Dead Riders Trail

Dead Riders Trail: Slot Overview

Editor’s note: This review evaluates Dead Riders Trail based on its early access state. This means that Dead Riders Trail may still be under production. We plan on revisiting this review if needed once it gets a final release.

Trailers, here's some news that'll get your motors cranking over. Software provider Relax Gaming, the visionaries behind the outstanding pirate slot Dead Man's Trail, has hit back with a follow-up called Dead Riders Trail. Where the first one stylistically rode the high seas aboard wooden ships on a treasure hunt, Dead Riders Trail moves to the present day, cruising the asphalt doing a bit of law-breaking in an attempt to score loot. The focal point is in an intricately designed Bonus Trail, which now has a Super Bonus Trail version, while side extras include a Feature Wheel, Free Spins, and a gamble option.

Relax Gaming was not content just reskinning their pirate hit and have done a real work over for Dead Riders Trail. From the moment the game emblazoned itself on our screen, a Sons of Anarchy vibe took over that's all guns, flames, skulls, bullets, cash money, and bad dudes and dudettes doing bad deeds. Visually speaking, the designers appear to have looked to GTA V for inspiration when creating their world. The game has got a lawless, get-rich-at-all-costs ethos present in slots like Narcos Mexico, The Big Hit, or Cash Truck. It is probably fair to say that Dead Riders Trail as a whole owes a lot to Nolimit City for smoothing the way for releases like this to steamroll their way into the mainstream.

In the words of Jax Teller, 'Every time I think maybe I'm heading in the right direction; I end up in a place I never even knew could feel this bad.' In the case of Dead Riders Trail, it's bad in a good way, where players can take a walk on the wild side from the safety of their preferred device – mobile, tablet, or desktop. In this multi-faceted, highly volatile online slot, bet selection ranges from 10 p/c on the lower side up to $/€20 per spin max. The RTP when playing the default way is 96.20%, rising to 96.50% for all three feature buy options.

The base game is played on a 6x6 game grid made up of active symbols and valueless stone block tiles. It pays left to right in adjacent reels, from the left-hand side, meaning up to 46,656 ways to win when every position contains an active symbol. When a win hits, the winning symbols are removed, as well as adjacent stone blocks. Symbols remaining on the grid drop into the gaps, and new symbols appear up above, possibly leading to a new win. This process repeats until there are no more wins. For the regular pay symbols, clubs, spades, diamonds, and hearts are used as the low pays, awarding 0.4-0.8x the bet for six of a kind, while four characters and a logo are the high pays, worth 0.6-2x the bet for six. The last symbol, for now, is the wild, which appears on reels 2-6 to substitute any normal paying symbol.

Dead Riders Trail: Slot Features

Unlocking the Bonus Trail or Super Bonus Trail is the highlight of the game, but there are several other sights to see along the way. For starters, managing to remove all stone blocks in the base game awards a spin on the Feature Wheel. From the wheel, you can win 4 free spins, 7 free spins, the Bonus Trail, or the Super Bonus Trail. If free spins are won, players can gamble them for the chance to win the Bonus Trail. There is a 33% chance of doing so if 4 free spins were won or 52% if 7 free spins were won. Failed gambles forfeit whatever was won.

Free Spins

In free spins, some stone blocks have bombs attached to them. Wins adjacent to these blocks detonate the bomb, which transforms all symbols in its reel into the same kind. The symbol chosen for the transformation will be the one that can create the greatest win. Moreover, +3 additional free spins are awarded when stone blocks are cleared.

Bonus Trail

On each turn in this feature, a player's pawn moves 1-6 spaces around a trail. You start with 3 fuel cans on a meter, and 1 can is removed each time your pawn moves. Some of the positions on the trail have a fuel icon next to them - landing on one of these resets the fuel can meter back to 3. After landing on a tile with a fuel icon, the fuel icon is removed. When you run out of fuel cans or hit the win cap, the round ends.

Landing on a normal trail tile awards a multiplier of the bet, up to 1,000x whilst landing on a truck position awards a Bonus Trail feature. There are two types of these: silver trucks can trigger any of the features, but golden trucks only award the persistent versions or the Collect All feature. Making it all the way around the trail adds +3x to the paying tiles and adds +1 fuel can to the meter. The Bonus Trail features are:

• Cash – 25-50x the bet is awarded.
• Sniper – 3-6 normal tiles have their values multiplied by x2.
• Payer – all normal tiles are increased by a value of 3x to 10x.
• Two Knife – adds 50x-200x to 2-4 random normal tiles.
• Refuel – 2-4 fuel cans are placed on random normal tiles.
• Shoot Back – the total win value is placed on 1-3 random normal tiles.
• Collect – the values of the nearest 4 normal tiles are collected.
• Collect All – all normal value tile values are collected.
• Persistent Sniper – acts like a normal Sniper on every following turn.
• Persistent Payer – acts like a normal Payer on every following turn.
• Persistent Two Knife – acts like a normal Two Knife on every following turn.

Super Bonus Trail

Triggering the super version of the Bonus Trail means the silver truck nearest to the starting point is replaced with a golden truck.

Buy Bonus

Click the Buy Bonus button to display three options. These are a spin on the Feature Wheel for 50x the bet, the Bonus Trail for 90x the bet, or the Super Bonus Trail for 250x the bet.

Dead Riders Trail: Slot Verdict

There might be a shift of scenery, a different base game and several new extras, but at its heart, Dead Riders Trail is every bit the thundering trail-centric game its predecessor was. For players who dig the adrenalized factor a motorcycle gang provides, it's even better. Crucially, the two centrepiece trail features are as insane as ever before. Having to fuel up rather than avoid skull & crossbones End Tiles works well, and running low on gas draws out the tension rather than instantly ending the feature by landing on an End Tile. The trail bursts with personality, too, and can produce anything from disappointing results, slow-burn consistent builds, to all-out fireworks. As before, there is a major Money Train effect here where an average round can do a complete 180 with the right Bonus Trail features and turn what was shaping up to be a sleepy session into some of the whitest of white-knuckle gaming you'll find on any trail anywhere.

So now we're done gushing about the main feature, how about the others? There's not much more to say other than they are sturdy as you like as well. Sure, nothing compares to getting a tremendous roll on around the trail, though the Temple Tumble 2-like base game adds a roller coaster dimension, and free spins might feel like a consolation prize compared to the Bonus Trail, but hey, they can be gambled if you're up for it and their bomb feature isn't bad either.

However, we don't think the characters in Dead Riders Trail are keen to settle for a consolation prize. They look like the sort searching for that one big hit, and the Bonus Trail or Super Bonus Trail is most likely where it will be found. Just like Dead Man's Tail, Dead Riders Trail's pace feels momentous when it's flowing, the special symbols are as crazy as those found in any Relax Gaming slot, and the final result can be as high as 50,000 times the base bet. Dead Man's Trail has tapped its win cap on tape before, and there is no reason why Dead Riders Trail won't put its foot down and do so at some point as well.