Rock Bottom

Review

If you’re familiar with Nolimit City, you won’t be surprised that this provider is not about to give us a breather. This is yet another deep, emotionally-driven game that storms the online casino lobbies in New Zealand and paints a rather grim picture of what mental damage looks like. And boy, there is still a painful road awaiting the main characters of the game. It’s time to meet Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression, and Acceptance. These five stages of grief carry subtle similarities to people from showbiz.

Rock Bottom

Rock Bottom is a production by Nolimit City that manages to show the same level of insanity if you will that other games from Nolimit City do. This is yet another provocative online casino game from the provider that does well to reveal the dark side of show business. In this particular psychological showcase, from a safe distance that is, we’re contemplating the stages of grief in good old, unorthodox Nolimit City style. It might not be as controversial as other titles in the Nolimit City library, but it still manages to shock.

How to Play

Once you make it to the streets of this Rock Bottom pokie game, you will come across a 3x4x4x4x3 grid that gives you a max of 576 paylines. On the reels, you will find many special symbols such as the xSplit Wild and Scatter. The most interesting thing is that the scatter symbol can act as a Wild symbol, and xSplit Wild splits all symbols into 2 in the same row and adjacent positions. Here is how to start playing this dark themed pokie:

• Find your favourite online casino that offers this Rock Bottom game.
• Open the Rock Bottom pokie on either a computer or mobile screen.
• Go to the menu first and get familiar with the overall functionality of bonus features.
• Play the free demo mode to get acquainted with the game rules.
• Once you’re ready, set a real money bet per spin from $0.20 up to $100.
• You can also trigger xBet or buy bonus rounds.

Symbol Wins

Brought to you in an American city resembling New York, the imagery of this game is quite dark. The screen shows Nolimit City presenting a whiskey and pill-filled world that can result in total insanity. When it comes to the audio, there is a rocking soundtrack which we find to be well chosen. Moving on to the reels, you will see low value A, K, Q, J and 10 royals which have silhouettes of the pokie’s main characters. These characters represent the 5 stages of grief. This is where you will come across the familiar looking Anger, Denial, Bargaining, Depression and Acceptance. The clown is the most valuable symbol with 0.5, 2 or 7.5x your total stake awarded for combos of 3, 4 or 5. Somewhat unusually, the Rock Bottom online pokie has no standard of regular wild symbols. However, the 5 characters outlined above can become wild reels. Other symbols in the game include the Whiskey and Pills Scatter as well as the xSplit symbol. Here’s what each of them does and means.

Bonus Features

The Rock Bottom pokie comes with no less than 6 bonus features which is high for most providers but about average for Nolimit City. With xSplit symbols splitting character symbols up to 3x, the action takes place in the 2 free spins games. Both free spins features have 5 levels with the character level expanding to take over the reel. Other characters in the game increase their win multiplier when they show. Symbol multipliers then apply to wins involving that character. In the Insanity Spins, expanding character symbols are wild symbols. If you manage to win 1,969x bet, the xCap feature is in play where a multiplier of up to 10x is applied to that win, leading to 19,690x bet top wins.

xSplit Feature

Be sure to look out for the xSplit symbol that can land on the 3 middle reels. When these land, the xSplit symbol splits itself and character symbols on the same row as well as adjacent positions. Interestingly, the xSplit symbol can split character symbols up to 3x making them size up to 2, 4 and 8 symbols. This also increases the number of ways to win. Something to note is that xSplits do not affect scatters, xSplit, or royal symbols.

Headshrinker Spins Feature

The Headshrinker Spins feature is activated by landing 3 or 4 Whiskey and Pills Scatter symbols. This can be done anywhere on the reels. With 5 free spins, you will be rewarded with 1 extra free spin for every nudge of the scatter that takes it to the bottom row. This theoretically means you could begin with up to a number 14 free spins. Also, the scatter acts as a wild symbol in this feature.

Starting on stage 1, the character related to the current stage of grief will expand to become 4 symbols high covering the complete reel. The other character symbols will increase their own win multiplier by one for each of the landing symbols. Symbol multipliers are applied to making winning combinations with that symbol. Each Whiskey and Pill Scatter symbol rewards you with one additional free spin. Collecting 5 scatters will progress you to the next level which also awards an additional 2 free spins.

Insanity Spins Feature

The Insanity Spins feature is activated by landing 5 Whiskey and Pills Scatter symbols. This can be done anywhere on the reels. Also, 5 free spins are awarded if this happens. Different from the previously mentioned Headshrinker Spins feature, the expanding character symbols are wild, giving you wild reels. Each character symbol that lands will increase its symbol win multiplier by one each time it lands. The symbol multiplier is applied to the winning combinations. If the event that a character symbol is part of a win with other symbols that become an expanded wild, the multipliers of both symbols are added together and applied to the win. Scatters give you one extra free spin with 5 scatters ensuring you progress to the next level. This awards an additional 2 free spins.

xCap Feature

In the event that 1 of the free spins features gives you less than 1,969x the bet, the xCap is activated. This feature allows you to choose a random multiplier of either 2x, 3x, 5x, 7x or 10x, which will then be applied to the prize won in the free spins feature.

xBet Feature

Rock Bottom also comes with an xBet feature. Costing 50% more per spin, you are guaranteed a Whiskey and Pills Scatter symbol on reel 2. It makes it easier to activate a free spins feature with the average coming down from 1 in 198 spins to 1 in 90 spins. The minimum and maximum stakes range from $0.30 to $150 per spin and enabling this feature will see the RTP decrease to an industry average level of 96%.

Bonus Buy

Clicking the star will make you open the different bonus buy options, letting players in New Zealand buy direct access to the feature. There are a few options available:

• Headshrinker Spins for 75x the bet.
  • Max RTP is 96.1%.
• Insanity Spins for 500x the bet.
  • Max RTP is 96.18%.
• 183x buys access to the Lucky draw feature, which has an 80/20 chance of triggering Headshrinker or Insanity Spins.
  • Max RTP is 96.36%.

Payout Metrics

The RTP of Rock Bottom is set at 96.04% which is just about right as it’s slightly above the average percentage of 96%. Of this percentage, 65.61% will be awarded in the base game and 30.43% will be saved for the bonus features. There are also RTP versions of 94.02% and 92.31% available of the same game. This depends on your online casino so be sure you check the RTP before you start with your first spin. Also, if you manage to trigger Flush Bet, you will get an RTP of 96%, whilst making use of the buy features for Headshrinker Spins and Insanity Spins will boost your RTP to 96.10% and a 96.16% level in Lucky Draw 96.36%.

As for variance, Rock Bottom is rated as high but not as high as in other pokies by Nolimit City. The game has been classified as 8 out of 10 by the provider itself. Taking a further look at making winning combinations, the hit frequency rate is set at 31.3%. This basically means that a win will land every 3.19 spins. With regard to the game’s win potential, the max win is 19,690x your stake. This is won, once every 35 million spins, on average. Free spins will be triggered every 198 spins and all of these figures are on average.

Summary

It’s actually great to see a NoLimit City launch where the volatility and levels of insanity are slightly softened, and by the latter we’re mostly referring to the features. Rock Bottom is not their most controversial, nor their best game so far, but it is still a lot better than what other game studios launch. Combinations of humorous elements, with the characters looking like famous people, make sure the game loosens up a bit, and it’s not too much trouble to get a grip on the base game. As expected, the difficulty level is increased in the bonus rounds. Where other game developers would release a shelf-filler, Nolimit City releases a game that’s still way above average when comparing it to other game studios. All in all, Rock Bottom might not be quite as innovative as some of their other online pokies, but it’s definitely not Rock Bottom to keep it in the context of this casino game.