The Walking Dead 2 Pokie
Hordes of zombies tumbling over the reels, some amazing extra features and all-action gameplay are there to enjoy in Aristocrat Gamings’ The Walking Dead 2 pokie.
Based on the third and fourth series of the hit TV show from AMC, it’s found at casinos worldwide and comes in a stylish curved cabinet that has the reels on a lower screen, an upper screen that becomes active during the bonus games, and a big game logo above it all.
Aristocrat have years of experience in the development of innovative pokies and with this title, they are expanding on an already proven theme, as the original Walking Dead game has been very successful and with some features added and others taken away, the sequel is different enough to be noticed, but not so far removed from the original to put fans off.
Getting Your Teeth Into The Game
It’s played out over 5 reels, with an impressive 100 paylines, although to accommodate all these lines, the symbols are presented in 5 rows, rather than the more conventional 3.
The reel on the left side however, has oversized symbols making it easier to land 5 of a kind lines, and any time players see 3 of the same type stop across any line, on sequential reels running from the left side, they win a prize.
The game is filled with images from the TV show, with the smaller wins coming from pictures of flowers, hats, rings and a purple squirrel, but it’s the characters like Ric, Daryl, Carol, Michonne, the Governor and Merc who are worth more, while there are also plenty of undead Walkers stumbling around the place to give the game some extra bite.
These are pretty scary zombies which could put off some people, but this pokie is really aimed at fans of the show who like a bit of gore splashed across their games and they certainly won’t be disappointed with the hordes of rotting corpses who populate the reels.
The Walking Dead 2
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Bonus Features
Like most games from Aristocrat, The Walking Dead 2 comes filled with bonus features, like wild substitutions, free spins and progressive jackpots.
The wild symbol will turn up in the normal run of play, and when it does so it will expand across the reel in a dramatic animation, replacing other symbols if it’s then possible to complete winning lines.
Extra wild symbols can be placed onto the reels by a zombie horde who tumble over the top of the reels in an outstanding animation, specially made for the game. These wilds can lead to lots of winning lines being created in one go, while Michonne can also turn up and grant further wild symbols when she slashes the reels with a stroke of her sword, turning any of the higher value symbols into wilds, which should once again create some nice winning lines.
There’s an unusual sequence to the jackpot and free spins rounds, with players potentially winning thousands of Dollars in a progressive jackpot round and after this they can be taken to the free games. Most pokies would do this the other way around, or as completely separate bonuses, but this is what we have, and it’s still possible to get the free spins only.
The jackpot round starts if the free spins symbol turns up across reels 1 to4, while also getting the jackpot symbol on the fifth reel on the right side of the game.
12 Walker heads are bobbing in the water and players touch them in any order to see water draining from each section and uncovering Mini, Minor, Major and Grand jackpots. Finding any 3 of the same jackpot triggers the prize, while multipliers can double the value of each one.
Players then progress to the Governor bonus games, which can also be triggered by 3 free spin symbols. Just 5 heads are floating under the water this time, and touching each one reveals a number of free spins that are added together, plus there’s a multiplier that can double the number of games that then play out.
These spins expand up above the main reels, giving up to 200 lines, while wilds expand across the reels and there’s multipliers of up to 8x in effect throughout them.
The Verdict
An establish, popular theme, stunning graphics, video clips and animations, and the potential for some big rewards in the bonus games should attract players to the zombie apocalypse of The Walking Dead 2 pokie.
It can be a little daunting to see these big reels for the first time, and it may take a few spins for players to fully understand how it all works, but for anyone who hasn’t had their brains eaten, it shouldn’t take long to work out.