Smoking Gun

Many of us are fans of Sergio Leone's Spaghetti Westerns starring a young Clint Eastwood as a young, heroic gunfighter out to right a few wrongs in the lawless old west.

Fast forward in time to the present day and we now have slot games based in that era and also seemingly based on that Spaghetti Western-styled theme. The latest is Rival Gaming's newest release Smoking Gun, a rather pretty-looking slot which has five reels in play and a total of 50 selectable pay lines available.

Is this a slot game that will shoot you down in flames, or will it be one where the bullet hits the bullseye of delight? Let's take a closer look and find out.

Overview

• Game: Smoking Gun
• Developer: Rival Gaming
• Reels: 5
• Pay Lines: 50 (selectable)
• Minimum Bet: 0.01
• Maximum Bet: 125.00
• Jackpot: 2,000 coins
• Free Spins Bonus: Yes
• Other Bonuses: No
• Progressive: No
• Volatility: Low to Medium

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Presentation

The presentation of the Smoking Gun slot is very nicely done. The backdrop to the slot of sunset in a western town is very nicely realized and the colors are the perfect backdrop for a western-themed slot. The symbols are all somewhat generic of the theme but fit it nicely and what is especially nice is the sound, which boasts a rather mournful western-stylized soundtrack with the addition of some extra sound effects thrown in when you land certain combinations on the reels.

What's on the reels?

There are a number of different symbols on the Smoking Gun slot. The lower value symbols are the branding irons and these are designed as the four card suits, clubs, spade, diamond and hearts. The more middle range symbols are the guns, the lady, the horse shoe and the cigar-chewing bad guy.

There are also five higher value symbols on the reels including the sheriff's badge, the cowboy hat and the highest value symbol on the reels of a bottle of scotch. This offers the largest win in the game on a single line of 2,000 coins if you can land five across the reels.

A word of warning though, many of the pays for three and even four symbol lines will pay out considerably less than your original bet and considering these wins make up the majority, that means that the Smoking Gun slot can quickly become very expensive to play unless you can hit a bigger value win somewhere among your spins.

Wild features

The main Wild symbol in the game is the Sheriff symbol and this is an Expanding Wild. It will expand on the reels whenever it is landed and there can be a win created by the symbol expanding across. If no win can be created, then the symbol will not expand.

This is one of the most important symbols in the base game as it is responsible for the vast majority of those rare but very important better value wins in the base game, and they often come when you land two or more of these Expanding Wilds across the reels on a particular spin, especially when they appear somewhere on the first three reels.

Free Spins features

The main bonus feature on the slot is the Oust the Outlaw Free Spins bonus, which is triggered when you land three or more of the Free Spins Scatters anywhere across the reels. In this bonus, you can select from three different games to play, each of which promises you the following.

10 Free Spins with Exploding Sticky Wild - In this bonus, an additional Sticky Wild symbol is added to the reels and during your bonus, any time you land one on screen and trigger a win, you will earn a re-spin of the reels. The Sticky Wild will remain in place for subsequent spins (but won't trigger further re-spins). However, if you land another Sticky Wild, that will trigger a re-spin and this continues until all your Free Spins plus any re-spins you earn, are played through.

10 Free Spins with Ricochet Drop Icons - Land three or more of the Drop Icons on screen on any of your Free Spins and you trigger the Drop feature, which will see these icons disappear and be replaced with symbols from above to potentially create additional wins from the same spin.

10 Free Spins with Galloping Expanding Wilds - With the Galloping Expanding Wild on the reels, this symbol will expand to cover the entire reel whenever it is possible to make a new win in addition to any other wins on the reels.

Of the three bonuses, I personally prefer the Sticky Wild bonus as you tend to get more consistent pay outs using this bonus than the others, although the other two bonuses can see you land some sizeable wins too.

Other bonus features

Other than the features listed above, there are no other additional bonus features on the Smoking Gun slot.

Best feature of the Smoking Gun slot

The presentation of the Smoking Gun slot is very nicely done and the different bonuses available in the Free Spins bonus round, where you get to pick from three options, is a very nice touch and that bonus feature can result in some big value wins. The Expanding Wild is your best option in the base game for some of the better value wins, especially when you can land more than one of these symbols across the reels, but especially the first two reels.

What does the Smoking Gun slot lack?

The one thing that the Smoking Gun slot lacks is decent and fair payouts. I don't feel like any slot player feels they get good value for money when the majority of 'wins' you land are less than 50% of what you bet on the spin in the first place. As a result, this does see your balance dwindle away quickly and you soon become disillusioned with the game, especially when it is so tricky to land the Free Spins bonus too.

Conclusion

I started playing the Smoking Gun slot and initially I was impressed. You seemed to win a lot of the time, the game had some nice flourishes added to it when you won and it can be played at a nice pace. However, a quick inspection of your balance reveals that all those wins you land, the vast majority of them are smaller than your bet and in many cases are around 10% of your standard stake. That is hugely punitive and in truth, I'd have rather had fewer but better value wins on offer. This is a real shame as it detracts massively from what could otherwise be a decent slot.

Ratings

• Presentation: 14 / 20 - The Smoking Gun slot has been presented very nicely by Rival Gaming, but it is fair to say that in technological terms, it doesn't really smash through any barriers. The five reels are superimposed over an old western themed backdrop with a glorious sunset and the musical accompaniment to the game is very nicely done. The cartoon-style symbols are somewhat derivative but different enough to other similar themed slots as to make Smoking Gun stand out. All in all, it's a lovely looking and sounding slot, but there's nothing that makes you say 'wow' when you are playing.
• Game-play: 13 / 20 - The game play on the Smoking Gun slot is enjoyable enough and the fact that you win relatively frequently, albeit the vast majority of wins are generally smaller than your total bet, is still nice. The problem is that even if you win a lot, often you don\t win very much at all, sometimes a tenth of your bet and that means you do think you are doing better on the slot than you actually are. There are some nice touches in the game as you play, the sound effects for each character are nice as are the glowing branding irons for the lower value symbols, but those low value wins do get a little frustrating after a while.
• Bonus Features: 12 / 20 - The Expanding Wild in the main game is a nice touch, even if the Sheriff does look a little gruff to be brutally honest and this is the best way to land some of the better value wins in the base game. The Free Spins bonus rounds are a nice way to play and it is good that you can select which of the three games you want to try. Bigger wins are possible in these rounds, although it can be time consuming and often expensive to trigger the bonus in a session as they don't tend to land very often. You do tend to hit an awful lot of two Scatter spins, which also adds to the frustration levels.
• Entertainment Factor: 10 / 20 - I started off very positively playing the Smoking Gun slot and I felt that the game was great, until I checked my balance and noted that it was still dropping relatively quickly even though I was winning on seemingly every other spin. This is a huge problem as any game which just eats through your bankroll in such a way, especially when it appears as if you are winning, is never going to be the most entertaining to play. The bonus features are worth persevering for at times, but even these can be a little hit and miss too.
• Play Value: 7 / 20 - This for me is where the Smoking Gun slot just falls off a cliff. It bugs me that you can win a cash prize of a tenth of your total bet. That isn't a prize, nor a win, you are losing 90% of the money you wagered. I understand that this has to happen on slots, but the sheer number of these wins in this game just make it become a drag to play after time and you feel that even if you win on successive spins, you will just see your bankroll dwindle away anyway. You can hit some bigger value wins, but these are not guaranteed and if you don't then this slot isn't the most rewarding to play, especially for higher rollers.
• Overall 56 / 100 - Smoking Gun has some nice touches for a game, but it is stymied by the fact it is such a punitive game on your balance. The number of low value wins on the slot is a real disappointment, especially with some of them paying out less than a tenth of your bet. Bigger wins are possible of course, but they can take a while to come and the Free Spins bonuses, while fun to play, can take an age to trigger in the base game. This is a pity as in other ways, this is a well-executed slot and nicely presented, but it just falls short in the key area of making players feel like they have a chance of winning some cash.

Good Luck!

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