Golden Haul Infinity Reels: Slot Overview

Having experimented with something different on their debut Jaguar SuperWays, developer Bad Dingo has, for game number two, licensed ReelPlay’s Infinity Reels mechanic. Built on Relax Gaming’s Silverbullet platform, the finished slot Golden Haul Infinity Reels ends up underwhelming on several fronts. The earlier sense of invention has been swapped for familiar Infinity Reels action, under-par stats, a light feature set, and not much reason to keep coming back.

To be fair, Golden Haul Infinity Reels is presentable. It’s the first Infinity Reels title to lean into a gold mining theme, and considering how common this setting is in slots, it was only a matter of time. The action starts on a 3 column, 4-row Infinity Reels grid, which slides across the backdrop as extra reels appear. Bad Dingo does a solid job of selling the dusty desert scene with decent visuals and a lively, banjo-driven soundtrack. Unfortunately, the rest of the package doesn’t match that effort.

With stakes from 30 p/c to $/€60 per spin across mobile, tablet, and desktop, the numbers aren’t exactly Golden Haul Infinity Reels’ strong suit, although the RTP isn’t dreadful at 95.10%. A medium volatile model keeps things fairly even, while the upside is oddly limited to 1,541 times your stake. For a game that can, in theory, keep stacking reels, you’d normally expect a much higher ceiling.

Symbol-wise, the paytable contains 10 standard icons: low-paying card suits, plus mid-tier moonshine bottles, lanterns, picks/shovels, and bundles of dynamites. Two additional tiles act as the premium symbols – a bag of nuggets and a bearded prospector. Wins require at least five of a kind, with wilds helping out by substituting for anything except scatters.

Golden Haul Infinity Reels: Slot Features

The action revolves around the Infinity Reels mechanic, which pays when 5 or more matching symbols land next to each other from the leftmost reel. If the combination reaches the rightmost reel, a new reel is added to the grid. If that new reel boosts the win or includes scatters, another reel is added. Reels keep being appended like this until a new reel adds nothing. After that, wins are awarded and the reels reset. As reels are added, each new one also raises a symbol multiplier by +1.

The Infinity Wild symbol shows the prospector relaxing on a wagon with dynamite and can appear from reel 3 onwards. When it lands, it extends the reels by up to 7, dropping a trail of wild symbols behind it. Multiple Infinity Wilds can appear during the same spin sequence.

The main attraction is free spins, activated whenever a scatter win lands – meaning 5 or more scatters appear, and they don’t have to be adjacent. The payout is the scatter combination’s value, plus 15 free spins. Free spins run using the same rules as the base game.

Golden Haul Infinity Reels: Slot Verdict

Golden Haul Infinity Reels feels like a sharp change of direction for Bad Dingo after Jaguar SuperWays. That first release was fairly distinctive, using a SuperWays feature to expand the grid in varied ways. It had issues, but it also suggested a studio willing to take risks immediately. Golden Haul Infinity Reels goes the other way. Not only is the experience driven by a mechanic borrowed from another developer, but there’s also very little here beyond what you’d expect as the default.

There are some positives. The visuals are fine, the desert-scrolling effect works well, and the banjo soundtrack adds a cosy touch. Together they create a decent surface-level first impression; then the rest of the game undermines it. The Infinity Wild idea has some appeal, but the overall feel is so average that it smothers the good points. It comes across as though Bad Dingo spent their creative energy on their first slot and had little left for Golden Haul.

A big question mark is just how weak Golden Haul’s stats are, both versus Bad Dingo’s previous work and against most other Infinity Reels slots too. The top end is barely noteworthy at 1,541 times the bet, RTP is middling, and the medium volatility won’t satisfy players chasing high volatile swings. The max win is especially puzzling because you can hit results like that (or higher) on basic 3 reel slots. If you’re going to lean on labels like Infinity Reels or Infinity Wilds, they should be supported by Infinity-level payouts; otherwise, the terms start to feel hollow. Yes, it can stretch sessions in a Megaways-like fashion, but with far less excitement.

Ultimately, it’s hard not to think Bad Dingo would have been better off skipping the licensing costs and building something original. Where Jaguar SuperWays suggested a studio forcing its way into view by trying fresh ideas, Golden Haul Infinity Reels dampens any interest in what they do next.