Head to the Wild West
Typical of NetEnt, Dead or Alive is very easy on the eye with a selection of Wild West paraphernalia on its reels including stetsons, cowboy boots, liquor shots and sheriff badges – you’ll also see Western themed A, K, Q, J and 10 royals. The most lucrative symbol is the sheriff’s badge as 5 on a payline will give you 111.11 times your total stake.
The honky tonk soundtrack is pretty catchy too. Dead or Alive isn't for the faint hearted, and not just because of features some of America's most notorious gunslingers! The Wanted poster is the wild symbol and pays up to 166.66 times your stake for 5 in combination – it also substitutes for all symbols bar the scatter.
Free Spins feature
Dead or Alive comes complete with a Free Spins feature which is played when you get 3, 4 or 5 Wild West gun scatters anywhere on the reels. Cash prizes ranging from 4 times right up to a whopping 2,500 times your stake are also offered before you start this feature. It all depends on how many scatters symbols you get. You'll need to hit all 5 to scoop the 2,500 times stake prize though which is highly unlikely (but possible!).
You’ll then begin with 12 free spins - that's not all as wins are doubled thanks to the 2x multiplier. Things get even more interesting during Free Spins feature as Wild Wanted Poster symbols become Sticky Wilds and hold their position for the duration.
1 or more Sticky Wild symbols appearing on all the reels triggers an extra 5 free spins. These can be retriggered to get even more free spins, up to 29 in fact if things go your way, not to mention a 2x multiplier.
High variance classic
The key to really big wins in Dead or Alive is getting plenty of sticky wilds in the Free Spins feature. That's where the massive potential payout of 3,000 times your stake per free spin becomes possible. Sticky wilds is what makes Dead or Alive a cult favourite and very highly volatile – a handful of these in the right places can really take your winnings to a whole different level.
This is a high variance slot. It won't pay out all that often so it can eat your bankroll pretty quickly if you're not careful. When it does payout though watch out. It can deliver riches that Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid would be proud of. If you like these kind of slots (volatile ones), Net Entertainment has since released the Dead or Alive II slot game – which offers wins of 111,111 times your stake in 1 of the free spins features!