Wanted Dead or a Wild review
Wanted Dead or a Wild is a Hacksaw Gaming western released on 29 September 2021. It matters in the studio’s history because it introduced DuelReels, a mechanic Hacksaw later carried into other slots. It also does something few games do: it offers three bonus rounds with genuinely different risk profiles.
The grid and Wilds
The reels form a 5×5 square crossed by 15 fixed paylines. A line pays when matching symbols land along it. The regular Wild can drop into any position and substitutes for paying symbols. Because the lines are fixed, every bet covers all of them and there is nothing to configure.
The square grid has a useful consequence. Every payline crosses all five reels, taking one cell on each. A reel that turns entirely wild therefore sits on all fifteen lines at once. That’s why an expanded VS matters so much: it doesn’t add one winning position, it substitutes on every line that runs through it.
VS symbols and DuelReels
The VS symbol is inert until it becomes part of a winning line. Then a short sequence plays out:
- VS expands to cover its whole reel, and the reel turns wild.
- Two gunslingers appear on that reel and face off.
- The winner’s multiplier applies to every win that passes through the reel.
- When several duel reels join the same win, their multipliers are added together.
One more detail. A duel reel’s multiplier applies only to wins passing through it. A line that forms without that reel in the same spin pays at its normal value. On a square grid most winning lines touch an expanded reel anyway, but not all do, for instance a short win that ends before reaching it.
Three different bonuses
Each round has its own trigger symbol, and three or more of that symbol start it.
The Great Train Robbery — Award: 10 free spins; Core mechanic: Every Wild that lands sticks until the round ends; Risk profile: The steadiest.
Duel at Dawn — Award: 10 free spins; Core mechanic: VS symbols land far more often, so several duel reels can appear at once; Risk profile: The spikiest; Hacksaw’s pick for reaching the cap.
Dead Man’s Hand — Award: Two phases; Core mechanic: Collect Wilds and multipliers, then a Showdown; Risk profile: Depends on the collection phase.
Without a buy, the trigger symbol that lands determines the round; there is no free choice between the three bonuses.
Sticky Wilds and duel reels
In The Great Train Robbery, every Wild stays in its position until the last spin and can take part in winning combinations repeatedly. An early Wild works for longer than a late one, including the spin on which it lands. Duel at Dawn brings VS symbols far more often; Hacksaw says the grid can fill with expanded duel reels. The studio calls this round the best opportunity to reach the maximum payout, which does not mean it returns the buy price more often.
Dead Man’s Hand: collection and Showdown
The third bonus isn’t a normal free spins round. In phase one, short respins collect Wilds and multipliers, and the respin counter resets whenever something is collected, so a good run keeps the collection going. Phase two is the Showdown: every collected Wild is placed on the grid each spin, and the accumulated multiplier applies to wins. The first phase decides almost everything. A thin collection leads to a quiet Showdown; a rich one makes it dangerous.
A bonus buy lets you enter any of the three rounds directly. Buy prices and their RTPs are absent from Hacksaw’s product page; the rules screen of whichever build you’re on shows them.
RTP settings and the payout limit
A casino can select one of four RTP settings: 96.38%, 94.55%, 92.33% or 88.42%. The rules of the particular build show the active percentage. Hacksaw rates volatility at 4 out of 5, high but below the top of its scale. The payout ceiling is 12,500x the stake.
Other westerns and Hacksaw games
Another western is Wild West Gold by Pragmatic Play. It has 40 lines, multiplier Wilds in the base game, sticky Wilds in free spins and a much lighter tone. Within Hacksaw’s own catalogue, Le Bandit is a completely different mood: a raccoon thief in Paris and medium volatility. The full list is on the Hacksaw Gaming page.
Wild West Gold — Studio, year: Pragmatic Play, 2020; RTP: 96.51%; Volatility: High; Max win: 10,000x.
Dead or Alive 2 — Studio, year: NetEnt, 2019; RTP: 96.80%; Volatility: Very high; Max win: 111,111x.
The closest rival in spirit is Dead or Alive 2 from NetEnt, another western that lets you pick between three free spins modes of different risk, with an even higher ceiling. Our comparison of the two NetEnt westerns covers how it differs from the first game.
