Highlander

Leave it to Microgaming to turn grand into grandeur. Legendary game developing house has had quite a string of important titles in the past and will continue to do so in future. Late 2017 saw the release of another video slot game with 243 paylines and a 3x5 grid that traces our way back 30 years, to the era of over-the-top action blockbusters when scenario and fable meant a lot more than just mere visual effects.

Theme

Do you remember the 1986 hit movie Highlander? Well, this is the slot homage to it called, er, Highlander. A direct descendant and a spiritual heir to the legendary movie that spun four sequels have all the necessary 1980s ingredients: the instrumental electric guitar and synth-based soundtrack, and main members of the original movie's cast on the reel symbols, including the mythical Scottish immortal, Connor McLeod. Since the gist of the movie is based in Scottish Highlands or New York City, this is where the slot is taking as well – main game's backdrops are a sweeping overview of vast lands and mountains of Britain's northernmost country. But, triggering the extra spins mode, you are transported to the gritty skyline of Big Apple. Even the music changes from relatively tame to more energetic, riff-heavy thundering serving well this stormy and action paced portion of the game.
Low-end symbols is the ordinary collection of A, J, K, Q and 10.Highlander's sword is the Wild which substitutes all symbols while the decorated amulet is the scatter symbol – scatter wins are multiplied by total bet staked and will pay in any position, and if you land exactly two of them, they will turn wild in main game. Whenever a winning streak of three of more of the same symbols is struck in the game, the symbols with actors become animated and show a cinematic cutaway from the movie.

Betting Options and Functions

Betting options can be adjusted in the player's dash at the bottom of the screen. Coin size can be set from 0.01 to 0.05. Betting can be set from $0.40 per spin to $30 max. Payline wins are multiplied by coins bet. Wins are awarded for the left to right adjacent symbol combinations. You can win up to $102,500 in this game. Autoplay option allows for setting the automatic spins – the max amount of these is 100. The menu icon on the left lets you see game info such as payline facts, value of each symbol and basic rundown on special features.

Features

Landing at least three scatter symbols will trigger the extra spin mode with 10 extra spins. There is also the quickening Wild symbol that appears during the extra spins mode as well – a lightning will strike a random reel (or reels) during the spin and turn them to Wilds, prompting bigger wins.

Our Take

With not a lot going on in the extra features department and with visuals that are decent but not mindblowing, Highlander feels like a borderline let-down. It's not a poor game per se, but it just feels as if it's not rewarding enough. Extra spins round can be fruitful and so can the game itself with its 243 paylines. The final outcome is quite true to the original feel and atmosphere of the movie, so in that regards this can be regarded a success.