Release The Kraken 2

Release The Kraken 2 Slot Review

Slot Provider: Pragmatic Play

RTP: 96.5% | Variance: High | Maximum Win: 5,000x

Our Score: 8.0

Play at MrQ
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About Release The Kraken 2

Reviewed by:

Published Date: 5th October 2022

How We Review Slot Games

We test and rate all slot games across 5 criteria, assigning a score out of 10 for each and an overall score that is an average of the 5. To build an accurate assessment of each game we gather information from the supplier and play in real play or demo mode. Find out more.

Pragmatic Play re-worked their deep-sea adventure, Release the Kraken, in November 2022. In this 5 reel, 20 payline sequel the game retains its cartoon artwork and cheerful sub aqua characters as well as its high variance maths model. It comes loaded with interesting features including Shifting Stacked Wilds and a Free Spins round with extra paylines, sticky wilds and multipliers.

Release The Kraken 2 Game Information

  • Release Date: November 2022
  • RTP: 96.5%, 95.5% or 94.5%%
  • Variance: High
  • Maximum Win: 5,000x
  • Progressive Jackpot: No
  • Reels: 5
  • Rows: 4
  • Paylines: 20 to 40
  • Minimum Stake: £0.20
  • Theme: Action and Adventure
  • Features: Sticky Wilds with Re-Spins, Nudging Wild Stacks, Free Spins with Progressive Multipliers

What We Liked

  • Fun and light-hearted theme and design
  • Stacked Wilds come with multipliers
  • Deal or No Deal style free spins round
  • Wilds remain on reels for re-spins

What We Didn't like

  • Lower top payout than original
  • Variable RTP - check your casino

Release The Kraken 2 Review Scores

  • Theme and Design 9
  • RTP and Variance 8
  • Maximum Win 6
  • Symbols and Paytable 8
  • Features and Gameplay 9

What Our Reviewer Says ...

"A charming deep sea slot with lots of compelling features and interesting ways to boost your wins."

Overall Score: 8.0

Theme & Design

Our Score 9

Release The Kraken 2 takes you to the bottom of the ocean but it’s not down to the murky depths, rather into sun-dappled sandy sea beds with turquoise water, colourful coral and bubbling rock pools. And it makes sense. After all this Kraken doesn’t seem to be the worst kind of sea monster, and his cheeky friends look like their enjoying the show too. Meanwhile, in the background an epic sea-odyssey tune to keep us company. There is also a lot of nice animation on the reels when you land a win – snapping sharks and zapping electric eels.

Light-hearted and cheerful feel seems to be the chord Pragmatic are striking and they do it well.

RTP and Variance

Our Score 8

What is RTP?

RTP (Return to Player) refers to the amount a game will pay out in cash prizes expressed as a percentage of all the money wagered on that game. For example, a 96% RTP means a game will pay out £96 for every £100 wagered. This is an average number and will vary from one session to the next.  Read more here.

What is Variance?

Variance refers to how far a game will deviate from its RTP over time. High variance games deviate a lot and produce uneven win distributions and unexpected windfalls. Low variance games provide a more stable and even distribution of wins. Read more here.

Release the Kraken 2 has three possible RTP values: 96.5%, 95.5% or 94.5%. Most UK slot sites will run at one of the two lower values. We verified the RTP at four popular sites. This is what we found:

  • MrQ (independent): 96.03%
  • Casumo (independent): 96.03%
  • BacanaPlay (Skill on Net): 93.98%
  • Slot Nite (White Hat Gaming): 93.98%

For the best return on your wagering we therefore recommend you play at Casumo or MrQ.

This is also a very volatile slot – rated as a 5/5 by Pragmatic Play themselves. So expect a rough ride, but with all those multipliers potentially in play in the bonus round, there could be some epic win sequences on rare occasions.

Maximum Win

Our Score 6

What Is Maximum Win?

Maximum win refers to the maximum amount a player can win from one spin. It is expressed as a multiple of the stake. For example, where the maximum win is 100,000x, from a £1 stake, the maximum win would be £100,000.  

The maximum win in Release the Kraken 2 is 5,000x.  This is lower than the original game which offered 10,000x potential. However, it is not uncommon for high variance slots from Pragmatic Play to have wins capped at 5,000x. You can find a variety of games with similar maths model listed in the table below.

Explore Games With Similar RTP, Variance and Maximum Win

Like the numbers? Here are some more games you might want to try.

Slot SiteSupplierRTPVarianceTop Payout
Diamond SandsJust For The Win96.08%High5,000xPlay Here
Panda’s Fortune 2Pragmatic Play96.51%High5,000xPlay Here
Hot FiestaPragmatic Play96.56%High5,000xPlay Here
Valley of the Gods 2Yggdrasil Gaming96.3%High6,423xPlay Here
Reactoonz 2Play n Go96.2%High5,083xPlay Here

Symbols and Paytable

Our Score 8

Release the Kraken 2 is a simple 5 reel slot with 4 rows and 20 active paylines. Interestingly, this increases to 40 paylines if you can unlock the bonus round, suggesting much of the payout power may be reserved for this event.

Release the Kraken 2 Paytable
Release the Kraken 2 has good value at the top of the paytable at 10x for 5 sharks

Landing wins is straight forward. It’s just three or more identical symbols across the paylines from left to right.

And it appears to be a generous slot.

Low value symbols are the cards, 10 through to Ace but even at the low end these still give you a 1x for 5 10s on a line. Whilst five Aces will get you a 2x payout. The premiums are sea creatures including a cheeky shark, a couple of weird-looking deep-sea fish, and a serpent. At the top end the shark pays out a big 10x for 5 on a line.

There is also the Kraken Wild, who both subs in to complete winlines and pays out 0.5x and 20x for between 3 and 5 on a line.

Features and Gameplay

Our Score 9

Release the Kraken 2 rattles along at a fast pace. Despite its high variance there are enough features to keep things interesting even when the payouts aren’t landing your way.

When you start spinning look out for the Kraken Wilds. We never landed 3 or more in a payline but they did come in handy to complete lines with some of the high value symbols from the paytable.

But importantly, they also come as stacks in a feature called Shifting Stacked Wilds which is basically Nolimit City’s xNudges with a big octopus.

Before the Shifting Stacked Wild arrives you’ll know it’s coming as a warning flashes up on the screen. Then, after your spin you’ll see part or all of the stack showing. It nudges into place, and with each nudge it increases a win multiplier value by 1x. You can land up to 3 at a time on reels 2, 3 and 4. In this case their multipliers are added together before being applied to your win.  We landed two on reels 2 and 3 and earned a £13.57 win from 20p which you can see in this shot.

Shifting Wilds Win
Release the Kraken 2 Shifting Staked Wilds Win

Once during our session we also encountered the Guaranteed Win feature. This only happens rarely on non-winning spins. The Kraken shuffles across your screen and re-arranges the symbols to form a win of 20x to 50x. It is apparently possible to get handed 3 scatters this way too to open up the free spins round.

Another feature that proved elusive was the Wild Re-Spins. You need to land four or more wilds on the reels on one spin to unlock this. In this case, each wild stays on the reels but moves to a new position before the re-spin. If more wilds land then another re-spin will take place. This continues until no more wilds land.

The quality of a Wild Re-Spins feature really depends on how many you get and how lucky you get with the re-spin. However, with at least four in play this has potential to drive some nice wins even in the base game.

The highlight of any session is likely to be the Free Spins round where you get 40 paylines, sticky wilds and a new Golden Wild which adds a 1x multiplier each time it lands.

This bonus has quite a complex triggering system that reads like something out of Deal or No Deal. The number of free spins and the value or your multiplier in the free spins round are determined by a special game in which you must pick boxes and accept or reject what is offered when they are opened.

Release the Kraken 2 Slot Free Spins
Release the Kraken 2 Slot Free Spins Pick

The possible contents of the boxes depends on how many scatters landed to trigger the round. Here is what you can get:

  • 3 scatters = between 4 and 15 free spins with a multiplier of up to 6x
  • 4 scatters = between 5 and 20 free spins with a multiplier of up to 10x
  • 5 scatters = between 6 and 20 free spins with a multiplier of up to 10x

You’ll have a choice of 16 boxes each containing one configuration of free spins and multipliers. Just like the gameshow, you must pick one box and then choose to accept or reject based on its contents. If you reject, some boxes are removed and you choose again. This process repeats until you choose a box.

In our case we chose to accept the first offer we had which proved to be a mistake as we only got 6 spins and a 1x multiplier! Even with 40 paylines this resulted in just a 96p win! Sometimes it pays to take a gamble! You can see the stages of the round in these screenshots.

Release the Kraken Free Spins
Electing for your first deal doesn’t always pay! Just 6 spins and 1x multiplier

Nevertheless it was a fun feature and the added a level of jeopardy and self-determination to an event that is normally at the mercy of the game engine.

The Final Verdict

Pragmatic Play have retained the fun, friendly atmosphere of the original Release the Kraken game whilst upgrading the features across the board to something more sophisticated and modern. In particular, the Shifting Nudging Wilds was fun to play, not least because it gave us our best win. And the Deal or No Deal free spins chooser adds jeopardy and thrills which weren’t there before. If you can live with the lower maximum win then this is an excellent sequel and a top slot in its own right.

Who Made Release The Kraken 2?

  • Name: Pragmatic Play
  • Established: 2015
  • UK License: Remote 046683-R-325951-014
  • Total Games: 500 +
  • Known For: Wide range of themes and styles, live casino including gameshow formats, and bingo
  • Popular Slots: Fruit Party, Dog House Megaways, Big Bass Bonanza, Release the Kraken
Find More Pragmatic Play slots

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