Seamen

Seamen: Slot Overview

If the title wasn't already enough of a clue, then heads up players, be prepared for a tsunami of sexual innuendos if you're thinking of setting sail with developer Nolimit City's online slot Seamen. We'll let readers make the connections between what is and isn't explicitly stated in the game, but no need to puzzle too hard; the underlying suggestions are about as subtle as a shotgun blast to the face. Seamen is a humorous slot, in other words, but like all humour, its particular brand won't be to all tastes. Neither will the gameplay, but what you'll find here is an orgy of win respins, increasing position multipliers contributing to a huge number of potential ways to win, a couple of free spins rounds and more.

Seamen takes place at sea, no surprises there, on a ship manned by a crew of tattooed, bulging crotched sailors. The base game occurs during the day, while free spins take place when the sun's going down or at night, where purple lighting provides a minor party effect. As mentioned in the first line, innuendos abound, so a sense of humour is probably needed to get the most out of Seamen, as the game may come across as, how shall we put this, a bit too manly, for some sensitivities.

Plastered to the side of an unidentifiable mechanical device is Seamen's unusual 4-reel gaming area, aligned in a 3-5-5-3 formation. An unmodified game board has 270 ways to win, but when multipliers are placed on individual reel positions, the number of ways to win can skyrocket into the millions. What might look like a pint-sized game is highly volatile and has a top RTP of 96.04%. As well as the usual list of optional ways to gamble, a base bet of 20c to $/€100 must be selected before voyaging forth.

Nine pay symbols land on the reels. They are 10-A, a ship, a diving helmet, a seaman, and a shark, paying 0.05x to 0.4x the bet for a 4 OAK hit. Helping connect winning ways, the wild symbol can replace any symbol except scatters.

Seamen: Slot Features

Despite the diminished gaming area, Seamen manages to squeeze on there win respins, Fire Frames, xWays, Bombs, Molotov Fire, free spins, extra spins, boosters and feature buys.

• Win Respins - After winning symbols pay, their positions respin. The multiplier on those positions increases by +1 for each respin. Multipliers apply to regular paying symbols only. On each respin, one extra Fire Frame is added to a position that did not already have one.
• Fire Frames - Fire Frames are added randomly to positions on the reels every spin. Each position with a Fire Frame has its multiplier increased by +1. Winning symbols with Fire Frames have their position multipliers increased by +2.
• xWays - xWays symbols transform into a regular pay symbol and reveal 2 to 4 instances of that symbol, increasing the number of win ways. If more than one xWays lands on the reels, all of them reveal the same symbol.
• Molotov Fire - Transforms into a wild and adds Fire Frames to all symbols on its column.

Bombs

When there are no winning symbols, Bombs explode and remove symbols based on their type. Any symbol removed by a Bomb has its position multiplier increased by +1, or +2 if it has a Fire Frame. There are three types of Bombs:

• Coconut - removes itself and increases the position multiplier by 5 to 100, in addition to the standard increase.
• Cross Bomb - removes itself and all regular symbols on its row and column.
• Naval Mine - removes itself and all low pay symbols on the reels.

Free Spins

Landing 3 scatters awards 5 free Rigged Spins where position multipliers are kept till the feature ends. Hitting 4 scatters triggers 7 free Super Rigged Spins, which also keeps position multipliers and adds more Fire Frames per spin on average.

Extra Spin

When a round ends, players may be able to buy an extra spin for a calculated cost that keeps the position multiplier, Fire Frames, and scatters of the previous spin.

Boosters and Buys

At 2.5x, the Bonus Booster guarantees a scatter on the second leftmost reel. Big Load Spins cost 9x to guarantee a spin with x3 multipliers on all positions, while Bigger Load Spins at 80x guarantee a spin with x6 multipliers on all positions. At 2,000x, the Coconut Spins land Coconuts on all positions. It is also possible to buy Rigged Spins for 100x, or Super Rigged Spins for 500x or lucky draw for 220x.

Seamen: Slot Verdict

Seamen seems like a game players will either be onboard with, slapping knees with a smile on their face or quickly switching to something more butch. The Nolimit City crew must have had fun making this one, but it might be a teensy bit too, uh, seaman-ish for some. That's okay, the studio makes a wide range of slots, so players are free to jump ship and swim to shore if there's one too many sailors for their liking. Others may find Seamen just the thing, or be ambivalent to it. Put another way, like an avant-garde fashion show, Seamen nudges a few thematic boundaries.

Seamen also nudges a few gameplay boundaries, but aside from the unusual grid layout, many features have a familiarity to them. In fact, the game came across in some ways as a saltier, stickier version of Duck Hunters. Just like not falling overboard and being swept away is one of a sailor's main concerns, in Seamen, increasing position multipliers is all. Symbol values are minuscule, so the more ways connecting winning symbols, the better. And there can be an enormous number of ways - 15,323,672 was built during one of the first bonus rounds of the review, for example. Masses of ways don't automatically translate to masses of payouts, though a 20,000x win cap means sizable rewards are possible on deck – assisted by complementary effects such as bombs, Fire Frames, and xWays. Maybe be wary of the Extra Spin. It is optional, but it was hard not to chase the Extra Spin dragon during the review.

So while Seamen might not be destined to be one of Nolimit City's greats, it's worth checking out. And who knows, if you're the sort of person who's intrigued by the prospect of gambling on a ship that's 'used to carrying some big loads' or has a 'taste for working with seamen' then this could be just the lost at sea action you never knew you wanted.