Apocalypse

Apocalypse Slot Overview

People might bemoan the destructive nature of our democratically elected consumer-driven societies where economic growth is all, but remove them, and what have you got? Potentially, total anarchy where humans group into war bands while the strong run roughshod over pockets of weaklings who cling with their final fingernail to the last hope of rebuilding a mannered civilisation. A dog eat dog… Well, you get the point. Do away with the current system, and what follows is rarely pretty. At least, not in movies, books, and slots, where violent dystopic visions of humanity letting its base instincts run wild are common. Maybe, though, the elites feed us these images in order to protect the status quo and prevent humanity from ascending to a higher level of being. If so, then Nolimit City fans the flames of this planet-wide status que cover up with the online slot Apocalypse.

Apocalypse puts forward a response to the question of what happens after the end of the world. As an answer, the game sheet describes a 'world turned into a post-nuclear playground filled with crazed delinquents', some bearing 'funky mutations.' This is what players' eyes are treated to when air dropping into Apocalypse, where the whole planet is basically one big biohazard. Really, what is one to do in a situation like this? Band together, or go it alone and eliminate everyone who crosses your path while hoarding resources in isolated locations? And for what, to survive for survival's sake, rebuild the human race, or just lie down and give up?

Tough questions. Less tricky is bet selection, where the options are 20 c to $/€100 per spin. Apocalypse also offers 2 Nolimit Boosters and 4 Nolimit bonus buys. The maximum RTP when betting regularly is 96.03%, while the volatility is 10 out of 10 Extreme! Oops, apologies for getting all end-of-the-world dramatic there. A 6-reel, 4-row matrix is Apocalypse's gaming area, laying out 4,096 ways to win.

Ten pay symbols fall on the reels in order to line up wins - 5 lows and 5 highs. The lows are greyed-out crossbows, gas masks, first aid kits, petrol cans, and tins, worth 0.4 to 0.8 times the bet for a 6 OAK way. The highs are named character symbols Creator, Triplet, Cutter, Licker, and Crawler, paying 1-2.5 times the bet for 6-of-a-kind. When wilds are in view, they substitute for all regular pay symbols.

Apocalypse: Slot Features

If scarcity is common in a post-apocalyptic world, Apocalypse didn't get that memo. For features, it's got xNudge Wilds, Super xNudge Wilds, Carnage Spins, Doomsday Spins, Cataclysm Spins, Nolimit Boosters, and Nolimit bonus buys.

xNudge Wild

xNudge Wilds may land on reels 2 to 5. When an xNudge lands, it nudges downwards to the bottom position, increasing the payout multiplier by +1 for each nudged step. If it lands on the bottom row, it acts as a regular wild.

Super xNudge Wild

Super xNudge Wilds only land on reels 3 and 4. Super xNudges must land on the same row on both reels to activate the feature; otherwise, they act as a regular wild. When activated, the Super xNudges drop to the bottom position, increasing the payout multiplier by +1 for each step it drops, then they expand to cover the whole reel. Several wild multipliers add to each other for a total wild multiplier. The maximum multiplier of the Super xNudge is x8.

Carnage & Doomsday Spins

Hitting 3 or 4 scatters in the base game respectively triggers Carnage Spins or Doomsday Spins. Both bonus rounds are split into two parts: the Hoarding feature and the Feasting feature.

The Hoarding feature starts with 3 spins that reset to 3 every time a new value symbol lands on the reels. Triggering scatters are replaced by random value symbols. The possible initial symbol values are x1, x5, x10, x20, or x40. When a column fills with 4 symbols, an extra spin is granted in the Feasting feature. When spins are gone or all positions are filled, players advance to the Feasting feature.

The Feasting feature awards 5 spins in Carnage spins, or 10 spins in Doomsday spins. Additional enhanced rows on the top and the bottom of the grid spin, which may land character modifier symbols:

• Creator - creates a new value symbol in an empty position.
• Triplet - randomly upgrades 3 value symbols to the next level at the same or different positions.
• Cutter - multiplies 1 random value symbol by 2.
• Licker - adds the highest value to the total counter.
• Crawler - collects all symbol values and adds them to the total counter.

A persistent version of character symbols may land. Persistent versions move to the right to an adjacent reel with each spin, activating again until it reaches the last reel.

Cataclysm Spins

Landing 5 scatters in the base game triggers Cataclysm Spins. The rules are the same as Doomsday Spins, except only persistent character symbols land in the Feasting feature.

Nolimit Boosters

The two choices here are the xBet and Super xNudge Feature Spin. Activating the xBet adds 50% to the stake to make it more than 3 times more likely to trigger Carnage/Doomsday Spins. The Super xNudge Feature Spins costs 50x the bet and awards 1 spin with 2 guaranteed Super xNudge Wilds on the same row. The max win can be achieved from a Super xNudge Feature Spin.

Nolimit Bonuses

The four options from the Nolimit Bonus section are:

• Carnage Spins - 80x the bet.
• Doomsday Spins - 500x the bet.
• Cataclysm Spins - 2,000x the bet.
• 50%/40%/10% Lucky Draw - 444x the bet.

Apocalypse: Slot Verdict

There are vibes here of other slots - ELK Studios' Nitropolis series, Relax Gaming's Money Train range, and Thunderkick's Xterminate, for example, but Apocalypse is a Nolimit City production, so it is definitely its own animal. Maybe not so much thematically, since it's all broken-down world, burning cars, and busted-up buildings, all that sort of thing. But the studio has had a think about the features, and they've come out as a mix of familiar and not-so-familiar.

One example is the two xNudge features. The first, the regular xNudge Wild, is an absolute Nolimit City staple, a go-to feature that shows up all over the place, from Tombstone to Dragon Tribe. The Super xNudge Wilds add spice to the mechanic. One of the best non-wallet-busting ways of seeing what it can do is by demoing it via the Nolimit Booster option. Like a lot of things Nolimit City makes, the Super xNudge's results may vary from nada to extremely potently volatile. Get the Super xNudge working alongside 1 or better 2, regular xNudge symbols, and chaos might just break out. It's a classic potential sonic boom-from-nowhere NLC feature.

The hold 'n win rounds aren't as classically Nolimit City, as in, the studio doesn't do these sorts of bonus rounds a heck of a lot, but the team has stamped its personally on the three up for grabs in Apocalypse. Naturally, the further up the bonus hierarchy you can claw yourself, the better. For example, the persistent character symbols during the Feasting feature might make all the difference in the world. They upend the bonus round in general. What that means is the first phase of the round is a standard session of hoping for as many value symbols to hit as possible. Then, when the Feasting starts, the initial stage's winning total can be utterly transformed by character symbols. This system is perhaps not as exhilarating as Fire in the Hole or Fire in the Hole 2, as a comparison, but Apocalypse's bonus rounds are up to the task of entertaining lucky players, and the game has a max win figure of 20,000x.

As far as end of civilisation slots go, Apocalypse possesses a more mainstream look and feel than the previous Nolimit City releases xWays Hoarder xSplit and Karen Maneater. There are some recognisable faces here, the xNudge Wild, for example, but also some new and juicy stuff for NLC fans to sink their paws into while surviving the new state of the world. Or attempting to, at least