Put on your cowboy hat and spin Dead or Alive II™ at Casumo

Dead or Alive II is stunning and you can play it at Casumo

Hey Sheriff, load your guns, polish your badge and go hunt some outlaws in Dead or Alive II. But before you ride towards the setting sun, find out what makes this sequel special and why you should always wear a cowboy hat.

In this blog post, we take a close-up look at what this game has to offer, as well as sneak behind the scenes for an exclusive interview with Fredrik Hard, the Game Product Owner of Dead or Alive II. Let the tumbleweed roll.

How do you create a sequel for one of the most successful NetEnt slots of all time? We asked an expert who dreams of being an outlaw…

We reached out to Fredrik Hard from NetEnt. He’s the Game Product Owner of Dead or Alive 2 and he kindly accepted to answer some curiosities we had about the game and about what goes on behind the scenes when creating a new online slot.

Dead or Alive™ is one of the best-known slots NetEnt has produced. How did you feel about making a sequel?

Well, I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t a little bit nervous about it. People expect sequels to be as successful as the original. But there was huge demand for a rerelease. Players who enjoy high stakes and volatile games, and who were fans of the original, have been begging for a sequel for the past 10 years, and now they have it!

How did you improve on Dead or Alive? Are there any cool new features?

If you’re going to make a sequel, you need to be ready to make tough decisions. But, at the same time, you need to give fans a strong feeling of familiarity. It needs to feel like it’s been updated, but also keep you within the same world. So, with this in mind, there were things we kept, but kind of improved upon. For instance, we decided to keep the old Dead or Alive™ Free Spins in there – it’s almost the same as the original. But we went a step further, we added 2 more Free Spins games. So, on the Free Spins selection screen, players will have a choice of three different Free Spins games to choose from: Train Heist, Old Saloon and High Noon Saloon.

Old Saloon is very similar to the original Free Spins in Dead or Alive™. In Train Heist, the game is a bit less swingy, and in High Noon, you get very high volatility. In fact, there’s a possibility to hit more than 100,000 x bet in there. It’s not easy to get that, but it’s in there!

How does NetEnt ensure that its games are fair and consistent (i.e. in terms of RTP)?

Before games get released, the certification team checks different aspects of the game (Math, functionality, text and game rules) to ensure player fairness. And by ‘certification’ we mean a large number of big, government-approved, stand-alone, international companies with the job of going through NetEnt’s products (slots) to ensure player fairness. This is something NetEnt takes very seriously.

Different authorities and governments all have different standards and ideas on how to protect their players. We make one game, one product, with a single math model, that, after rigorous testing, is released into all the different regulated markets. Again, the math model never changes. As a matter of fact, the math model of DOA2 is very similar to that used in the original. I would say 99% similar. So, we definitely managed to keep the original DOA-feel there. This also applies to Free Spins – more specifically the Old Saloon Free Spins. This Free Spins game is pretty much identical to the original.

Any interesting behind-the-scenes stuff you can share with us?

We all really got into the spirit of the Western genre when making this one. The sound guy had a cowboy hat on most of the time while he was making all the cool cowboy-style sounds and music. And it worked because I think the sound is great! Everyone did a good job! There were quite a few people in the team who had cowboy hats on at various points during the making of this game.

Which Western movies, if any, were an inspiration for Dead or Alive 2™?

As I mentioned, we were immersed in the genre. But our main inspiration was the original Dead or Alive™!

How did you decide on the characters?

A lot of the characters used for Wilds are based on real outlaws from the old west – people like Billy the Kid. But a lot of the other symbols have remained unchanged from the original Dead or Alive™. We kept the “medium” symbols (the hat, shot glass, boots and such) for recognition – to give players that feel-at-home feeling – which, as we mentioned before, is important for any sequel.

Compared to the original Dead or Alive™, how big of a project was this?

When the original was made, new tech was utilized, to make the art, primarily digital sculpting, which was done in ZBrush. This was a very time-consuming process – but it paid off because players loved the style and look of the game. In fact, it was one of the game’s main recognition factors. Dead or Alive 2™, on the other hand, was done in a realistic, drawn style, which also took a lot of time to create! Remember, there’s a high number of characters in the game, and lots of animated intro and outro scenes. So, that meant lots of work – but this game is a big deal, so it was worth it.

Would you rather be a sheriff or an outlaw? Why?

Definitely an outlaw! This game is packed with outlaws, and I think I like the thought of being in the game as one of the Dead or Alive gang!

What makes Dead or Alive II special

Dead or Alive II is a 5-reel slot with 9 paylines from NetEnt. Polish your sheriff badges–5 across a payline pay 100x your stake. Outlaws are wilds and substitute for all symbols bar the crossed guns scatter symbol. There’s also a jackpot where you could win 2500x with 5 scatters in the base game. 3 or more scatter symbols trigger the Free Spins feature where you play one of 3 games:

• Old Saloon: All wins are multiplied by 2 here and any wild landing on the reels locks in position for the remainder of the bonus. Landing all 5 outlaws will give you 5 extra spins.
• High Noon: by far the most volatile of all three options, the High Noon free spins make use of NetEnt’s “MAX” concept and comes with a staggering record-breaking max win of over 100,000 times your stake.
• Train Heist: comes with an increasing multiplier. Whenever a wild lands on the reels, the multiplier increases by 1 while also adding 1 extra spin to your total. Now, if the multiplier meter reaches 16x, 5 additional free spins are awarded.

The RTP for this game is 96.8%

Try Dead or Alive II at Casumo

Hey Sheriff, wear your badge proudly as you hunt outlaws in Dead or Alive II. To try this new game, register an account at casumo.com – if you haven’t already done so. Log in, select Dead or Alive II from the Games Browser and tap the play button for Wild West action.

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