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31 July 2024 
Rotten Slot Review 2024
A zombie apocalypse is upon us and the only way to survive is to avoid the undead and the mad scientist who created them, in Hacksaw Gaming’s latest release, Rotten!
If a zombie apocalypse were to ever happen, we know what we would do. We’d head to the Winchester, have a cold pint and wait for all this to blow over.
Hacksaw Gaming is bringing to life their SwitchSpins mechanic in their deadly new slot, Rotten. Here you will be able to put your survival skills to the test in 2 Bonus rounds, Total Takeover and Mad Scientist.
Have you got what it takes to survive the Mad Scientist or will you become another of his deadly subjects? Let’s play on and find out!
Rotten Base Game and Features
Rotten is a 6 reel slot with 35 fixed paylines. Winning combinations are formed when 3 or more of the same symbols land from left to right, starting from the left-most reel.
The minimum bet available here is £/€0.10 per spin and the maximum bet available is £/€100 per spin, with plenty of other betting options inbetween the two. Rotten has a theoretical RTP of 96.27% and a max win cap of 10,000x.
In terms of symbols, the highest paying regular symbol here is the Clown, followed by Zombies with Blue, Green, Yellow and Red backgrounds. Low-paying symbols are standard Ace, King, Queen, Jack and Ten. Wilds substitute for all High and Low-paying symbols in the paytable.
SwitchSpins
The SwitchSpins feature can be activated by landing a special SwitchSpins symbol on the reels. SwitchSpins are a type of Respins, where certain symbols are replaced with either the Highest-paying symbol in the paytable or Wilds.
Once active, SwitchSpins can award between 1 and 10 Respins. Landing a new SwitchSpins symbol during this time will activate additional symbols to be replaced, along with extra Respins.
The switch symbol and the remaining number of Respins is all present in the top right corner of the reel set. The symbols that are being replaced can be seen in the same place above the reel set.
Once SwitchSpins have ended, the chosen switch symbols are reset. If one of the Bonus rounds is triggered during SwitchSpins, the Respins will finish first and then the Bonus round will begin after this.
Rotten Free Spins
During the base game, you will have the opportunity to land 1 of 2 thrilling Bonus rounds. Up for grabs is Mad Scientist and Total Takeover Bonus rounds. More on these below!
Mad Scientist
Landing 3 Mad Scientist Scatters will trigger the Mad Scientist bonus round, awarding 10 Free Spins. During this round, the chances of landing the SwitchSpin symbol is much higher than in the base game.
In addition to this, you will also be able to trigger the Total Takeover bonus round in this one by landing 3 Total Takeover Scatters. If this happens, the Total Takeover round will begin at the end of the current Free Spin, resetting the total number of Free Spins back to 10.
Total Takeover
Landing 3 Total Takeover Scatters will trigger the Total Takeover bonus round, awarding 10 Free Spins.
During this round, there is a higher chance of landing the Switch symbol and triggering the SwitchSpins feature. All chosen symbols to be replaced are saved progressively, which means that they will not reset after each SwitchSpins set is complete.
Collecting all High and Low-paying symbols will fill the entire reel set with either the Highest-paying symbol or Wilds! Landing 3 Total Takeover Scatters during this round will award an additional +4 Free Spins.
Rotten Bonus Buy
Those outside the UK will benefit from a Bonus Buy option.
Hacksaw Gaming has granted players access to 4 Bonus Buy options as follows.
- Bonus Hunt FeatureSpins – Each spin is 5 times more likely to trigger a Bonus round for a total cost of 3x your current bet.
- Switch FeatureSpins – Each spin guarantees that a Switch symbol lands in view for a total cost of 20x your current bet.
- Mad Scientist – Awards the Mad Scientist bonus round for a total cost of 110x your current bet.
- Total Takeover – Awards the Total Takeover bonus round for a total cost of 250x your current bet.
Rotten: Our Verdict
Rotten made quite the impression from the off, as Hacksaw Gaming slots often do. The dystopian world created by Hacksaw here really is quite depressing, but in the most impressive kind of way. Its horrific and artistically brilliant at the same time, and it puts into perspective how terrifying a zombie outbreak could actually be.
We’ve all pondered about post-apocalyptic life, but when you realise it’d be more like Rotten than Shaun of the Dead then you’re suddenly quite grateful for the absence of Zombies in the real world. There would be no getting in the car, going to mums, killing Phil, grabbing Liz and going to the Winchester to wait for it all to blow over. There’s just sadness, terror and inevitable demise at the hands of terrifying zombie hordes.
Is Rotten as impressive when it comes to gameplay? Sort of. It’s still an impressive Hacksaw Slot, but it retains that uneasy feeling that you get when you play a Hacksaw Game. It’s that feeling where you know it’s going to be all or nothing, and for this reason it can be really brutal for UK players. There’s no bonus buy, so its a rather large commitment to stay for a bonus round that could render your efforts fruitless.
That’s the nature of slots though, and Rotten or Hacksaw certainly can’t be blamed for that, but they do seem to be prime suspects when it comes to the ‘all or nothing’ factor.
The Total Takeover bonus was the most exciting in our experience, which is unsurprising considering its the rarest one. The other bonus gave very mixed results, but we can certainly see the potential there
Speaking of potential, the highest possible win in Rotten is 10,000x, which is standard for Hacksaw slots, so it seems.
Overall, Rotten was a solid experience. It’s scary, frustrating, fun, exciting and brutal all at once. A true rollercoaster of emotions.
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