Octo Attack Slot Review

11/09/2024 | Categories: Hacksaw Gaming Slots | Published by: Joe | Last updated: 11/09/2024

We recently saw that Hacksaw Gaming was expanding its reach in Italy via a partnership with Scommettendo, a premium Italian brand focusing chiefly on sports betting. Other than this, we have seen few news headlines related to this famed provider other than its usual slot press releases. One of those that caught our eyes was an announcement regarding a new Hacksaw spinner called Octo Attack. It features what this developer calls a Tenta-Grab mechanic and looks to captivate gamblers everywhere with it.

Octo Attack debuted on August 23rd, 2024, at exclusive online casinos, and ten days later, it got worldwide distribution. In the first week of its global release, this game did exceptionally well, landing in the top ten rankings in markets like Canada, Finland, New Zealand, Ireland, Norway, Japan, South Africa, Sweden, and a few more, while also doing pretty well in loads of other developed regions. Hacksaw Gaming usually puts out quality products, and given the level of traction this one has received upon its launch, we expect it to meet the high bar this studio sets. But we shall find that out after we conduct our analysis of it, whose results we present to you below.

Theme & Design

Chaos Crew is a Hacksaw Gaming slot that came out in 2020, in September of that year and is still performing decently four years after its release. We mention it because Octo Attack has visuals that are very reminiscent of that game and its sequel. Hence, if you have played those, you will understand what to expect here.

Of course, the theme of this spinner, its central motif, as indicated by its name, is an octopus. Octopuses are weird aquatic creatures that inhabit oceans and usually have soft bodies and eight limbs. There are over three hundred species of Octopus, and these cephalopods have two eyes and a beaked mouth. They boast a complex nervous system and have terrific sight for underwater beings. That should not come as much of a surprise, as some swim around abyssal depths.

What is interesting about Octopus is that we cannot think of many online slots that use them as their main focus. There are more than a few Kraken-themed reel-spinning products, but that is a mythological octopus-like being. Octopus Treasure by Play’n GO, Onlyplay’s Golden Octopus, and Octopus Life by PopOK are a few titles from a short list of ones where Octopuses are the primary focus of a game’s presentation, not just a symbol.

We already touched upon the Chaos Crew-style graffiti-inspired visuals of Octo Attack, a product which will not blow you away with its graphical stylings, nor with its arcade-type sound effects. The images used here, especially the background ones are very comic book-like, and the presentation here, overall, keeping a simplistic but stylish tone. It is nothing complex or overly stimulating, sticking to a black-and-white vibe paired with some pop art flare.

Octo Attack uses the standard Hacksaw Gaming betting interface, so you get the bet selector and spin functions below the bottom right corner of the game grid here.

Specs & Gameplay

Octo Attack uses a 6×5 symbol layout and the cluster-pay win system. It is a slot that comes in four RTP versions, the lowest one being an 88.28% one, and the highest and most standard RTP setting of this title standing at 96.27%. The hit frequency here is 33.96, the variance medium, and the max exposure has been adjusted to x10,000. The bet sizes in this Hacksaw Gaming creation use a familiar range of $0.10 to $100 per spin.

You form wins in this slot by hitting clusters of five or more matching symbols, and those that form prize combos explode, leaving room for novel tokens to appear on the grid, boosting your win accumulation the luckier you get in a sequence. Note that clusters must be formed on adjacent reels. If the symbols are spread apart, you will not get a reward.

The low-pay tokens in Octo Attack are greyed-out symbols that pay up to x100 for clusters of twenty-six or more identical symbols for this group and x0.10 for clusters of five. The colored symbols in this game are its premiums, and these supply wins from x150 to x500 for clusters of twenty-six or more.

The W is the wild here, and it produces wins of x600 for clusters of twenty-six to twenty-nine Ws appearing on the same spin and a prize of x1,000 if thirty show up.

Bonus Features

In the Octo Attack slot, as noted above, winning symbols get removed, and their positions get marked with Ink Stains, which are removed after being used by the Tenta-Grab mechanic. You see, in Octo Attack, the Eye of Otto activates the Tenta-Grab mechanic if Ink Stains are present on the game grid. Once triggered, the Tenta-Grab grabs a random symbol and replaces all Ink-Stained positions and itself with that chosen token. The grabbed one can be anything, even a free spin symbol, wild, or wild multiplier. If the latter two get selected, the replaced symbols become wilds or wild multipliers with higher values.

Landing three or more FS symbols activates the Eighth Arm Is The Charm bonus. The number of FS symbols hit determines the number of spins awarded. Here, Ink Stains remain on the grid between spins until used by the Tenta-Grab feature, and you can get additional spins every time three regular FS symbols land together.

Hitting three epic FS tokens activates the Give Me Eight feature, awarding spins equal to the number of triggering symbols. Ink stains do not get removed here until they are used by the Tenta-Grab mechanic, who only grabs wilds or wild multipliers. You can also reactivate this mode, and it is available for purchase for a cost of x300. The previous one will cost you x100, and you can buy two more bonuses. For x3, you can get a five times higher likelihood of activating a bonus, and for x50, you can get a guaranteed win and an Eye of Otto symbol.

GOSU Verdict

Octo Attack did not blow our socks off, but it was pretty good and on par with the Chaos Crew slots. If you liked those, this is a good alternative for a quick change of pace if your chosen crypto casino houses Hacksaw spinners. It is a game rich with features and decent specs, and its gaming pace moves at a decent clip. We say check it out. We are just unsure what an octopus is doing in a city, and we are pretty sure it would not be able to survive in a sewer, as depicted here 😊.