Hotline 2

Theme and Design

Re-Creating That 80s Crime Show Atmosphere Again

Let’s be honest, one of the biggest reasons to play Hotline 1 or 2 is the production. It’s all about atmosphere and NetEnt have done a fantastic job of creating that 80s feel, thanks in large part to a soundtrack that could have come from any one of a number of movies from that era. There’s also a cracking pink sunset with palm trees and glittering ocean to enjoy in the background, whilst on the paytable a story of glamour and crime with stylish cops and villains unfolds. Watch out as well for the moment when the Hotline area activates and full reels displays a little car chase video!

Hotline 2 - inspired by 80s crime movies and TV shows

RTP and Variance

Hotline 2 from NetEnt has an RTP of 96.05%. This is lower than the original game which has an RTP of 97.04% but it’s still a decent return for an online slot these days. The variance is medium, so you don’t have to be a thrill rider to want to play, the distribution of wins will be relatively even, but you should still choose your stake carefully.

Maximum Win

One of the few disappointing parts of Hotline 2 is the maximum win which sits at 5,184x. As a medium variance slot from 2020 that isn’t bad, and it’s certainly more than you could get from the original Hotline (2,800x) but it feels a little underwhelming compared to most modern slots.

Symbols and Paytable

Hotline 2 plays on 5 reels, each with 3 rows. It uses a win ways system which means there are no pre-defined paylines. Instead, wins are triggered by landing identical symbols on any row on adjacent reels from left to right, starting at the left most reel. In the base game that gives you 243 win ways (3x3x3x3x3). However, in the free spins round where expanding reels come into play, the number of win ways can increase to 1,944.

There are 10 symbols in the table. There are 6 pieces of sparkling jewellery in green, blue, purple, orange, red, and pink. These are valued at from 0.03x for 3 up to 0.83x for 5 on a line. The high paying symbols are detectives Quinn and Riviera and their mic-ed up friend, and jewel thief Kitty Weiss. Kitty is the highest paying symbol, rewarding you with up to 2.66x your bet for 5 of a kind.

If you are a fan of the first Hotline you will notice the paytable values here are much lower than in its predecessor, where 5 Kitties could net you 200x your bet.

Features and Gameplay

Hotline 2 keeps things simple with the features. It’s all about wilds expanding in the Hotline zone and the expanded reel set in the free spins round which brings up more win lines.

Wilds And The Hotlines

The Hotlines in the game are reels 2, 3 and 4, and they are surrounded by glowing gold lines. Wild symbols, which sub for any pay symbol to complete a win way, can ONLY land on these reels.

In the base game, when a Wild lands on a Hotline it will expand to full reel height if by doing so it completes a win way.

There is also a random Hotline Feature that triggers in either base game or free spins round. When it does, the game turns to night-time mode and Stacked Wilds appear on some or all of the middle three reels.

The random Hotline feature shown in this screenshot is an exciting part of the game and showed up a lot in our test spins. When it turns ALL THREE reels into wilds you have a chance to turn the entire screen into one of the same symbol!

Free Spins With Expanded Reels 

Things move up a gear in the free spins round. This is triggered by landing 3 or more flamingo scatters on middle 3 reels at once.

That gets you 7 spins.

Now, when a Wild lands in the Hotline zone, not only does it expand to full reel height, it also adds one more row to the reel, up to a maximum of 6 rows high. At this point, if all three middle reels have a height of 6 rows, the number of win ways increases from 243 to 1,944.