Blade & Fangs

Blade & Fangs: Slot Overview

With a name like Blade & Fangs, it's unlikely we're going to be dealing with candy, leprechauns, or fruit this time around. No, indeed, Blade & Fangs is a horror slot from software provider Pragmatic Play that possesses pointy objects of varying descriptions. Like horror movies tend to do, this one has a twist as well. The twist is that the gaming, for the most part, takes place on two separate gaming grids. However, land two knife-stabbing flower symbols on the outermost reels and the two grids merge to form a larger one during respins and free spins.

Thematically, Blade & Fangs looks and sounds pretty decent, but it also felt like it lacked any sort of absorbing story. It's like a potpourri of horror images and audio thrown together into a vat of coagulating substances to see what might ooze out the other side. It's held in a room that looks like an altar part of a church, carpeted in skulls and lit by mysteriously shimmering light. Spooky sound effects are layered over the music, which occasionally goes all metal, sealing a horrific atmosphere – though one somewhat spoiled by the upbeat, celebratory tunes present in win counts. It's decent, but it also felt somewhat scattered as a story.

While deciding what's best blades or fangs, spare a moment to decide what sort of wager you'd like to make. The choices are 20 c to $/€240 per spin, and a buy feature is available as well. The RTP comes out at 96.05%, no matter how Blade & Fangs is played, and runs on a highly volatile math model. Its USP is the split screen setup, so you've got one 5x3 grid up top and one 5x3 grid down the bottom – both with 243 ways to win.

Both land the same set of symbols as well, which means pointy metal 10 to A card royals for the low pays, then a bat, a snake, a ghoul, a wolf, and a skeleton as the high pays. Hitting a 5-of-a-kind low pay win awards 1 to 1.5 times the stake, or 2 to 10 times the stake is awarded for landing 5 matching premium symbols. Interestingly, Blade & Fangs does not have wild symbols, but it has a scatter and two multiplier symbols.

Blade & Fangs: Slot Features

Both gaming grids have their own specific multiplier symbol, which works together by joining the separate reel sets. As well as this are free spins with a general multiplier and a buy feature.

Multiplier Symbols

The +1x multiplier symbol may land on the leftmost reel of the top grid, while the x2 multiplier appears on the rightmost reel on the lower grid. Whenever both multiplier symbols land at the same time in the base game, the two sets of reels merge into a single 6x5 grid, and a respin is awarded. For the respin, a general multiplier of x2 applies to any wins. If an +1x multiplier symbol hits on the respin, the general multiplier increases by +1. If an x2 multiplier hits, the general multiplier is multiplied by x2. At the end of the respin, all wins are multiplied by the general multiplier, and the game splits back to two 5x3 screens.

Free Spins

The flaming skull scatter symbol appears on reels 2, 3, and 4. Hitting 3, 4, 5, or 6 scatter symbols awards 2x, 15x, 100x, or 500x the bet, respectively, plus 8 free spins. Free spins are always played on a merged 6x5 screen, and a general multiplier is active throughout, starting on x1. Every time a +1x multiplier symbol hits, +1 is added to the general multiplier, and every time an x2 multiplier hits, the general multiplier is multiplied by x2. Landing 3 or more scatter symbols awards an extra +4 free spins.

Buy Free Spins

Players may buy free spins for 100 times the total bet. When buying free spins, 3, 4, 5, or 6 scatter symbols randomly land on the triggering spin.

Blade & Fangs: Slot Verdict

Like a too-floppy pizza or one with not enough cheese, Blade & Fangs didn't quite hit the spot. As part of Pragmatic Play's heavy schedule, the developer is more than capable of firing off hits, but Blade & Fangs came across as more of a miss as if it was hastily put together or the team came up with some good ideas then floundered and weren't totally sure or couldn't agree on what to make of the prototype parts. Blade & Fangs felt sort of bitsy like the Prag bigwigs really wanted a two-grid game that merged but didn't have the side features to really make it all come together and pop. The theme, too. Blade & Fangs just didn't grip the way Darkness or Serial did and lacked the personality of, say, Hellvis Wild or even Demon Pots.

Blade & Fangs, for most of the time (if not on a bonus buy binge), is basically two grids simultaneously spinning with not a lot actually happening. Multiplier symbols drop here and there to tease, and occasionally, two will hit, thereby bringing both reel sets together. Then, okay, tension levels do get the chance to spike on respins having so much more grid space and ways to work with. Respins are a taster for the free spins phase since the grids are stuck together for the duration of the round, not to mention the useful inclusion of a rising win multiplier. With a win cap of 5,000x the bet and decent stats, there is no doubt Blade & Fangs can technically shock (in a good way).

Then again, pretty much any slot can shock when the right symbols hit and all. So, while a passable horror game possessing the usual Pragmatic Play pizzazz, Blade & Fangs wasn't one that caused much running off into the night in terror, or creeping back for repeat sessions.