Wild West Gold

Wild West Gold Casinos

Pragmatic Play has hitched up the wagon and taken players on a wild ride out west with Wild West Gold, a slot that clearly tips its cowboy hat to Dead or Alive 2, NetEnt’s iconic 2019 release. With its sticky multiplying wilds during free spins, the game wears its inspiration on its sleeve. But is that a bad thing? Well, the result is mixed—it doesn’t quite live up to its predecessor and leaves you wanting more. While that might be a good thing in storytelling, it’s a bit frustrating when you’re hoping for big wins.

Let’s start with the theme. Wild West Gold goes for a light-hearted Western vibe, kicking things off with a fun soundtrack featuring piano plinks, crowd noises, and the occasional gunshot to create a lively saloon atmosphere. The backdrop—a classic Western town filled with gunslingers and dusty streets—pairs well with the sound design. Compared to the gritty, moody tone of Dead or Alive 2, this slot has a much cheerier feel, which might seem a little off for a game about bandits and sheriffs, but it’s enjoyable nonetheless.

Wild West Gold: How does it play?

When it comes to the numbers, you can set your bets as low as 20 p/c or go all in at $/€100 per spin, which is standard for Pragmatic Play. The slot has been rated 5/5 for volatility, meaning it’s as wild as the west itself—high-risk, high-reward territory. The default RTP is a respectable 96.51%, although Pragmatic Play’s flexible RTP model means this number can be lower depending on the casino you’re playing at, so always check before spinning.

As for the gameplay, it’s simple and straightforward. Wild West Gold uses a 5-reel, 4-row grid with 40 paylines. Wins are triggered by landing three or more matching symbols from left to right, and with only a few features to get to grips with, it’s an easy game to dive into.

The symbols are split into three categories: low, medium, and high pays. The low-paying symbols are the usual Western-styled 10-A royals, while the mid-tier symbols include a gun in a holster and a bag of gold. For the high-pays, you’ve got your Western characters: a saloon girl wielding a stiletto blade (straight out of Dead or Alive 2), a lady gunslinger, a bearded baddie, and a no-nonsense sheriff. The sheriff is the highest-paying symbol, rewarding 20 times the stake for a line of five.

Wild West Gold: Slot Features

The feature set in Wild West Gold is pretty streamlined, with the Free Spins round being the main event. This is where most of the action happens and where players can expect the best shot at big wins. The Free Spins are triggered by landing 3 blazing sun scatter symbols, which can appear on reels 1, 3, and 5. When all three are in view, they award 8 free spins, setting the stage for some potential excitement.

During the Free Spins round, the wild symbols—which already carry multipliers—become sticky when they land on reels 2, 3, or 4. Once they stick, they remain in place for the rest of the round, significantly increasing the chances of landing winning combinations and, more importantly, multiplying those wins thanks to their x2, x3, or x5 multipliers.

Although the original scatter symbol doesn’t appear in the bonus round, other symbols (including wilds) can land with a small sheriff’s badge attached to them. When you collect 2, 3, 4, or 5 of these badges, you’re awarded extra free spins—4, 8, 12, or 20 additional spins, respectively. This retriggering mechanism can extend the bonus round, giving you even more opportunities to build up sticky wilds and multipliers for some hefty payouts.

There’s also a helpful little safety net built into the bonus round: if your total winnings from the free spins are less than 10x your stake, the game will automatically top up your balance to ensure you leave with at least a 10x win. While it’s not a game-changing amount, it’s nice to have that buffer to prevent completely dud bonus rounds.

Overall, while Wild West Gold might not be packed with features, its Free Spins round, with sticky wilds and retriggering potential, is where the real action happens. If you can stack those wild multipliers and keep the free spins coming, you could be in for a wild ride!

Wild West Gold: Slot Verdict

It’s true—Wild West Gold can feel like a game of two halves. For the most part, the base game is pretty uneventful, with a constant flow of dead or low-value spins that can lull you into a state of boredom. Patience is definitely required, as the slot often feels like a grind until those elusive scatters land.

For many players, it’s the kind of game you might leave on auto spin while you distract yourself with something else, waiting for that telltale chime signaling the arrival of the Free Spins round to shake things up.

Once the Free Spins round kicks in, however, the game transforms. The excitement ramps up thanks to the sticky multiplying wilds, a mechanic that’s been around for years but remains as thrilling as ever when those wilds lock in place and start boosting your wins. The issue is that this high-volatility game can really test your bankroll.

In short, Wild West Gold is a fun game with moments of intensity, but compared to Dead or Alive 2, it feels like an old, rusty revolver next to a modern-day sniper rifle. For players who love sticky wilds and are in the mood for a Western, it can still deliver some satisfying action—but it’s tough not to see it as a cheaper knock-off of the real deal.