Pirates 2: Mutiny

Pirates 2: Munity: Overview

Pirates 2: Mutiny is Yggdrasil's follow up to their original piratical feature-packed slot Pirates: Smugglers Paradise released a couple of years ago. For the sequel, Yggdrasil Gaming has recycled most the good bits from the first and given it all a thorough renovation. If you've played the first, you'll feel right at home with the sequel because the two share many aspects. Despite the similarities, Mutiny it's an improvement over the first having received substantial upgrades to all facets of the game.

Right of the bat, the Yggdrasil graphic team has clearly sharpened up the looks with Pirates 2: Mutiny. The background has a lot more depth, more details, and the 5x5 grid is set between two wrecked ships. Beyond it is a desert island with shark-shaped rocks and ominous clouds on the horizon. It hasn't been all that long between releases, but the difference in definition is instantly apparent. As before, Pirates 2 is a 25 symbol grid slot that uses a cluster pays system rather than paylines. Winning clusters are made up of 6 or more matching symbols that trigger the Dropdown feature whenever they form. As long as matching symbols touch horizontally or vertically they can be included in a cluster.

The symbols are more or less the same as before, but have been given an overhaul to smarten them up. On the low side are classic card suit icons diamonds, spades, hearts, and clubs, with mid pays being a hook, bottle, cutlass, and pistol. With the high pays, the parrot has been replaced with a female pirate who is joined by the green swab, a purple captain, and a red lady buccaneer. Combination values are calculated on a per symbol basis from six onwards, with low pays starting at 0.1x each up to x1 for the top high pay. That means a grid of the premium symbol returns 25x the stake at a base level - before multipliers are taken into account.

Before boarding the ship, players need to set appropriate stakes and can choose from 20 p/c up to $/€100 per spin. On the mathematical side of things, RTP has been cut ever so slightly, but still rests on a respectable 96.2%. No need to mutiny over that figure in other words. Just as its predecessor, volatility is set to medium and the hit frequency is quite decent at 21.4% which means you're expected to see a payout every fifth spin on average.

Pirates 2: Mutiny: Features

There are quite a few features to work our way through, starting with the Dropdown win system. Whenever a cluster of 6 or more symbols appears they drop to the bottom of the reels. All other non-winning symbol types are removed to let a fresh batch fall into place. If one or more winning kind of symbol lands the process is repeated. Dropdowns continue until no new winning symbols appear or the grid is full. When that happens, the reward is calculated. Not only do players collect on the number of symbols, but when rows fill up with winning symbols they apply a multiplier to the total - 1, 2, 3, 4 or 5 full rows will boost your payouts with multipliers of x1, x2, x3, x5, or x25 respectively.

During the base game the multiplier resets at the end of each spin. If during a Dropdown sequence 3 scatter symbols are revealed, then 7 Free Spins are awarded. At the start of free spins, 1 high pay symbol is chosen to replace all of the high pay symbols for the duration. The bonus game comes with a multiplier applied to all wins, which starts on x1 and does not reset. This time whenever 1, 2, 3, 4, or 5 rows are filled with winning symbols they add +1, +2, +3, +5 or +25 to the multiplier respectively.

Lastly, there are three quick fire modifiers included in the game as well:

• Mutiny – a big 3x3 symbol can randomly land to reveal 9 common symbols for a guaranteed win.
• Tsunami – this is triggered on a losing spin when there are at least 6 potential winning symbols in view. A wave sweeps in to remove everything except the wining symbols.
• Cannon Blast – this can appear on a losing spin and blows all the low pays symbols away creating a new dropdown.

Pirates 2: Mutiny: Verdict

As well as being a solid improvement over the original, Pirates 2: Mutiny is a rather enjoyable game. It's not one of those highly volatile beasts that change lives with enormous rewards or have players cowering in fear from a brutal math model. It's light, amusing, and easy to get along with. There is usually something going on during the base game with all the Dropdowns and modifiers, and when multipliers get called into action then adrenaline levels get a nice wee boost.

Winning potential isn't exactly legendary, but it's not bad either with up 4,400 times the stake. A modest figure compared to the big boys out there perhaps, but one that suits the game nicely. This isn't a slot you play to tell your boss to shove it the next day if you win big. Then again, if you're not in the mood to slog away for a potentially all-time reward, and prefer something less demanding, you could do a lot worse than Pirates 2. The cartoon-like graphics are cute, and it's not a slot that doles out buckets of dead spins while waiting for a make or break feature.

It might be easy to accuse Yggdrasil Gaming for being a little unoriginal perhaps, but why bother? Pirates 2: Mutiny is a well-made game that is a whole lot of fun to play, end of really. It might not be hardcore, but that's alright, for some lighter, pirate filled entertainment with a bunch of nifty features, Mutiny is worth a look.