Archangels Salvation Slot: Overview

Built around the timeless battle of good versus evil, Archangels: Salvation is a 6-reel, 12-row video slot featuring free spins, wild substitutions, and 2 wild features. It runs on 100 paylines (fixed) and can be played with stakes from €0.40 to €200.

Two full-reel symbols appear in the game—the Archangel and the demon. They’re also the top-paying icons, awarding 150 coins for 5 of a kind. The rest of the symbol set includes diamonds, hearts, spades, clubs, skulls, lions, hoods, and helmets. The wild symbol is a 2×2 block. Stacked wilds and the single wild symbol only show up during the Heaven and Hell features. All wilds substitute for every symbol except the scatter.

Archangels Salvation: Features

The game contains 2 separate hot spot areas. The first is made up of the top 2 rows of the play area, while the second is made up of the bottom 2 rows.  Each zone has its own wild feature: the top hot spot triggers the Heaven feature, and the bottom hot spot triggers the Hell feature.

When the 2×2 Wild lands so that any part of it touches a hot spot area, the corresponding wild feature is triggered. The Wild feature triggers for each reel position covered by the 2×2 Wild. For instance, if the 2×2 Wild lands entirely inside the hot spot ear, the feature activates 4 times.

The feature may trigger again if either a stack of Wild symbols (or part of it) or a singleton Wild symbol lands in the hot spot area again. For every Wild symbol in the hot spot area, either 1 stack of Wild symbols or 4 singleton Wild symbols are produced.

The same feature cannot trigger 2 times consecutively, and only 1 feature can run at any given time. In addition, only 2 types of Wild symbols can be on the reels during the features. The features finish when either no additional Wild symbols land in the hot spot areas or when the Wild symbol has no free spaces left to land on the reels.

• Heaven feature: The Heaven feature triggers when a 2×2 Wild symbol lands fully or partially in the top hot spot area. If the 2×2 Wild lands partially, 2 stacks of Wild symbols are created. If it lands fully, 4 stacks of Wilds are created. The lenght of the wilds ranges from 3 to 5 symbols.
• Hell feature: The hell feature triggers when a 2×2 Wild symbol lands fully or partially in the bottom hot spot area. When this occurs, the hell area begins firing singleton Wilds that land at random on the reels. Singleton Wilds cannot land on top of Scatter and other Wild symbols, nor in the bottom hot spot area.

The main attraction is the free spins round, triggered when 3 or more stacked scatter symbols land anywhere on the reels. Scatter symbols are 2-stacked, meaning they take up 2 reel positions—3, 4, 5 and 6 Scatter symbols award 10, 15, 20 and 24 free spins respectively. During free spins, both hot spot areas expand to 3 rows. The free spins game cannot be re-triggered.

Archangels Salvation: Verdict

When it comes to potential, there isn’t much to celebrate, with a max win of 375x for a full screen of the top symbol. So what can we really say? After seeing NetEnt’s recent output, expectations weren’t exactly high. Sadly, this ends up being yet another letdown from the once-dominant Swedish game provider.

The base game offers little to keep things engaging, and neither the Archangel nor the demon seems capable of placing wilds effectively. Even when the wilds occasionally fall the way you’d hope, the returns aren’t anything worth talking about. We get that it’s designed as a low variance game, but online gambling has progressed and modern players want a real chance at big hits. With so little upside, it’s hard to see the point. This is a gambling “machine” after all, not a video game. Its one real advantage is that it can (certainly not guaranteed) serve as a decent wagering option.

On top of that, the free spins feature feels far too close to the base game. The bonus round would have benefited from having more of its own identity. On our first try, it was difficult to notice much difference, aside from the 2×2 wild symbol seemingly landing more often. Overall, it comes across as dated, sluggish, uninspired, and underpowered, and we don’t see a strong reason to play it. Sorry NetEnt, but you need to hear it—and we know you can do better.