The Wildwood Curse: Slot Overview
Why is it that people in horror movies continue to do dumb things like split up at the worst time, never turn lights on, or wander through cornfields at night while a killer is on the loose? Would we actually act in a different way under the same harrowing circumstances, though? Maybe, maybe not, but it’s something to ponder while playing Hacksaw Gaming‘s horror slot The Wildwood Curse. Another thing to do is keep a lookout for these things called Cursed Clusters. They might have scary-looking creatures on them, yet Cursed Clusters can do excellent things to the gaming area, making them worth dodging virtual fangs and claws for.
The Wildwood Curse slides effortlessly into the more unsettling side of the studio’s portfolio. It’s not downright scary or anything like that, but the lonely woods setting and the slightly Wanted Dead or a Wild art style create an eerie effect, amplified by the malevolent characters appearing throughout the game. The action gets creepier during The Swamp and Playground bonus rounds, presumably during the No Escape as well, but that one’s a non-buyable five-scatter-triggered hidden bonus, so it’s much harder to witness. Till that happens, if it does, players can sit back and soak up the B-movie slasher vibes The Wildwood Curse emits like a toxic mist.
It’d be interesting to know if the number 19 has any significance, as it’s the number of paylines in The Wildwood Curse as well as other Hacksaw Gaming slots. Either way, they line a 6×5 gaming area, creating wins from the leftmost reel onwards. Players are able to feed 10c to $/€100 into the machine per spin, and can expect a RTP at the highest setting of 96.3%. The volatility is not so high, rather gaining a 3 out of 5, or medium classification.
Bloody J-A card rank lows pay 2 times the bet when they land in combinations of 5 OAK, or players collect 5 to 10 times their bet when hitting 5 cassette tapes, knives, torches, or hands in jars in a win. Wilds in various forms are some of The Wildwood Curse’s main selling points, and their core role is substituting for any regular paying symbol.
The Wildwood Curse: Slot Features
Features to be aware of are Nightmare Respins, Cursed Clusters, three bonus rounds and feature buys.
Nightmare Respins
When wilds hit, they stick to the grid and trigger a Nightmare Respin. During respins, all wilds that land become sticky until the end of the sequence, which continues as long as new wilds land or there are no more available positions. Wins are awarded during each respin.
Cursed Clusters
Landing 4 wilds in a 2×2 square cluster during a regular spin or Nightmare Respin forms a Cursed Cluster, which can reveal 3 different Cursed Characters.
- Psycho Cluster – reveals a multiplier of x2 to x100 on each respin. The multiplier applies to wins the cluster is part of. If more than 1 Psycho Cluster is part of the same win, their values are added.
- Monster Cluster – spreads multipliers to a random number of positions on the grid. Multiple multipliers can land on the same position and are added together. Multipliers apply to wins they are part of, and are added when more than one of them is part of the same win. If another respin triggers, the multipliers are removed and the Monster Cluster spreads new multipliers, continuing like this till respins end.
- Twins Cluster – reveals a multiplier of x2. The value doubles on each respin, up to a maximum of x1,000, with the new value applied to wins on that respin. The multiplier applies to wins it is part of and is added when more than one is part of the same win.
If multiple Cursed Clusters appear on the grid at the same time and are part of the same win, their multipliers are combined. A maximum of 6 Cursed Clusters can land at the same time.
The Swamp Bonus Game
Hitting 3 FS scatters in the base game triggers this round with 8 free spins. This bonus has the mechanics of the base game with an increased chance of landing wilds.
The Playground Bonus Game
Activating this bonus with 10 free spins occurs when landing 4 FS scatters in the base game. This feature builds on The Swamp with an increased chance of landing Cursed Clusters.
No Escape Hidden Bonus
Hitting 5 FS scatters in the main game triggers 10 free spins in No Escape. As well as functioning like The Swamp, at least 1 Cursed Cluster is guaranteed to land.
Feature Buys
Opening up the feature buy is where players can activate BonusHunt FeatureSpins to make each spin 5 times more likely to trigger a bonus for 3x the bet, or Cursed FeatureSpins, which cost 75x to guarantee at least one Cursed Cluster lands. The two buyable bonus rounds are The Swamp at 80x or The Playground at 300x.
The Wildwood Curse: Slot Verdict
It did not take long to see the potential lurking in The Wildwood Curse. The 2×2 square wild feature brought to mind Ultimate Slot of America, and Cursed Clusters are just as devastating, if not more so. Each one of them brings a distinctive effect, ranging from solo multiplier, multiple multipliers spreading across the board, and a doubling multi for good measure. It means not only is there a nice variety to the multiplier abilities, there’s also an excellent opportunity to mix and match different Cursed Clusters on the same spin. Furthermore, you don’t even have to land them all at once, but can build them up across the grid with the help of respins, which stack sticky wilds about the place.
Indeed, Cursed Clusters would have been more than enough on their own to make The Wildwood Curse a powerful game. But, Hacksaw Gaming has gone one further by including Nightmare Respins, causing both the base game and bonus rounds to be that extra bit special, and making it easier to visualise the 10,000x win cap being struck in any of the game modes. Hopefully, we haven’t made it seem like The Wildwood Curse is a money-printing machine, though. That it is not. Rather, when the ball is rolling, it rolls really well, with wilds and multis strewn about the place, like, body parts in a particularly vicious slasher film?
Gross simile, but the point is, The Wildwood Curse has some excellent tools at its disposal, and when the game brings them together to cause mayhem, the results are memorable moments, akin to fleeing full speed through the woods from a masked maniac, heart pumping and adrenal glands spewing chemicals.
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