Heavy Metal Slot Review

No sign of AC/DC or Motorhead here, this Heavy Metal slot from Microgaming is based on a green-haired girl who’s handy with a gun.

This is another release from Microgaming that goes down the three-reel route. They do put out a great number of impressive five-reel games but also a whole host of three-reel games that are different, less complex but still enjoyable to play. They also of course bring back lots of memories of the games some of us used to play in the amusement arcades while on holiday and dodging the showers.

Bullet Bonanza

A big difference with the three-reel game is the way it looks. The five-reel games are dominated by the reels themselves. There’s not really much room left for anything else. With these three-reel games it’s a totally different scenario. That’s because the all-important reels are in the top left hand corner of the screen and don’t take up much room at all.

Then blow those reels we see the heroine of this game. A green-haired woman who looks rather pretty in a very tight-fitting outfit but also very deadly with that gun in her hand. The whole of the right-hand part of the screen is taken up by the paytable that ends up on the main screen rather than having to be accessed on a second screen.

‘Heavy Metal’ has three pay-lines to try and get some winning combinations on. Some three-reel games have less than this figure, a few get as high as five so three is about average. You don’t get any choice here as to how many of the pay-lines you want to activate. That means the minimum cost of playing this game is €0.25 with the maximum €15 so not one for high-rollers. Just work a budget out and then stick to it and enjoy playing ‘Heavy Metal’ and hopefully get some good wins.

Shoot to Win

The symbols aren’t the most sophisticated you’ll ever see, in fact far from it. We get the single, double and triple bars neatly in the shape of bullets, 7’s and that green-haired girl who is the top paying symbol, well she’s got a gun so who’s telling her she isn’t?

Just how much she can pay out if three end up on a pay-line depends on your stake. If you go for all three coins on one spin of the reel then that can see you winning 4000x your line stake. One coin would see the win being a still tasty 1000x and two coins 2000x. Just keep an eye on that budget of yours and don’t keep chasing the big win if you can’t really afford to do so.

The next highest paying symbol is for three 7’s, that are grey but look as if they have a Manchester United scarf on at the bottom. Three of those win you 150x your line bet.

What’s really disappointing in this game is the fact that as well as not having a bonus game, there’s not even a wild symbol. Usually these three-reel Microgaming slots do at least have a wild but that’s not the case here. It does make getting wins here a bit more difficult and it’s a high variance game. That means the wins will come along but will mainly be small ones. They do keep that account balance of yours ticking over though while you wait for the big win to finally appear.

Operating this game really is easy with all the control buttons down the bottom of the screen. It’s possible to play this slot in regular or expert mode. The only real difference is that in expert mode you can set an autoplay. Handy if needing some time away from the screen or you just can’t be bothered to keep pressing the spin button.

The autoplay feature has two levels. The basic one allows you to opt for either five or ten automated spins. If you press the autoplay button, then this allows a more sophisticated method (about the only sophisticated part of the game really). You can set your own figure or set it to stop when a certain balance is reached or a big win comes along you’d love to keep.

Final Shot

A fairly straightforward and simple game. There are good wins to be had but the lack of a wild and a bonus game is a bit disappointing.