Death Becomes You

Death Becomes You: Slot Overview

Hop on the Hacksaw Gaming ride, and one minute you're sliding sideways around the streets of Tokyo in Nitro Nights, the next you're contemplating the meaning of life in a game like Circle of Life. Or death, as in today's review of Death Becomes You, players are pitted against something we all face but often don't want to spend a lot of time thinking about. This extension of the studio's Life and Death range sees Death waking from a slumber, monsters rising from the depths, battles taking place via VS symbols and Death DuelReels, as well as sizable potential sitting in wait for those who can emerge as the victor.

If you don't like to be reminded of life, death, blood, and mortality, then Death Becomes You isn't going to match well. On screen are two hearts, wavering on either side of the gaming area, a reminder of their physical importance as they beat throughout our entire lives, pumping blood around the body. Black, white, and shades of grey are again some of the most prominent colours in the game, with all sorts of weird, disturbing imagery to pick out during the various phases and cut scenes. Like its siblings, there are not many slots like this on the market, as Death Becomes You carves out a strange, introspective niche far away from the colourful herd to contemplate weightier topics and stare into the face of terrifying inevitability.

Moving on to the nuts 'n' bolts, where players win when matching symbols land left to right along Death Becomes You's 14 paylines. A 5x4 grid is where the action is held, which is run by a highly volatile math model that Hacksaw Gaming has rated as 4 out of 5. The highest of the RTP models is 96.34% and players are able to stake from $/€0.10 to $/€50.

The symbols on the pay table are the letters D, E, A, T, and H on the low side, then fish, moths, owls, hearts, and eyes as the premium symbols. A line of 5 matching letters pays 1x the bet, or 2x to 6x is awarded when landing 5 matching premium symbols. Wild symbols are worth 10x for a line of five wilds, and they are also able to substitute any paying symbol.

Death Becomes You: Slot Features

Death Becomes You sees the return of DuelReels, matched with a Duel with Death feature, three bonus rounds, one hidden, and five feature buys.

DuelReels

When a VS symbol lands, it expands into a DuelReel if it will be part of a win. Fully expanded DuelReels are wild, and once expanded, a duel takes place between two duellists, each armed with a multiplier of x2 to x100. Multiple DuelReels in the same win add their multipliers together before being used. DuelReels will display 1 of 5 different Monsters.

Duel with Death

Landing 5 low pay symbols spelling the word DEATH across a row triggers a Duel with Death sequence. A respin is awarded with 3 lives displayed on the Life Meter. During the respin, a Death DuelReel expands to cover reels 2, 3, and 4. Once the Death DuelReel expands, a duel occurs between Death and the player. The player starts with an x5 multiplier, and Death has a multi of x2 to x100. If Death wins a Duel, one life is lost, and another Duel triggers on the same Death Duel Reel. If the player wins the Duel, they collect the multiplier from Death and add it to their existing multiplier, then another Duel is triggered. Duels repeat until the player loses all 3 lives. Once lives are lost, pay symbols and VS symbols can land on the leftmost and rightmost reels. Any DuelReels are handled, and the player's multiplier is applied to all wins connected to the Death DuelReel.

Meet Your Maker Bonus Game

Meet Your Maker's 10 free spins are awarded by landing 3 scatters in the base game. This bonus round has an increased chance of landing VS symbols and triggering Duel with Death. In this feature, hitting 2 or 3 scatters awards +2 or +4 free spins, respectively.

Drop Dead Bonus Game

Hitting 4 scatters awards the Drop Dead bonus. It keeps the base game mechanics while displaying 3 lives by the reels. When all lives are consumed, the bonus ends. During the feature, the grid spins and awards wins until DuelReels are triggered. When a player loses a Duel, 1 life is lost. When a Duel is won, the Monster on that DuelReel is defeated. Defeating all five Monsters awards a Duel with Death sequence. If Duel with Death is awarded, the life meter is refilled to 3 lives. Once the Duel with Death ends, so does the bonus. Up to 3 DuelReels can be on the grid at once.

Epic Death Hidden Epic Bonus

Landing 5 scatters in the base game triggers the Epic Death round. During this feature, a Duel with Death sequence triggers on the first spin, where 5 lives are awarded. After every Duel, pay symbols and VS symbols can land on the leftmost and rightmost reels. Any DuelReels are handled, and the player's multiplier is applied to all wins connected to the Death DuelReel. Once all lives are gone, the bonus ends.

Feature Buys

In Death Becomes You, five options are available from the feature buy. BonusHunt FeatureSpins make each spin 5 times more likely to trigger a bonus for 3x the stake. The Death Row FeatureSpins cost 60x and guarantee at least 1 VS symbol lands, while Duel with Death FeatureSpins can be bought for 500x. Players may also buy the Meet Your Maker round for 100x or Drop Dead for 250x the stake.

Death Becomes You: Slot Verdict

Death Becomes You is another reminder of how multifaceted Hacksaw Gaming is and how little interest it has in always playing it safe. Turning its back on candy-coated clones and cheerfully generic fruit machines, Hacksaw Gaming has dived headfirst into the uncomfortable. This is a slot concerned with mortality and existential dread, wrapped inside a monochrome aesthetic that's as much psychological horror as online casino entertainment. The fact that it won't be for everyone is almost entirely the point. For sure, a wide range of gamblers can enjoy the DuelReels-driven action, but fewer may actually want to do so while staring at a pair of beating hearts, accusatory eyeballs, and constant references to the Reaper.

For players unafraid of facing the realities of life, then Death Becomes You is a real playground of thought. DuelReels are proven features, and here they are expanded into Death DuelReels, a three-reel wide battlefield that builds the win multiplier whenever Death is defeated. This Duel with Death feature adds depth to the base game, should DEATH be spelt out on a row, and is the focal point for the two upper-tier bonus rounds. Death has been hauntingly created on the reel, and the battling has a strangely consequential, almost Tolkien-esque quality to it, like Gandalf fighting the Balrog, or something.

The result is another playably ponderous addition to the studio's Life and Death realm, that might not be as disturbing as something like Dark Spiral but is definitely a lot more cerebral than a lot of slots are. It's a game for curious gamblers to admire the creativity while wondering exactly what it is they've stumbled into. With 15,000x the bet on the line, achievable in all game modes, there is also plenty to collect should players manage to fight their way to the win cap while staring bravely into the unknown.