Outlaw Saloon

Outlaw Saloon: Slot Overview

Saddle up pardner, Games Global associates Gold Coin Studios makes a beeline for the frontier in a Wild West-themed online slot called Outlaw Saloon. Out here in this patch of the West, players spin reels and virtual six-shooters for the chance to bag sizable wins, utilising Sheriff Badge Collections, Metered Prizes, and three free spin bonus rounds along the way.

Outlaw Saloon's game sheet mentioned something about going back in time. At first glance, there were some conflicting thoughts as to whether the studio was referring to the game's Wild West imagery or how aged Outlaw Saloon looks. It's set in a desolate frontier town that's about as lifeless as the blemish-free robotic characters populating the reels. A trio of decent enough prizes sit on the left-hand side of the game grid, but the game's dated, sterile appearance didn't inspire much motivation to start hammering the spin button to see what else might happen.

Hammer we did, though, picking a stake from a range of choices starting at 20 p/c and rising to $/€25 per spin. Numerically speaking, Outlaw Saloon comes with a respectable set of stats, including a maximum RTP of 95.98%, solid potential, and a hit rate of around 1 in 3. Volatility is high (though it can vary depending on the chosen free spins bonus round) and is played on a 5-reel, 3-row matrix supplying 20 fixed paylines for landing wins across.

Winning combinations start from the leftmost side of the game panel and land across a payline on adjacent reels. Pay symbols begin with card suits - hearts, clubs, spades, and diamonds paying 5x the bet for five of a kind, then come cards and chips, a bag of loot, three character symbols, and a logo at the top, awarding 12.5-100x the bet for five of a kind. Regular wilds appear on reels 2, 3, and 4 to substitute for any regular pay symbol; they can even carry multipliers during one of the features; let's check them out.

Outlaw Saloon: Slot Features

One of Outlaw Saloon's finer points is its sizable payout capabilities, potentially reachable through features such as a Sheriff Badge Collection, Metered Prizes, and three free spin bonus rounds.

Sheriff Badge Collection

The Sheriff Badges wilds appear on reels 2, 3, or 4 in the base game and are collected when they hit. Badges go on to transform into a wild symbol, reveal a gold bar, or turn sticky and trigger a respin. If a Sheriff Badge turns sticky on a respin, another respin is triggered.

Metered Prizes

The Gold bar wilds are collected as well, and appear on reels 2, 3, and 4. Landing a gold bar reveals another gold bar, a badge, or a wild symbol. Revealed gold bars also trigger a respin and are locked in place during it. Filling a meter awards the corresponding prize, which could be 50x, 500x, or 5,000x the bet.

Free Spins

Collecting 8 Sheriff Badges in a single base game cycle triggers 8 free spins – any additional badges award +1 spin each. Players can choose 1 of 3 options, each one offering a different set of rules;

• Multipliers Free Spins - In this bonus, landing a whiskey bottle symbol or a badge on reels 2, 3, or 4 reveals another whiskey bottle, badge, or wild symbol (whiskey bottles are wild). Revealed badges or whiskey bottles award one respin and are locked in place for the respins. Revealed badges award one free spin. The first whiskey bottle awards an x3 multiplier, the second one an x6, and the third an x9.
• Guaranteed Wild Respins - Landing a tequila symbol (which is wild) guarantees to reveal another tequila symbol and award a respin. Revealed tequila symbols reveal another tequila, a badge, or a wild. Landing a badge reveals another tequila, badge, or wild. When tequilas or badges are revealed, they trigger a respin and are locked in place for it. Badges award one free spin. Tequilas and badges both appear on reels 2, 3, and 4.
• Cash Prizes Free Spins - Wine glasses and badges (which are wild) appear on reels 2, 3, or 4 – landing one of these symbols reveals another wine glass, a badge, or a wild. Wine glass and badges which are revealed trigger a respin where they are locked. Revealed badges award one free spin. Win glasses also award cash prizes of 2-50x the bet.

Outlaw Saloon: Slot Verdict

It's hard to know what to say about Outlaw Saloon. It did warm up to an extent once we'd clocked the fiddly rules (it'll help to see the game in action if you are interested), yet it failed to impress from start to finish. A lot of players are no doubt aware of how many Western slots are out there, so if a studio is going to bother making one, they have to step up if they want it to stand out. Interestingly, it's as if Gold Coin Studios chose the opposite tactic and cranked out something that felt half-baked, or perhaps the studio launched on a brave new tangent that we didn't quite grasp. Either way, Outlaw Saloon does stand out, but probably not in the way its maker was gunning for.

Let's be superficial for a moment and dissect Outlaw Saloon's look. Naturally, beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but Outlaw Saloon just doesn't look great. Maybe ten years ago (or more), the sort of thing might have been okay; now, not so much. For players used to video games like Red Dead Redemption 2 or online slots like Deadwood, Outlaw Saloon looks hopelessly outdated. The music is quite good, though it would take a monumental level of incompetence to mess up a Wild West tune.

Outlaw Saloon doesn't sink to the level of incompetence, but at times you wonder if it's trying to. Since there's no cascade system, the randomness of the Sheriff Badge collection system can be kind of confusing. When free spins were first triggered, it felt like a totally random series of events occurred rather than anything structured. To summarise the process, it's a mix of respins, sticky symbols, consecutive hits, or something along those lines. It's so arbitrary it might be better to just trust in the process and let Outlaw Saloon do its thing rather than try and understand what's going on.

Back in the 1920s, an unusual fad called flagpole sitting swept the United States, where participants would literally sit atop a flagpole for hours or even days at a time. The record was apparently something bizarre, like 51 days or thereabouts. Anyhoo, the point is we live in a big world with loads of people with a diverse range of tastes and preferences, so someone somewhere might be able to appreciate the odd confusion that is Outlaw Saloon. For others, well, the Western slot genre is packed with excellent options, but unfortunately, Outlaw Saloon struggles to count itself as one of them.