Sticky Bandits Unchained Slot Review

17/01/2024 | Categories: Quickspin Slots | Published by: Joe | Last updated: 21/11/2024

We have not looked at many Quickspin spinners. That is a fact. And that is on us, as this 100-person-strong Swedish studio has made some quality gaming products that deserve more attention than we and others like us have given them. The last Quickspin game we looked at was Dog Town Deal in April 2023, and since then, this provider has unleashed loads of slots. Plus, a live version of their Big Bad Wolf game via a Playtech partnership.

Sticky Bandits Unchained entered online casino lobbies on December 20th, 2023, on exclusive platforms. Then, it got a wide release twenty days later. It is doing decently in Germany, Canada, Hungary, and Austria and not trending so well elsewhere. Still, this is an entry in a famed Quickspin franchise getting Okay reviews. So we thought we would tell you what we think of it.

Theme & Design

Naturally, the motif in Sticky Bandits Unchained is the American Wild West. That is generally the period spanning the early 19th century to the start of the 20th, an era commonly associated with the exploration, settlement, and development of the United States’ western territories. The slotverse loves this theme, as over two hundred games utilize it. Some of the more popular ones now include Hacksaw Gaming’s Wanted Dead or a Wild, Pragmatic Play’s Wild West Duels, and El Paso Gunfight by Nolimit City.

Unchained is the fifth edition of Quickspin’s Sticky Bandit series. The first debuted in August 2017, and its three sequels before this one were Wild Return, Trail of Blood, and 3 Most Wanted. In terms of presentation, Unchained is nothing to write home about. The game looks nice, with painterly illustrations that have a soft touch paired with a standard guitar string moody soundtrack and Western audio effects. The backdrop here is a desolate town, as is the case in most releases from this genre, with the symbols spinning inside a wooden frame with the game logo at the top. You get subtle symbol animations, and the slot has a cohesive look that works but does not stand out.

You will find the bonus buy option left of the reel grid, below the vulture, and the spin/bet buttons get organized in a vertical stack right of the 5×3 layout. We love that you can use advanced auto-bet functions in Unchained.

Specs & Gameplay

What are the specifications of Sticky Bandits Unchained? We are talking about a 5×3 spinner with ten paylines here, one with a hit frequency of 34.51%, high variance, and a max exposure setting of x30,000 on a top bet of $100. The smallest wager you can make in this game is $0.20. The RTP of this slot varies depending on your chosen platform. At its lowest setting, it is 87%, and at its highest it is 96.09%. In between, you have RTPs of 90% and 94%. That said, the default should be 96.09%. At least, that is the official one and the return-to-player spec that most casino sites utilize.

You win rewards in this western-themed title by forming combos of three to five matching symbols on adjacent reels left to right, with only the highest win per line getting paid out. The low-pay symbols of this spinner are metal J, Q, K, and A royals, producing wins from x2 to x5 when five tokens from this group materialize in view on the same spin. Their premium counters, or mediums as Sticky Bandits Unchained calls them, are a horse, an undertaker, a saloon lady, and a cowboy gambler. These generate wins of x10 to x25 for five-of-a-kind combos.

Wilds are essential in this gaming product, and so is their tendency to stick. That gets elaborated below, along with a quick breakdown of this online slot’s three main bonus features.

Bonus Features

As mentioned, Wilds play a super vital role in the Sticky Bandits Unchained slot. On top of acting as regular pay substitution tokens, they also pay out wins of x75 for five-of-a-kind combinations, awarding prizes of x10 when four show on the same spin and giving you rewards of x2 when three appear on a reel rotation. Hitting these symbols in the bonus rounds turns them sticky. They remain locked for the duration of these features. Also, landing three of them causes one to morph into a colossal 2×2 wild, which shall remain sticky until the end of its respective feature.

In Sticky Bandits Unchained, you also get a cylinder symbol in the two peacemaker modes, which can appear on any reel and end the bonus round, awarding a final spin multiplier.

If three wild bonus tokens pop in in the same game round, in the base gameplay, Sticky Bandits Unchained will supply ten on-the-house reel rotations in a Wild West Free Spins mode where any wilds that land stick. The Peacemaker Bonus gets triggered by hitting four base game wilds. It boasts infinite spins, with this round concluding when the cylinder token hits. That symbol here features five chambers. These carry four normal bullets and one special one. The regular ones have x2 multipliers, and the special can list one of x3, x5, or x10. The second Peacemaker Bonus mode is titled Fully Loaded, and its cylinder symbol has six chambers. These get divided into three normal ones (x2) and three special chambers that list x20, x50, or x500 multipliers.

Utilizing the bonus buy option, you can activate, get three wilds for a cost of x80, four wilds for the price of x160, or guarantee the landing of five substitution bonus tokens for x750, which ensures entry in the Peacemaker Fully Loaded Bonus round. Of course, the bonus buy feature is only available in specific jurisdictions that allow it.