Release the Kraken 2

Release the Kraken 2 Slot Review

We’re heading back underwater in search of the legendary Kraken, in Pragmatic Play’s latest sequel to a beloved favourite, Release the Kraken 2!

Release the Kraken was a brutal but alluring game that gained notoriety for its diverse features, so you can imagine our excitement for a sequel.

Will Release the Kraken 2 give us that same feeling that the original did? Let’s find out.

Base Game & Features

Release the Kraken 2 is a 5-reel slot with 20 fixed paylines. Winning combinations are formed when 3 or more of the same symbol types (or 2 or more of the highest paying symbol) land from left to right, starting from the left-most reel.

The minimum bet available to players is £/€0.20 per spin, and the maximum bet available is £/€100 per spin, with plenty of other betting options in between the two. Release the Kraken 2 has a theoretical RTP of 96.50% and a maximum win capacity of 5,000x.

In terms of symbols, the highest paying regular symbol in Release the Kraken 2 is the Shark, followed by the Puffer Fish, Piranha and Eel. Low-paying symbols are standard Ace, King, Queen, Jack and Ten. There is also a Wild symbol present on all reels, which substitutes for all other symbols except Scatters.

Ante Bet

Before you can begin spinning, you will have the option to activate the Ante Bet feature.

Activating the Ante Bet feature increases your current bet by 25%, but with that comes certain benefits. Once the Ante Bet is active, you will have a higher chance of triggering the Free Spins round. The RTP when activating the Ante Bet decreases slightly from 96.03% to 96.01%.

Random Features

During any random spin in the base game, there is a chance of triggering 1 of 3 Random Features, as follows.

Wild Respin

If 4+ Wild symbols land in view, the Wild Respin feature will automatically trigger.

Once this happens, all present Wilds will move around the reel set and fix themselves in a new position, potentially forming winning combinations. If, during the Wild Respin, a new Wild symbol lands, another Respin will be awarded. This feature will end when no more Wilds land across the reels.

Shifting Stacked Wilds

Landing a Shifting Stacked Wild on reels 2, 3 and 4 automatically triggers the Shifting Stacked Wilds feature. When the spin stops, stacked wilds are brought fully in view to fill all positions on the reel it’s currently on.

Each time the Shifting Stacked Wild moves to another reel, a Multiplier is introduced, which increases by +1 for each Shifting Stacked Wild present. After all Wilds have shifted, all wins are paid and multiplied by the total sum of all Multipliers.

Guaranteed Win

During any random non-winning spin, the Kraken can appear on the screen and rearrange the symbols to award a win between 20x and 50x your current bet.

In addition to this, after a spin, 3 Scatter symbols can randomly appear on the screen through an Explosion animation, triggering the Free Spins round.

Free Spins

Landing 3, 4 or 5 Scatters in any position across the reels automatically triggers the Free Spins round.  Before the Free Spins round can begin, you will be given the option to take part in a Mini Bonus Game to win a series of Free Spins and Multipliers for the subsequent round.

Depending on the number of Scatters awarded for the initial trigger, there are a number of possible combinations to be won. These are as follows.

• 3 Scatters – Awards between 4 and 15 Free Spins and a Multiplier of up to x6.
• 4 Scatters – Awards between 5 and 20 Free Spins and a Multiplier of up to x10.
• 5 Scatters – Awards between 6 and 20 Free Spins and a Multiplier of up to x10.

During the mini bonus game, you will be presented with 16 Boxes containing a random number of Free Spins and a random Multiplier value from the above selection.

At the start of the round, a Box is chosen at random and removed from the prize pool, but its worth is not revealed. You can either accept this box and play the awarded number of Free Spins with that Multiplier value or simply reject it for another offer.

If you choose to reject the first offer, you will have the power to remove boxes and combinations from the prize pool manually in groups of 4, 4, 3 and 3 Picks.  After each Pick, a new offer is made that equal to the average of the remaining combinations of Free Spins and Multipliers.

You can accept any of the offers you receive or continue to reject until there is 1 Box left to open. If you choose to wait until the last box, you will be offered to either open the first box you were offered or the last box left in the prize pool. Once a decision has been made, you will start Free Spins with the total number of spins and Multiplier revealed in the box you chose.

During Free Spins, all wins are multiplied by the awarded Multiplier won in the Mini Bonus Game, and the total number of paylines is increased to 40.

Any Wild symbols that land during this round will remain fixed on the reel set for the duration of Free Spins, moving to a new position with each new spin. If a Golden Wild symbol should land during this time, your current Multiplier will increase by +1.

Bonus Buy

For those of you who are outside the UK, you will benefit from a Bonus Buy option.

Pragmatic Play has granted players access to the regular Free Spins round and a VIP Bonus round called King Kraken for 100x and 250x your current bet, respectively.

The regular Free Spins option awards between 3 and 5 triggering Scatters across the reels and the VIP Bonus option awards 5 triggering Scatters. The RTP when purchasing regular Free Spins sits at 96.03% and increases to 96.05% when purchasing VIP Free Spins.

Release the Kraken 2 Slot Demo Gameplay

Our Verdict

Pragmatic has done well to build upon the original in different ways, but is it a better sequel as a fishing slot?

Graphically, Release the Kraken 2 is miles better than the original, but how does the gameplay measure up? Release the Kraken 2 features a deal or no deal style bonus round seen before in some Big Time Gaming slots like Pirate Pays Megaways.

Opinions might be divided on this, because it certainly can go in the opposite direction of what you want. If the stars align with lots of spins and a high multiplier, then carnage can ensue. We’re glad that Pragmatic has kept the original idea of random features in the Base Game, but there’s an issue…the potential of Release the Kraken 2 seems worse than the original

The maximum win here is 5,000x, which seems to be a favourite for Pragmatic. The original boasted a win cap of 10,000x in comparison.

We’d have liked to have seen bigger and better for Release the Kraken 2, which is why we’re probably more inclined towards the original game.