The Luxe

The Luxe: Slot Overview

If it wasn't already self-evident, the word 'luxe' is used to represent something that's luxurious, sumptuous, elegant, extravagant, and probably expensive. It's also used in the name of developer Hacksaw Gaming's online slot The Luxe, a game that loosely follows in the footsteps of the studio's 'Le' range while branching into less complicated, high roller-focused territory. This it does by streamlining the Golden Frames feature and including one of the most audacious bonus buys the studio has deployed to date.

Hacksaw Gaming has quite elegantly described The Luxe, so how about we let their wordsmiths lay the scene where players are invited to 'Step into the velvet-roped world of The Luxe, where sleek style meets high-stakes glamour. Drenched in gold, every spin feels like a night out in a high-roller's paradise.' To design this 'celebration of elegance, mystery, and indulgence', Hacksaw Gaming has drawn heavily, almost exclusively on black, grey, and gold tones, to design the visual components in the background and those on the grid. This much black and gold might come across as a little tacky to some, but if not, then please feel free to pass the doorman into The Luxe, where players can both pretend they're high rollers and, in a certain instance, literally gamble like a high roller.

According to the game information, The Luxe is available in 5 out of 5 highly volatile or 2 out of 5 less volatile models. The version tested was conducted on the highly volatile version, where the greatest of the four available RTP models is 96.33%. It is possible to stake 10 c to $/€100, and there are four feature buys, one of which is quite eye-opening indeed. Play takes place on a 5x4 space with 14 paylines awarding winning combinations left to right from the leftmost reel.

The black and gold motif continues onto the paytable, which lists diamonds, clubs, spades, hearts, dice, chips, cards, crowns, and diamonds. Five-of-a-kind card suit wins pay 1 times the bet, while the rest of the symbols pay 5 to 200 times the bet for 5 OAK. Wilds also pay 200x for 5 OAK and can substitute for any regular pay symbol.

The Luxe: Slot Features

The Luxe's features are Golden Frames that award Multipliers or Jackpots, Clover Crystals, three bonus rounds - Black and Gold, Golden Hits, Velvet Nights, and feature buys.

Golden Frames

Golden Frames appear on random positions during a spin and display a multiplier or a jackpot. A Golden Frame counts as part of a win if the symbol in its position is part of a winning line. When a Multiplier Frame is part of a win, its value applies to the win. If more than one Multiplier Frame is part of the same win, the values are added together first. Possible Multiplier values range from x2 to x100. Jackpot Frames award one of four cash prizes when part of a win or when collected by a Clover Crystal. The Jackpot prizes are the Mini, Major, Mega, and Max Win, worth 25x, 100x, 500x, or 20,000x the bet, respectively. More than one Jackpot can be won at the same time.

Clover Crystals

The Clover Crystal symbol collects the values of all multipliers and jackpots that land on a spin - even if they do not form a winning combination. The collected total multiplier and jackpot value is multiplied by the current bet after all wins have paid out.

Black and Gold Bonus Game

Hitting 3 FS scatters in the base game triggers this feature with 10 free spins. It maintains the mechanics of the base game, plus 1 Golden Frame will be on the grid from the beginning of the round. All Golden Frames are sticky, so they remain till the feature ends. Golden Frames are filled with a new multiplier or jackpot between each spin. In the bonus round and the next one, hitting 2 or 3 FS scatters awards an extra +2 or +4 spins, respectively.

Golden Hits Bonus Game

10 Golden Hits free spins are awarded by landing 4 FS scatters in the base game. As well as the mechanics of the Black and Gold bonus, 3 Golden Frames will be on the grid from the start of the round. All multipliers are sticky, so they remain till the round ends, and when they are part of a win, they double in value for the next spin. Multipliers also double when collected by a Crystal Clover, though they can only double once per spin. Multiplier starting values range from x2 to x10. When a jackpot is part of a win, after it pays out, the Frame will be filled with a multiplier or a new jackpot on the next spin.

Velvet Nights Hidden Epic Bonus

Landing 5 FS scatters in the base game triggers 10 free Velvet Nights spins. On top of the mechanics of Golden Hits, each position will have a Golden Frame from the start of the feature. Crystal Clovers and scatters do not land in this bonus.

Feature Buys

BonusHunt FeatureSpins can be activated for 5x the bet to make each spin 5 times more likely to trigger a bonus round. High-Roller FeatureSpins are really that, at 2,000x, where each spin has a 1 in 10 chance of awarding the Max Win (only available on the 5/5 volatility version). The Black and Gold feature costs 80x to trigger, rising to 250x for Golden Hits.

The Luxe: Slot Verdict

Whilst Hacksaw Gaming is no stranger to black 'n' white slots, The Luxe's style is quite different to what the studio usually turns out. Enigma and riddle give way to clubby materialism, and any initial hunch that The Luxe was going to be a 'Le Clone' flipped when it started delivering an unexpected bunch of feature twists. Not hugely unexpected, though. Golden Squares retain some familiarity, though the gameplay is simplified when compared to Le Bandit or Le King, for example, since Clover symbols multiplying adjacent things or Treasure Pots/Pot of Golds collecting stuff have been taken out of the picture, meaning looping Coin win action is absent.

In The Luxe, Golden Frame linked features are less sophisticated. Simply include a Golden Frame in a winning combination, and whatever prize it displays is awarded. Either a Multiplier applies to a win, or a Jackpot is awarded. This system, in itself, is less interesting than that found in the 'Le' games, but it is able to trigger adrenaline spikes depending on the outcome. One of The Luxe's main talking points is its potentially wallet-smashing, possibly wallet-filling High-Roller FeatureSpins, easily one of the most audacious bonus buys Hacksaw Gaming has ever thrust into gamblers' laps. It might even be the most audacious, sitting up there alongside Nolimit City's God Mode buys. At 2,000x per spin, it's either the valiant Hacksaw Gaming bonus buy high rollers had been hoping for or borderline obnoxious. The good news, it's optional.

When putting that particular feature buy aside for a moment, the rest of The Luxe is less noteworthy. The max win is high for a Hacksaw Gaming slot at 20,000x, but the potentially divisive enigma-free materialistic focused theme and the innovation step down make the game feel, in some ways, like non-high rollers have been roped off.