Steamrunners Slot Review
High above the smoke-filled streets and broken alleys, the skies belong to the Steamrunners, courtesy of Hacksaw Gaming!
The team are fierce, fearless, and hard-wired for rebellion as they ride across the skies in gas-powered gadgets & rogue airships. As they float above the fractured world, their curiosity takes them through skybound cities to glimmering sky courts.
Hacksaw Gaming takes players on an epic journey, high up into the clouds, in their latest Steampunk-inspired slot release, Steamrunners. Like Riders of the Storm, Cazino Zeppelin Reloaded, and others of its kind, this game is built for players seeking immersive visuals, mechanical depth, & more importantly…adventure.
The sky’s the limit in Steamrunners – a 5×4 video slot with fixed pay lines and sky-high wins worth up to 10,000x your bet. Get ready to ignite the Gas Canisters, unleash the power of Wilds, & claim the keys to the Sky City Free Spins mode.
With a fixed RTP of 96.32% and a medium volatility score, Steamrunners can produce wins worth up to 10,000x your bet, but will you be the lucky beneficiary? Let’s find out…
Base Game & Features
Steamrunners is a medium volatility slot release from Hacksaw Gaming, consisting of 5 reels, 4 rows, and 14 fixed pay lines. Winning combinations are enabled when 3, 4, or 5 identical symbols fall upon connecting pay lines, starting from reel 1.
The highest-paying symbol falls to the Telescope, followed by the Map, Hat, Gramaphone, Binoculars, and A, K, Q, J, & 10 card ranks. Once a winning combination has been established on the reels, a fixed payout between 0.2x and 5x your bet is applied.
Furthermore, Wild symbols appear on all reels throughout spins and substitute for all symbols as part of a winning combination. Lastly, a series of FS Scatters in the base game will trigger 1 of 3 Free Spins modes, depending on how many are in view.
Gas Canister Symbols
During gameplay, up to 2 Gas Canisters can appear on the reels, acting as Wilds, awarding the following attributes:
- Green Gas Canister: Transforms itself and all adjacent low-paying symbols into Wilds, spreading horizontally & vertically if transformed symbols are part of a winning combination. If low-paying or Wild symbols are connected to the newly affected ones, they will also spread across the reels, transforming other symbols into Wilds, too.
- Purple Gas Canister: Spreads once it appears in view, transforming itself, low-paying symbols, & Wilds into additional/upgraded Wilds once part of a winning combination.
Once a low-paying symbol is transformed into a Wild, there is the potential for it to reveal a Multiplier between x2 and x200. Wild symbols that already exist on the reels, but are affected by a Gas Canister, will receive a Multiplier of x2.
When a Multiplier Wild symbol is part of a winning combination, its value is applied to the win, times your current bet. If more than 1 Multiplier Wild is part of the same win, their values are added together and applied to the win, times your current bet.
Steamrunners Free Spins
The Sky City Bonus is awarded when 3 FS Scatters appear in the same base game spin, triggering 8 Free Spins.
Throughout this session, the game maintains the same mechanics from the base game. Additionally, all Multiplier Wild symbols remain fixed in their current position until the end of the feature. Wild Multipliers that are affected by spreading Gas Canisters will have their values doubled each time, up to a maximum of x5,000.
When 2 or 3 FS Scatters appear in view, an additional +2 and +4 Free Spins are awarded, respectively.
Gaslight District
Alternatively, triggering the Gaslight District Bonus requires 4 FS Scatters, awarding 10 Free Spins.
Again, this mode continues to maintain the same mechanics from the Sky City Bonus & the base game, with at least 1 Wild symbol guaranteed to appear on the reels during the entire feature.
Having 2 or 3 FS Scatters appear in the same spin will award an additional +2 and +4 Free Spins, respectively.
Court of High Steam
The last Free Spins mode is the hidden bonus, Court of High Steam. This mode is triggered when 5 FS Scatters land in the same base game spin, awarding 10 Free Spins.
Following in the footsteps of previous Bonus Modes, this session utilises the same mechanics. In this mode, at least 1 Gas Canister is guaranteed to land with each spin until the end of the feature. Lastly, +2 and +4 Free Spins are awarded when 2 or 3 FS Scatters appear on the reels.
Featurespins & Bonus Buy
Players may purchase one of the following Featurespins & Bonus Buy options:
- Bonushunt Featurespins: Each spin is 5 times more likely to trigger a Free Spins mode for 3x your bet per spin (96.31%)
- Smokeshow Featurespins: Each spin guarantees at least 1 Gas Canister for 50x your bet (96.26%)
- Sky City: Awards 8 free Spins & sticky Wild Multipliers for 80x your bet (96.31%)
- Gaslight District: Awards 10 Free Spins with sticky Wild Multipliers + a guaranteed Wild on every spin for 200x your bet (96.26%)
Each of the above options includes a Medium, High, or Very High volatility rating. Steamrunners has a maximum win potential of 10,000x your bet. If a single session exceeds this, the current mode ends, and the player is awarded the qualifying amount.
Our Honest Verdict
Steamrunners certainly gives you a taste of the metal, allowing you to put your imagination to the test as you build your own dream machine & take to the skies. The Steampunk theme is one of those ‘hit & miss’ genres, where you’re fairly limited in how far you can take it.
With Hacksaw Gaming being at the heart of this release, we couldn’t have picked a better provider to put the Steampunk theme through its paces, but what clever tricks & mechanics have they pulled from their sleeve this time?
When you first load into the game, you’ll notice several Hacksaw Gaming attributes, including a couple of animated characters/vehicles outside the matrix, crisp, clear graphics, & captivating soundscapes.
Now, Steamrunners wouldn’t be a Hacksaw Gaming release without the use of Multiplier Wilds, of which there are 2 to contend with here. In the base game, Green & Purple Gas Canisters are responsible for transforming low-paying symbols into Wilds, with the chance to award random Multipliers between x2 & x200.
Of the two Gas Canisters, the Purple variant is the more promising, in that it transforms ALL low-paying symbols on the reels, rather than a select few around the outside of its position. However, both Gas Canisters aid in the progression of Multipliers on existing Wild symbols.
Another Hacksaw attribute is the inclusion of several Free Spins modes, and Steamrunners keeps to that tradition. Sky City is the least challenging bonus to trigger, followed by Gaslight District and the hidden bonus, Court of High Steam.
Naturally, Sky City will be the most obtainable bonus, where only 3 FS Scatters are needed to trigger it, but given how brutal Hacksaw slots are to bonus altogether, you may as well forget the hidden bonus exists. Still, it would be an absolute jaw-dropping moment if you were to trigger the Court of High Steam Bonus – if you do, we’d advise you to go & buy a lottery ticket right now.
To end on a positive note, alongside its engaging features & fun mechanics, Steamrunners chimes in with a 10,000x max win potential. It’s not their biggest overall potential to date, but it’s a solid figure that, if you’re lucky enough to win, you wouldn’t turn your nose up at.
*The images found in this slot review are currently from Demo Play. On average, our reviews are written prior to the initial release date and before real play is available.
