Fire My Laser

Fire My Laser: Slot Overview

For now, at the time of writing at least, it's not clear whether humanity is alone or not in this cold, dark universe, drifting through the void, eating snacks and watching TV. If we're not, then are visitors to Earth going to be of the enlightened benevolent kind, here to share their wisdom and induct us into a galactic brother and sisterhood, or will they be the hostile kind that wants to turn Earth into a farm and make us their enslaved workers? If they are of the latter type, let's hope by the time they get here, we've evolved sophisticated enough weaponry to hold them off, maybe even the sort on show in Hacksaw Gaming's Earth vs outer space slot Fire My Laser.

The chap leading humanity's crusade against the Xeno Horde in this game is a rocket-shouldered beefcake burning an enormous cigar who hangs about at the bottom of the screen overlooking the war. He's one of those badass generals who eats regular grunts for breakfast type of guy. In the base game, a green-skinned baddie lingers to the left, while spacey stuff makes up most of the rest of the view. It's alright; maybe not the most exhilarating representation of man vs nasty alien ever seen in pop culture, but when shizz starts blowing up and getting zapped by lasers, the heart rate may well increase a beat or two.

Fire My Laser's battleground is a 7-column, 6-row gaming grid which uses a unique way of generating wins that does not involve bet lines, ways, clusters, or scattering. It does involve a medium volatile math model and four RTP configurations, with 96.31% being the highest return figure. Players may activate four bonus modes, while the base bet choice is 10 c to $/€100 per game round.

Fire My Laser has 7 different pay symbols with green colouration on them and bare grey rocks, which are value-less blocker symbols. Rewards from the pay symbols vary from 0.1x to 5x the bet per symbol. Wild symbols don't land in Fire My Laser; it's not that sort of game.

Fire My Laser: Slot Features

Fire My Laser has two different Bomb symbols and two different Laser symbols. Bombs and Lasers are the main way of winning cash in the game. Each landed Bomb and Laser randomly activates from bottom to top, right to left. The pay symbols they strike add their values to the Total Win Bar, which is paid out at the end of the spin. Bombs and Lasers also activate when they are hit by another Bomb or Laser.

• Small Bomb - explodes in a 3x3 area centred on the Bomb.
• Big Bomb - explodes in a 5x5 area centred on the Bomb.
• X-Laser - shoots in all four diagonal directions to the edge of the grid in a 1-symbol wide beam.
• Super Laser - shoots in all four diagonal directions to the edge of the grid in a 3-symbol wide beam. The Super Laser instantly destroys all Shields it hits.

Removed symbols cause a cascade, making existing symbols drop down to fill gaps and new symbols come in from above. Once the current grid is settled and no more Bombs or Lasers activate, there is a chance an Orbital Bombardment on 3-7 different grid positions occurs. Each Orbital Bombardment affects a 2x2 area. This can happen more than once per spin. Orbital Bombardment also activates any Bombs or Lasers they strike.

Deploy Shields

Some symbols have a Shield. They require multiple hits to remove the Shield and activate the symbol. Shields display a number indicating how many more hits are needed before the symbol activates. The Super Laser instantly destroys all Shields it hits. Shields are found on Multiplier symbols and FS scatter symbols.

The 2-Shield multipliers have values of x2 to x10, while 3-Shield multipliers have values of x15 to x500. The sum of activated Multipliers is applied to the Total Win Bar at the end of a spin. There are 2 types of FS scatter symbols. Both require 3 hits to break their Shield and trigger a bonus game. However, just 1 activated FS scatter is needed to award a bonus.

Alien Attack

Breaking the Shield on an Alien Mind FS scatter symbol in the base game awards 8 Alien Attack free spins. This bonus has the same mechanics as the base game. Plus, all activated Multipliers are stored in a Progressive Multiplier. The Progressive Multiplier is applied to the collected win in the Total Win Bar on a spin when at least one new Multiplier was added to the Progressive Multiplier. Breaking the Shield on an Alien Mind FS symbol awards +2 free spins.

Extermination

Breaking the Shield on a Power Core FS scatter symbol awards 12 Extermination free spins. This bonus has the same mechanics as the base game. In addition, all activated Multipliers are stored in a Progressive Multiplier that is always active and is applied to all wins in the Total Win Bar at the end of a spin. Breaking the Shield on a Power Shield FS symbol awards +2 free spins.

Bonus Buy

Fire My Laser provides these four bonus buys: BonusHunt FeatureSpins - 3x the bet. Each spin is 5 times more likely to trigger free spins; Booming FeatureSpins - 50x the bet. Each spin guarantees at least 1 Multiplier and 1 Super Laser land. FS symbols cannot land in this mode; Alien Attack - 80 the bet; Extermination - 200x the bet.

Fire My Laser: Slot Verdict

Hacksaw Gaming has taken a break from its usual MO to produce something enjoyably unusual here. The studio has actually taken a break from the mainstream online slot crowd altogether because Fire My Laser is a rather experimental slot. Something maybe Crazy Tooth Studio might have come up with, or ELK Studios when it's in one of its wilder, crazier moods. A high 'out-there' factor makes Fire My Laser a virtual must-see for players who like to explore the fringe area of online slot design. But, even less adventurous gamblers should be able to get a kick out of what the game can do unless they are absolutely wedded to standard bet line gambling to the exclusion of all else.

Fire My Laser's base game can be a slog when waves of no-win spins or teeny win spins are surging through - exacerbated by the way Bombs and Lasers only randomly activate when they aren't affected by other Bomb explosions or Laser beams. As a cascading slot, getting some consecutive wins happening is where Fire My Laser heats up. Charge through explosion after explosion, beam after beam, boosted by spot-on video game-like sound effects, and the satisfaction can feel almost Candy Crush-ish as feature symbols consecutively activate and pay symbols are collected. At times, it was a struggle to get a steady base game roll on, but free spins tended to be quite good at taking things to the next level, partly courtesy of the progressive multiplier.

Manage to teach these ETs who's the daddy (or the mummy) in this galaxy, and players can walk away with wins of up to 15,000 times their stake. A sizable figure for a unique slot that makes a bold change from the way Hacksaw Slots usually crafts slots.