Le Vampire

Le Vampire: Slot Overview

You've seen him twirling six shooters, fishing, digging up fossils and more; now we catch up with online gambling's most famous raccoon in Hacksaw Gaming's undead slot Le Vampire. This is an instalment in the Le range that introduces players to a Count Smokey version, a pointy-fanged chap who is keen on avoiding sunshine, being all Nosferatu-like, while remaining laser-focused on treasure. Even more critical to the Le experience than a cosplaying raccoon is the infamous Golden Squares feature, which brought the series its original acclaim, and that is back. Along with it are an alternative to Golden Squares called Blood Squares, spooky, and a symbol upgrade system found in bonus rounds, putting a newer, bloodier spin on the Le series.

We catch up with Smokey in the base game in a grand old house ideal for a vampiric habitation. Hacksaw Gaming hasn't let up on the cartoonish art style used throughout the series, though, so it's hard to take the raccoon too seriously as an actual bloodsucker. However, when viewed through the cute lens, Le Vampire is a visually appealing game, if not the sort of vampire slot that will have the hairs on the back of your neck standing up in fright, as it takes gamblers through house, graveyard, to grand hall, in a cheeky, bat-and-blood manner.

Le Vampire is a cluster pays slot, triggering a regular win when 5 or more matching symbols are connected to each other. The super cascade system removes regular winning symbols and all other instances of the winning symbol type off the reels. Symbols drop in to refill the grid, and the pattern repeats provided new wins are created. Medium volatile, players may stake $/€0.05 to $/€50, and the RTP is a noticeably generous 97.57% on the highest setting, though lower models are something to be aware of.

The low-pay symbols are J-A card royals, while the high pays land in regular teeth, cross, skull and pistol form, as well as epic versions of the teeth, cross, skull and pistol symbols but with blood on them. Clusters of 14+ OAK pay 50x for the royals, 75x-100x for the regular high pays, and 150x-200x for the Epic versions of the high pays.

Le Vampire: Slot Features

Golden Squares are here, naturally, as are Blood Squares, three free spins rounds - Coffin Break, Love At First Bite, and Do Your Fang along with a group of feature buys.

Golden Squares

After a winning combination happens, the positions behind winning symbols are highlighted as Golden Squares. When a Rainbow symbol lands, it activates any Golden Squares after wins have been collected. Activated Golden Squares reveal Bronze, Silver, Gold or Diamond Coins, Green or Gold Clover symbols, Bag of Gold, or Pot of Gold symbols. When an Epic Rainbow symbol lands, it highlights all grid positions as Golden Squares. In addition, Epic Rainbow symbols have a chance of triggering Blood Rain, where all grid positions are highlighted as Blood Squares. Blood Squares act as Golden Squares but do not reveal Bronze Coins. Bronze Coins are worth 0.2x-4x, Silver Coins 5x-10x, Gold Coins 20x-50x, and Diamonds are worth 100x-500x.

After Golden Squares have been revealed, Clover symbols activate. Green Clovers multiply adjacent Coins, Bag of Gold, or Pot of Gold symbols by x2-x20, while Gold Clovers multiply all Coins, Bag of Gold, and Pot of Gold symbols by x2 to x20.

Bag of Gold symbols trigger next, collecting the values from all Coins, as well as other activated Bag of Gold and Pot of Gold symbols on the adjacent 3x3 positions, storing the values. Golden Squares reveal new special symbols when they have been collected by Bag of Gold symbols, and the process repeats. If a Bag of Gold has activated, it does not collect again.

Pot of Gold symbols activate next, in the same way as Bags of Gold, except they collect all applicable symbols on the grid. At the end of the whole process, all values in view are awarded, and Golden Squares are removed.

Coffin Break Bonus

In the base game, hitting 3 scatters awards 10 free spins in the Coffin Break bonus. The mechanics follow the base game, except Golden and Blood Squares stay highlighted until activated by either Rainbow symbol type. After a high-pay symbol win has been handled, all symbols of the same type are upgraded to Epic symbols for the rest of the round. If there are multiple wins with the same high-pay symbol, the symbol type is upgraded after the first win has been handled.

A Symbol Bar appears outside of the grid. Each time a symbol is upgraded to Epic, a new Level is reached on the bar. Reaching Level 1-3 awards +2 free spins each time, while reaching Level 4 awards +2 free spins and guarantees one Rainbow or Epic Rainbow symbol lands on the next spin. Lastly, when an Epic symbol is part of a win, winning positions are highlighted as Blood Squares.

Love At First Bite Bonus

Landing 4 scatters in the base game awards 10 free spins in the Love At First Bite round. As well as using the mechanics from Coffin Break, Golden and Blood Squares stay highlighted even after being activated. When Epic Rainbow symbols activate, only the Golden and Blood Squares that were on the grid before will remain on the grid after activation has finished.

Do Your Fang Hidden Epic Bonus

Do Your Fang's 10 free spins are awarded by landing 5 scatters in the main game. On top of the mechanics from Love At First Bite, a Rainbow or Epic Rainbow is guaranteed to land on each spin. Also, when reaching Level 4 on the Symbol Bar, an Epic Rainbow is guaranteed to land on the next spin. All coins have a value of 1x or higher.

Feature Buys

The feature buys include BonusHunt FeatureSpins at 3x, making each spin 5 times more likely to trigger a bonus; Rainbow Bite FeatureSpins at 75x to guarantee Rainbow or Epic Rainbow symbol lands with minimum Coin values of 1x; or Rainbow Epic Drop FeatureSpins for 500x, which guarantees an Epic Rainbow and minimum Coins of 1x. Coffin Break costs 60x to buy, or 250x buys Love At First Bite.

Le Vampire: Slot Verdict

Love or hate the relentless barrage of Le releases, Le Vampire goes to show that there is still life left in the concept, undead life in this case. Players who feel like they're drowning in Le might not be convinced, but there are ideas here that add, at least a touch, of newness to the whole thing. The theme is on the predictable side, when considering how often vampires and slots go together, but Hacksaw Gaming has pulled it off in its usual assured style, creating a charming yet ever so slightly menacing blood-sucking world for its main critter to inhabit and make his own, something Smokey is able to do wherever he goes. While the cartoonish presentation means this Count Smokey is more mischievous than menacing, the on-grid activity is able to instigate a white-knuckle response, whether brought about by the standard Golden Square action or from the newer additions.

Blood Squares were one of the first things to stand out, and while they don't transform the experience, the way they never reveal a Bronze Coin is a bonus. That leads to Epic symbol transformations, which again, aren't revolutionary, but it's a nice upgrade to have on hand. It may make you realise how rare regular high-pay wins can be, while specifically looking out for premium wins to upgrade the regular symbol to an Epic symbol, which are able to plaster Blood Squares on the grid. Should just four upgrades occur (easier said than done), they lead to a bunch of extra spins and a guaranteed Rainbow or Epic Rainbow symbol for good measure. Each of the new parts has been integrated with the existing bones to make a Le slot that's not necessarily unmissable, but boasts enough ingenuity to pique the interest of curious Le fans.

Rounding out the package is an excellent RTP, if you can catch the top model out in the wild, and winning potential of 15,000x the bet. As these slots often are, nothing here is revolutionary, and Le haters battered by yet another one of these releases are likely to let everyone else know that. Be that as it may, Le Vampire is another good-looking example of what Smokey and his Golden Squares can do, even if the bulk of what is here amounts to stuff we've all seen before on more than one occasion.