.5 times the bet for 6 OAK. An extra reel is added for Syndrome Spins to explain how 6-of-a-kind wins are possible.

Stockholm Syndrome: Slot Features

A lot of guns, a lot of crime, and a lot of features are present in Stockholm Syndrome. The latter is made up of Con Man Wilds, xBomb Wilds, the POLIS feature, the SOS feature, the PISS feature, respins, Hostage Spins, Syndrome Spins, and bonus buys.

Con Man Wild

When the Con Man Wild lands fully stacked on reel 3, the bottom position of the reel is unlocked and becomes part of the Con Man Wild. A random character symbol (not the highest symbol) is picked, and all instances are transformed into wilds. In the main game, when the Con Man Wild lands partly from the top it is not removed by winning combinations.

xBomb Wild

xBomb Wilds substitute for any symbols except scatters. In the main game, exploding xBomb Wilds remove adjacent symbols except for wilds or scatters, increasing the win multiplier by +1 for the next collapse. All xBombs explode before the next collapse. During bonus modes, xBomb Wilds only increases the win multiplier.

POLIS Feature

This is triggered in the base game only when P, O, L, I, S symbols land in the same row in sequential order. The first four positions get locked coin values of 5x, 10x, 25x, 100x, 250x, 1,000x, 5,000x, or Max Win. The fifth position can get up to 3 keys. Each key unlocks one of the locked coin values or the Max Win. All unlocked coin values are added together and awarded.

SOS Feature

Triggered when S, O, S symbols land sequentially in the same row. The O symbol transforms into an xBomb Wild. The SOS feature only triggers in the main game when there is no win and no avalanche. In bonus modes, it always triggers.

PISS Feature

Triggered when P, I, S, S symbols land sequentially in the same column. All of the PISS symbols transform into xBomb Wilds. The PISS feature only triggers in the main game when there is no win and no avalanche. In bonus modes, it always triggers.

Respin

Hitting 2 scatters with no avalanche triggers a respin on the bottom position of the third reel, where a scatter may land.

Hostage Spins

Landing 3 scatter symbols in the main game awards 7 Hostage Spins. For these, the bottom position on reel 3 is unlocked. Each time a fully stacked Con Man Wild lands, it increases the Con Man Wild win multiplier by +1 and awards +1 free spin. It also upgrades the current available lowest character symbol to the highest-paying character symbol for the rest of the spins. The xBomb multiplier is sticky in this feature, and landing a scatter symbol awards an extra +1 free spin.

Syndrome Spins

Landing 4 scatters in the base game awards 8 Syndrome Spins, played on a 3-4-4-4-4-3 game grid. Here, Con Man Wilds may land on reels 3 and 4. When partly landed, it nudges up or down to be fully visible. Character symbols are collected from the middle four reels when a Con Man Wild lands. Character symbols are collected twice if 2 Con Man Wilds land. When all 4 collect meters are full (5 collected, but collections can go beyond 5), the Syndrome feature is triggered, affecting the middle reels like so:

• Reel 3 Wild - reel 3 is covered by a wild symbol with a win multiplier depending on the collected symbol displayed below the reel. The starting multiplier is 2, incremented by 1 for each extra collected beyond 5.
• Reel 4 Infectious xWays - a new position appears and reveals a random symbol of size 2 and changes all instances of that symbol on the reels to be the same size. The collected symbol below reel 4 increases the Ways size by +1 for each extra collected symbol beyond 5.
• Reel 2 and 5 xReelSplit - each symbol on the reel is split into 2. The collected symbol below reels 2 and 5 increase their split by 1 for each extra collected symbol beyond 5 on the respective reels.

Nolimit Bonus Buy

A load of bonus buys are available at the Nolimit Bonus Buy, including: Hostage Spins - 80 times bet, Syndrome Spins - 390 times bet, Lucky Draw (one third / two thirds) - 183 times bet, Lucky Draw (50% / 50%) - 235 times bet, POLIS 1 - 150 times bet, awards 1 POLIS feature where you can land up to 3 keys, POLIS 2 - 300 times bet, awards 2 POLIS features where you can land up to 3 keys for each row, POLIS 3 - 450 times bet, awards 3 POLIS features where you can land up to 3 keys for each row, POLIS 4 - 1,500 times bet, awards 3 POLIS features with up to 3 keys, where x5, x10, and x25 are removed, or POLIS 5 - 8,000 times bet, awards 1 POLIS feature with 1 key. Max Win is guaranteed to be one of the winning possibilities.

Stockholm Syndrome: Slot Verdict

A flipside to Stockholm syndrome is Lima syndrome, where the abductor, in this case, develops positive, sympathetic feelings towards their hostages. To push the metaphor, don't be getting the impression Nolimit City has developed some sort of Lima syndrome since the slot Stockholm Syndrome is as challenging as ever. There is no doubt that Stockholm Syndrome can pop, like William Foster in the movie Falling Down, who mentally snaps, and goes on a rampage across Los Angeles to reach his daughter's birthday party held at the house of his ex-wife. Good film, where Michael Douglas puts on a convincing performance as a man pushed over the edge by one too many of modern life's tics. However, it takes a fair amount of effort for Stockholm Syndrome to wind up and really swing. Till then, if it happens, the game is surprisingly low key, quite low energy, in fact, not helped by the heavy grey colouration.

However, there are highlights here to be sampled. One pinnacle is Syndrome Spins when all collect meters have been filled, thereby triggering the Syndrome feature. No mean feat to accomplish, but one that might be rewarding once achieved. Other highlights are the POLIS feature, which might seem like easy money in some ways, but crikey, 8,000x for POLIS 5? You almost need to be under the spell of online slot Stockholm syndrome to be tempted by that one. Then again, the pace of Stockholm Syndrome was quite slow, going a lot of the time, making feature buys or ante bet augmentation an attractive option. Especially the higher free spins option, as it possesses some of the most exciting parts of the game.

Even when ploughing through bought Syndrome Spins, it was tough to gain major traction. This is a game that can make you work hard for the good times. The Syndrome feature, with all four middle reels doing something special, has the potential to be absolutely ludicrous, and the max win is 28,873x the bet - a reference to the date of the bank job, 28/8/73. Keep in mind that once the Syndrome feature has triggered, all of the character symbol collection meters are reset for the next spin, so repeating the performance means going through a fresh collection challenge again. Not easy. There are rewards here, not to mention an engrossing theme and oodles of betting options, but Stockholm Syndrome wasn't as viscerally exciting as a lot of Nolimit City's games and might just be too hard going for certain gamblers' tolerance levels.