ALL ABOUT SURVIVOR MEGAWAYS™ SLOT
The latest Big Time Gaming slot to utilize the infamous Megaways™ mechanic is based on the US reality TV show, Survivor, in which a group of contestants battle to be the last standing on the remote island and take home a prize of $1 million. During the game the players are split into two tribes, red and blue. They must take part in mental and physical challenges to earn food and other luxuries, and gradually they vote each other off until only one is left. The show has been a massive success since it first aired in 2000.
BTG have licensed the Survivor brand from French production company, Banjay Group. The Australian game studio have already enjoyed huge success with branded Megaways™ games, Who Wants To Be a Millionaire and Monopoly, cleverly weaving the themes and features of those games into their own slots engine. They do the same here: in Survivor Megaways™ the reel set is divided into two parts to represent the red and blue teams from the TV show, each with its own Progressive Multiplier Wild to drive up wins, particularly in the bonus round. That’s alongside the usual cascading wins and free spins features.
GAME SET-UP, SYMBOLS AND GRAPHICS
As ever with Big Time Gaming slots the design and soundtrack are spot on here. The backdrop to the reel set is a sandy island beach adorned with palm trees under a blue sky.
The first thing that you will notice when you load up the game is that the reel set looks different. There are six reels in all, with the first displaying up to six rows, and each of the others displaying up to seven. This creates up to 100,842 ways to win per spin, less than the usual 117,649. The reels themselves are divided into three: a top section, a middle 5×1 section, and a bottom section. The top represents the red team, whilst the bottom represents the blue team. Each has its own multiplier wild associated with it, which come into play throughout both base and bonus games.
The low value symbols are represented by the cards 9 through to Ace, with payouts for three or more identical ones appearing anywhere on adjacent reels from left to right. The premium symbols are the tiki masks in green, red, blue and purple. The latter is the highest paying of these at 50x for six on a payline. This one also pays out at 2x for just two in a payline.
Look out as well for the red and blue tribe wilds that appear only on the middle 6×1 reel section. These substitute for all other symbols as well as driving up the multipliers that are shown to the side of the reel set. There are also Survivor Scatter symbols that are needed to unlock the free spins round.
It’s worth noting here that with just 3 rather than 4 scatters required to unlock the free spins round, and 100,482 rather than 117,649 ways to win per spin the maths model for Survivor Megaways™ is slightly different to other games in the series. It suggests that overall the volatility has been turned down a touch. The RTP meanwhile is a decent 96.47%.
GAMEPLAY AND FEATURES
Reactions / Cascading Wins
Survivor Megaways™ utilizes the Reactions feature prevalent in many other slots in the series, and also sometimes referred to as Cascading Wins. After each winning spin, winning symbols are removed from the reels and replaced with new ones. This can create further wins, after which the process repeats, and so on until no more wins are generated.
Progressive Wild Multipliers
To the left of the reels are the two tribal leaders, red and blue. Each is assigned a multiplier value of 1x at the start. Whenever a red Urn lands on the top reel set it increases the multiplier of the red leader by 1x, 2x or 3x. When a blue Urn lands on the bottom reel set it increases the multiplier of the blue leader in the same way. These Wild Multipliers are applied when Wilds land in the middle 5×1 reel set. When red and blue wilds land at the same time, the two values are combined.
Free Spins
The Free Spins round is triggered when three or more Survivor scatters land simultaneously on the reels. Three scatters gets you 15 spins, and each additional scatter add another 5 spins to the total. As the bonus round starts, night falls adding a touch of atmosphere to proceedings!
Wild multipliers accrued during the base game are carried through into the bonus round and do not re-set until all your spins are completed. This creates the opportunity to build some massive multiplier values. You can also extend the free spins session by landing further scatters – three or more extra scatters gets you 5 more plays, with no limit to how many you can get in total.
OUR VERDICT
Survivor is another excellent slot from the Big Time Gaming stable. There are fewer features than in other branded slots like Monopoly but the gameplay is still pleasing and the whopping 44,000x top payout is something any slots fan will want to chase. Of course, this being a high variance game it will be a tough ask to get even close to that and anyone who takes on Survivor should be ready for a tough session and choose their stake accordingly. Good luck!
