Remember Gulag: Slot Overview
Hey players, you know how people have mental filters that
govern thoughts from forming into words, depending 🍊 on their internal guidance system?
These filters appear in other walks of life, too, one being online slots, where not
🍊 every cockamamie idea makes it from the whiteboard to casino lobbies. Like people,
software providers have varying degrees of filtration, 🍊 and one studio's filter, which
is arguably less vigorous than most, is none other than Nolimit City. This is a 🍊 team
that isn't afraid to power walk through territory most others are afraid to tread. If
you're after a prime 🍊 example, look no further than the Soviet era-inspired online slot,
Remember Gulag.
Yes, the Gulag, the system of labour camps that 🍊 existed in the Soviet
Union in the 30s, 40s, and 50s, which for many were a one-way ticket. This is 🍊 deep and
heavy stuff from a studio famous for making deep and heavy slots. Yet, a deeper point
is being 🍊 made here, too. As the home screen says: 'Those that fail to learn from
history are doomed to repeat it', 🍊 a quote paraphrased from philosopher George
Santayana. Interestingly, Karl Marx also famously said, 'History repeats itself, first
as tragedy, second 🍊 as farce.' Is an online slot going to stop tragedy or farce? We'll
let pundits argue that one out. On 🍊 a tangible level, Nolimit City has chosen to use
Remember Gulag as a historical reminder and plans to donate a 🍊 portion of the game's
profits to Humanitarian Assistance. So, while Nolimit is no stranger to doom-laden
slots, this is one 🍊 with a potential silver lining.
Visually, Remember Gulag certainly
looks pretty doom-laden. It's presented as an old black and white show, 🍊 the screen
largely monochrome aside from some muted colour on its symbols. Barbed wire surrounds
the 6-reel game grid, laid 🍊 out in a 3-3-4-4-5-5 formation, while the national anthem
blasts across the airwaves. The more you think about the theme, 🍊 the more mind-blowing
it becomes, a puzzle with countless how's and whys that are tough, if not impossible,
to be 🍊 fully grasped by the mind.
Plodding thoughtfully on, we come to the game's inner
workings. Here we find comfort in the 🍊 emotionlessness of numbers, such as RTP, which is
either 96.08% or 94.37% when playing naturally. Winning ways consist of at 🍊 least 3
matching symbols and have a hit rate of 22.56%, whereas the bonus game hit rate is 1 in
🍊 211 spins. As expected, the volatility is cranked to high, whilst allowing players to
place regular bets of 20 p/c 🍊 toR$/€100 or engage the Propaganda Bet, which increases
the cost by 20%. In return, it guarantees a scatter on reel 🍊 2, thereby unlocking reel
5. Or, as Nolimit City puts it, you get a 'more brutal, but less awarding base 🍊 game and
increase the probability of triggering Gulag Spins.' In any other arena, Nolimit City
might be accused of being 🍊 bad salespeople, yet this is sure to be music to their ears
for certain hardcore gamblers.
Popping over to the paytable, 🍊 we find Cyrillic style
10-A royals as the lower value symbols, worth 2 to 3 times the stake for a 🍊 six of a
kind win. Moving on up to the highs are five-character symbols, including a saluting
beer, Joseph Stalin, 🍊 and someone who looks like Toht from Raiders of the Lost Ark.
Landing a winning way of premiums gets you 🍊 a payout of 4 to 6 times the stake.
Remember
Gulag: Slot Features
Remember Gulag serves a banquet of features, including xWays,
🍊 xNudge Wilds, xSplit Wilds, three types of Gulag Spins, and the Nolimit City bonus
menu. The first thing to know 🍊 is at the start of each base game spin, reels 5 and 6 are
locked. Landing 1 scatter unlocks reel 🍊 5, while an additional scatter unlocks reel 6.
When all reels are opened, it is possible to have up to 🍊 614,656 ways to win in
play.
xWays
These land on reels 1-2 in the main game and reels 5-6 in free spins. 🍊 When
xWays hit, they reveal 2-3 instances of a random pay symbol – if more than one xWays
hit, they 🍊 all show the same symbol. If xWays are split by an xSplit Wild, the xWays
multiplier is doubled.
xNudge Wild
These symbols 🍊 land on reels 3-4 in the base or bonus
game. They create a stacked wild symbol that is always nudged 🍊 to cover the full reel.
Each nudge increases the wild multiplier by +1. When more than one xNudge Wild
multiplier 🍊 is in view, their values are added together, and if split by an xSplit, one
more wild is added to 🍊 the reel.
xSplit Wilds
Normal wilds can land on all reels, but
xSplit Wilds appear on reels 5-6 in the base game, 🍊 reels 1-2 in the bonus. When xSplits
land, they split all symbols to the left or right, doubling them. If 🍊 the split happens
more than once, the symbol shows a multiplier. Also, if scatters do not trigger free
spins and 🍊 an xSplit hits them, they are transformed into a full reel of wilds. xSplit
Wilds turn into two wilds after 🍊 landing, and they, in turn, can be split by other
xSplit Wilds.
Free Spins
Entering the bonus round occurs when 3, 4 🍊 or 5 scatter symbols
land to trigger Gulag Spins, Gulag Spins: All Aboard, or Gulag Spins: Double Vodka,
respectively. In 🍊 all cases, the grid is flipped into a 5-5-4-4-3-3 pattern, and all
reels are unlocked for the full duration.
Before the 🍊 round begins, a set-up spin takes
place to determine how many spins players are awarded, and what win multiplier the 🍊 four
top premium symbols get. In Gulag Spins, only one premium symbol gets a multiplier; in
the other two bonuses, 🍊 all symbols get a multiplier. Multipliers are doubled in Gulag
Spins: Double Vodka. During free spins, a reel along the 🍊 top of the grid can randomly
increase the active premium symbols' multipliers:
Gulag Spins – randomly increases the
multiplier by +1, 🍊 +2, or double the value.
– randomly increases the multiplier by +1,
+2, or double the value. Gulag Spins: Double Vodka 🍊 – randomly increases the multiplier
by +2, +4, or double the value.
– randomly increases the multiplier by +2, +4, or
🍊 double the value. Players can also collect scatter symbols during the bonus. Each
scatter awards +1 free spin, and every 🍊 3 collected upgrades the bonus round to the next
highest mode.
Nolimit Bonus
If the option is there, players can pick from 🍊 four bonus
buys. Gulag Spins cost 78x the bet (RTP 96.56%), Gulag Spins: All Aboard costs 270x the
bet (RTP 🍊 96.82%), Gulag Spins: Double Vodka are 486x the bet (RTP 96.94%), or the
fourth is a lucky dip option costing 🍊 198x the bet where you are given one of the
previous three options (RTP 96.83%).
Remember Gulag: Slot Verdict
Remember Gulag is 🍊 a
game that starts heavy and, well, pretty much gets heavier the deeper you go. There is
no denying the 🍊 entertainment value to be found from a strictly gaming point of view,
but Nolimit City has done something else too. 🍊 Whatever your thoughts on the game are,
and they are bound to be as wide as they are numerous, what's 🍊 inescapable is the
maturation of the slot industry, thanks in part to software providers like Nolimit
City. How would one 🍊 go about classing Remember Gulag? Historical, political,
philosophical, a signpost reminder of man's inhumanity to man, an act of charity? 🍊 You
could say it is all of these things and more, so we wait with bated breath to see how
🍊 the enterprise is received by the gambling community at large.
Setting the immense
emotional baggage caused by the theme aside for 🍊 a moment, let's look at how Remember
Gulag plays out. The gaming side of things is a lot less controversial 🍊 and consists of
many Nolimit City darlings such as xWays, xNudges, and xSplits, which can be shockingly
effective when the 🍊 right symbols are split, wayed, or nudged. Factor in a staggering
number of possible ways, and when the full load 🍊 is let loose, a single spin can turn a
session on its head. True, you could say that about any 🍊 game, but there is something
unique about the way it happens in a Nolimit City slot. Remember Gulag is no
🍊 different.
And yet, it is a little different, at least during the bonus round, which
isn't as maniacal as they can 🍊 be from Nolimit City. Each reel spins at a fairly relaxed
pace, you can see the symbols land one by 🍊 one, and there's time to mentally line
everything up. To use an extreme comparison, Remember Gulag is not like Mental, 🍊 where
the bonus round action is so frenzied it's hard to tell what just happened at times. In
Remember Gulag, 🍊 you've got time to eyeball symbols as reels stop spinning, weigh up
multipliers, contemplate Marx's words on the power struggle 🍊 between the bourgeoisie and
the proletariat, and still have time to work out if you've won something. Sort of.
Anyway, 🍊 come out on top, and you're looking at wins of up to 30,000x the bet – or
achieve 'Oligarch Status', 🍊 as the game calls it. Seriously, Nolimit certainly live up
to their name.
We've probably said this before, but there are 🍊 few, if any, studios that
would have the brass nads to pull off a game like Remember Gulag. Some might 🍊 see
Remember Gulag as insensitive, a little too soon, and from a gaming perspective, it's
not quite the red-hot poker 🍊 of fiery delights as they can be. However, when viewed in
its totality, Remember Gulag is utterly unique and as 🍊 courageous (or foolhardy?) as
anything the studio has done.
