It's rare for Novomatic to offer a 50 payline slot so Orca already has something to commend it. Visually, it's not bad either. Set against a tranquil underwater backdrop, symbols on the reels include a pair of exotic looking fish, a group of walruses and a trio of penguins.
The leaping orca whale is the top paying symbol, offering payouts of 1,000 times your line bet if you land 5 on a payline. The whale is a stacked symbol meaning it can fill up entire reels. If you manage to do that on all 5 reels, a colossal jackpot of 50,000 times your line bet awaits!
Somewhat bizarrely, the wild symbol has nothing to do with the watery theme. Instead of something aquatic, a Mayan-style mask does the substitution features.
Orca comes with a Free Games feature that is triggered by landing 3 whale tails anywhere on the reels - here you'll be awarded 10 free spins. On each of these free spins an extra wild will be added to the reels. During the feature, the scatter only appears on the first 3 reels. Land 3 of them and you'll receive an extra 5 free spins giving you 15 in total.
Like many slots in the Novomatic portfolio, the variance in Orca is on the high side - the bonus round isn't the easiest to trigger so expect plenty of times when there's little on the wins front. Given the relatively high minimum spin and volatility, some caution is recommended if you have a limited bankroll.
As usual, it's the feature where things get more interesting, especially courtesy of the extra wilds. They may look a bit odd given the underwater setting but they can certainly help you swim away with a decent haul of coins if luck is with you.
If you like underwater-themed slots, Lord of the Ocean (also by Novomatic) is a land based favourite which is also highly volatile. You should also look into Mighty Trident which has 3 bonus features and was created by Mazooma (which is owned and operated by Novomatic).