Release the Kraken (Pragmatic Play): Overview

Release the Kraken is an ocean-going slot created by Pragmatic Play. For anyone unfamiliar, the Kraken is a notorious cephalopod brought to wider fame through Moby Dick and 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. Both novels arrived in the 19th century, though the Kraken myth is far older. It traces back to the Norse Sagas, where a squid-like monster struck fear into sailors for generations. Pragmatic Play carries that legend forward with a slot that can deliver hefty returns, but can also linger in the mind after a particularly brutal run.

One of the more visually appealing titles Pragmatic has released in a while, the action takes place on the deep ocean floor. A semi-transparent 5-reel, 4-row layout sits in front of an eerie, wrecked galleon resting on the seabed. The interface lets players select 1-10 coins per line, with coin values ranging from 0.01 -0.50. That puts total wagers between 10 p/c per spin up to $/€100. In the base game, landing three or more matching symbols across the 20 paylines produces a win. With 4/5 lightning bolts, it isn’t Pragmatic Plays most volatile option, but it can still hit hard when it wants to. Release the Kraken launches with a solid default RTP of 96.5%.

As usual, the paytable is divided into lower and higher value symbols. The low end is made up of the card royals J – A, with nothing especially seafaring about them. The premium icons are more creative, featuring four sea creatures: a green fish, blue fish, a turtle, and a shark. They’re styled with a friendly Finding Nemo vibe. The game logo is the top regular symbol, with five of a kind awarding 25 times the stake. The standard wild pays the same and substitutes for any symbol except the Bonus, Free Spins, or Chest Bonus symbols. Additional wild types exist too, and we’ll cover those in the features section where they come into play. After a handful of spins, there’s not much (theme aside) that separates this from several other Pragmatic releases.

Release the Kraken (Pragmatic Play): Features

The real action starts once the features arrive and the creature makes its presence known, either randomly or via triggers. Begin with the Random Spin features. At any time, three tentacles slide over the reels holding a “Pick Me” sign. Choose one to activate one of the following spin modifiers:

• Kraken Lockin Wilds: This feature brings a new wild type into play. Three chests land on the reels, and players open them one after another. Hitting ‘More Wilds’ adds extra Kraken Wilds to the reels. ‘Continue Spinning’ has no effect, ‘All Wins x2 and Collect’ boosts any win amount with a multiplier and ends the feature. ‘Collect’ finishes the feature and pays out the wins.
• Colossal Kraken Wilds: this introduces a massive 3×4 wild that is guaranteed to appear on the reels. It may not occupy all 12 spaces, however. It can do, but it might only cover the top or bottom 3 positions. Or any other placement in between.
• Infectious Kraken Wilds: this feature places at least one Infectious Kraken Wild on the reels. These wilds convert neighbouring symbols into wilds too.

Special wilds during the Random Spin feature substitute for any symbol except the Bonus, Free Spins, or Chest Bonus symbols.

Now to what those symbols actually trigger. When Bonus symbols land on reels 1 and 3, and a Chest Bonus appears on reel 5, they activate the Sunken Treasure Bonus – 3 chests show up on screen and players open them one by one to reveal cash prizes. There’s no fixed cap on the number of picks. You continue opening chests until one reveals ‘Collect’, which ends the feature.

Last up is the main attraction: Roaming Kraken Free Spins. This is triggered by Bonus Symbols on reels 1 and 3, plus the Free Spins symbol on reel 5. There’s no predetermined spin count here. Instead, players face a chest selection screen that can reveal +1, +2, or +3 spins, although in practice you’ll most likely end up with the usual 10 spins (at least that’s what we saw during testing). Picks continue until the familiar ‘Collect’ result appears again. Roaming Kraken Free Spins upgrades play to 40 paylines rather than the base game’s 20, and includes a win multiplier starting at x1. Each time a wild lands, it sticks to the reels, roams, and increases the multiplier by +1.

Release the Kraken (Pragmatic Play): Verdict

Anyone who enjoys cracking open chests will find plenty to like in Release the Kraken, because the whole experience revolves around revealing what’s inside. Curiously, whenever we got the opportunity to open them, we consistently ended up with four picks. Every time, regardless of which feature it came from. That may have been pure chance, but it was noticeable. After a while, the repetition became oddly entertaining. Four seemed to be the lucky number, and the fifth chest was invariably the ‘Collect’ outcome—whether in Kraken Free Spins or the Sunken Treasure feature.

We also began spotting other recurring trends during the free spins round (we likely played 30+ features). For instance, if a wild didn’t appear on the first spin, it would almost always show up on the second spin of the bonus. Again, it might have been coincidence, but it started to feel excessive, and the sense of predictability took some of the thrill out of it.

Release the Kraken seems built on a maths model similar to other newer Pragmatic Play slots. It even has a lot in common with Hercules & Pegasus. For one, the feature triggers are comparable, and the overall flow of sessions feels similar—swingy, volatile, and unpredictable. There’s strong upside of up to 10,000 times the stake, but it can just as easily go the other way. In other words, you might land a huge win, or spend the session fighting a relentless tide pushing you off course.

Much like Hercules & Pegasus or Aladdin & the Sorcerer, it can be a grind without a generous helping of luck. Naturally, results vary from player to player and session to session. Big hits do happen—Kraken Wins, as the game labels them—but caution is advised. As Captain Nemo learned, the Kraken can seize whatever it wants with its massive tentacles and flatten hopes just as easily as paper cups.