Bounty Hunt Reloaded: Slot Overview

Bounty Hunt was one of software provider ReelPlay's first slots, back when it went by the name of Chance Interactive. It had something to do with a bounty hunter in the future bringing criminals to justice, while a Crosshair feature danced about the grid, transforming symbols to wilds or triggering free spins. Now, 8 or so years and a rebranding later, ReelPlay has produced Bounty Hunt Reloaded, an upgraded version that keeps parts of the original while throwing a cash prize-winning element into the bargain.

It appears as though the lead bounty hunter has had an appearance shift as well. Where before, she kind of had an Alice from Resident Evil look going on, she's now closer to the leading character from ?on Flux. The setting remains a broody, towering city of the future, giving off a sort of Stargate Atlantis meets Total Recall (the Colin Farrell one) vibe. It's the type of place where an inhabitant could get their hands on absolutely any good or service, no matter how noble or depraved, if they know the right people or which back allies to traverse through.

Bounty Hunt Reloaded expands the gaming grid out to 6 reels wide and 4 rows high. If you were hoping for a ways system to compliment the reel alignment, prepare for disappointment. Instead of 4,096 ways to win, Bounty Hunt Reloaded makes do with 20 paylines, which feels a tad underdone on this setup. The default RTP is more agreeable, being a 96.04% figure (though a lower model has been designed), while the volatility is medium-high. The bets players may select range from 20 c to a maximum of $/€50 per spin.

The game's eleven regular paying symbols include ten to ace card ranks, a pistol, a grenade, Hank Blade, Dr Fury, Big Boss, and the Bounty Hunter. Hitting a 6 OAK winning line awards 1-3x for the card ranks or 4 to 12.5 times the bet for everything else. It is also possible to make winning combinations out of mixtures of the three criminal symbols, worth up to 6x the bet. Wilds are able to be on all reels. They replace any regular pay symbols, and a line of 6 wilds awards 100 times the stake.

Bounty Hunt Reloaded: Slot Features

Bounty Hunt Reloaded returns the Crosshair feature used in the original game and adds cash prize values to its Criminal symbols. The Crosshair is active in the base game and in the free spins feature.

Crosshair

On each spin, a Crosshair will appear and target a random symbol on the reels. Depending on the targeted symbol, the outcome will vary like so.

• Bounty Hunter - randomly turns the Bounty Hunter and one other non-Wanted symbol on each other reel wild.
• Big Boss, Dr Fury, or Hank Blade symbol - turns it and all equivalent symbols wild.
• Grenade – turns it and all symbols except Wanteds on the reel wild.
• Pistol – turns it and one other random non-Wanted symbol wild.
• Card Royals – turns it wild.
• Wanted symbol – turns all Criminal symbols wild. Wanted symbols are never turned wild by the Crosshair, nor are they used to determine wild pistons for the Bounty Hunter or Grenade.
• Wild – turns all adjacent non-Wanted symbols wild.

After the Crosshair has ended, there is a chance of a Reload where the Crosshair will target another random symbol. Reloads can occur multiple times per spin.

Free Spins

Free spins are triggered when 3 or more Wanted scatters symbols are in view, or a Crosshair targeting a Wanted symbol triggers them. Here, 2 free spins are awarded per visible Wanted symbol, plus 2 more per Crosshair target of a Wanted symbol. If the Wanted symbol was targeted by the Crosshair on the trigger, then the prize values on any Criminal symbol it turned wild are paid. Hank Blade has prize values of 0.5x to 100x, Dr Fury of 1x to 250x, and Big Boss of 1.5x to 2,000x.

During free spins, the prize value on any Criminal symbol is paid if the Criminal is turned wild. Any Wanted symbol landing during the round triggers an extra free spin. Also, if the Crosshair targets a Wanted symbol, an extra free spin is granted.

Bounty Hunt Reloaded: Slot Verdict

This isn't coming from a bounty hunter expert here, but presumably, the job involves a fair amount of downtime, gathering information, surveillance, and so on, before leaping into action and apprehending the target. Bounty Hunt Reloaded has nailed the downtime part of the job, but the action side, well, that was harder to come by. The review session felt stuck in a downward spiral of low win/dead spins taking a hammer to the balance, while getting the Crosshair feature to do anything significantly fruitful seemed a rather tough challenge to accomplish.

Success flows where success flows in slots, and maybe others will have a more eventful ride should they choose to play Bounty Hunt Reloaded. The 'low' number of paylines might have played a role here in preventing all those wilds being thrown about the place from really linking up. Perhaps if the paylines were scooped out and replaced with a ways system, or even if there were just more of them, Bounty Hunt Reloaded might have come over more exciting. Winning potential, while okay, could be more exciting as well, where 4,459.1x the bet is the highest it goes on the 96.04% version.

To sum up, Bounty Hunt Reloaded wasn't a bad game to play - bounty hunting in the future is a fun idea, and the world-building's quite well done. But it was a slot that struggled to really get going, to the point where it felt like maybe it couldn't get going. The stats and features would suggest otherwise, but Bounty Hunt Reloaded didn't provide enough of a motivational hook to push through the tough times to prove itself.