Wolf Run
- Wolf Run Slot
- Overall Score: 3.1 /5
- Graphics:
- Sounds:
- Engagement:
- Overall rating:
Slots have been around for a really, really long time. The first slot machines began appearing in the late 19th century, around 1891. Just for reference, around that time England was still in the Victorian era. The very first video slots appeared in 1976 – a year before the first “Star Wars” was released, and also a year before the last execution via guillotine was carried out. Yes, the first execution via guillotine really did coincide with the release of “Star Wars”, but that’s a topic for another time. Either way, that is a hell of a long time, and during the last 40 years we’ve seen a lot of phenomenal video slots. One of them is Wolf Run, released 10 years ago and made by the sole female developer at IGT. The game was immensely successful, and for a while it could be found in any physical casino. It became so big that in 2010 it was actually released as a standalone boxed game for PC and Mac, which I’ve never seen happen before! In 2012 it, naturally, made its way into numerous online casinos, and that’s when everyone kinda sorta realized an uncomfortable fact – most slot machines do NOT age gracefully.
Basic Features
Wolf Run is one of the most basic, elementary slots I’ve ever played in my life. There is absolutely nothing in it that drew me into it – nothing that makes it unique, no special feature that allows me to recommend it, nothing but the absolute bare bones that is expected of literally every single other slot. While it might have been great 10 years ago, today (mostly due to an oversaturation of the market) we hold slots to much harsher standard than before. And while Wolf Run isn’t inherently bad, it’s so bland and forgettable that it’s really not worth your time.
| Wolf Run Slot | ||||||
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Software: | IGT | Double option: | No | ||
| RTP: | 94.98% | Mobile version: | No | |||
| Progressive: | No | Coin value: | £1.00 | |||
| Autoplay: | No | Bet value: | £1 – £12,000 | |||
| Quick spin: | No | Max. bet: | £12,000.00 | |||
| Reels: | 5 | Free spins: | Yes | |||
| Paylines: | 40 | Bonus round: | No | |||
It’s important to note that when I say that Wolf Run is exactly like other slots, I’m not just exaggerating for the sake of what little comedy I can squeeze in a slot review. I literally mean that Wolf Run is EXACTLY like other IGT slots, such as Great Eagle and Coyote Moon. The numbers, the animations, the free spins, everything is the same except for the pictures and sounds… And those pictures and sounds aren’t very good. There’s just 5 symbols for which any effort at all was made, and 4 of them look like they are just edited public domain photos. The most prominent sound effect in the slot, which plays while the reels are rolling, is somewhat catchy, but can get on your nerves pretty quickly.
Paytable
I’m not sure if you’d believe me, but… Wolf Run doesn’t have a paytable, at least not one that is implemented into the slot. This is literally the very first, and so far, only, slot I’ve played out of close to a hundred which didn’t have a paytable implemented into it. It’s insane! Some online casinos have implemented their own paytables for the players’ convenience, such as the one shown below, but I can confirm that not all online casinos have that function. It just goes to show how outdated and, dare I say, irrelevant Wolf Run is in the present.
With that said, there isn’t really much worth talking about when it comes to the paytable. There are 10 symbols as well as a Wild and Scatter. 6 of those symbols are just letters drawn in a basic font, and as I mentioned earlier, the rest look pretty bad. The letters can win you between 5 and 150 times your bet, which – for a 40 payline slot – is pretty low. The remaining symbols will net you up to 400 times your bet (which is just 10 times your wager if you play on all paylines – certainly on the low end when compared to other 40 payline slots), with the exception of the Wild symbol, as getting 5 of those will get you 1000 times your bet.
Bonus Rounds/Free Spins
There isn’t much to say about the free spins feature, which, just like everything else in this slot, is extremely basic and underwhelming. Getting 3 Scatter symbols, represented, creatively enough, by a box titled BONUS, will give you 5 free spins. If you somehow manage to get 3 more Scatters, then you get 5 more free spins. That’s really all there is to it. You don’t get a bonus game or a fun multiplier – it’s literally as basic as a Free Spins round can possibly get. And while such a basic feature can be excusable in some slots, such as Jack and the Beanstalk (since they have other things going for it), but here it just comes off as lazy and uninspired.
This is typically where I talk about other bonus features that the slot has… But Wolf Run has nothing. It doesn’t have any bonus games, any cool features (worth talking about or not), nothing. As I said earlier, it’s about as bare-bones as you can possibly get for a slot. I understand that the only reason why there isn’t anything like that is because the original from 2006 didn’t have one, but the online version came out in 2012 – the same year as The Avengers, which had 4 bonus games. If I were in charge of the port, I would have updated it with at least one bonus feature.
Experience of Playing the Slot and Other Recommended Games
At the end of the day, while Wolf Run may have been awesome once, it has long overstayed its welcome. Just like cave paintings, which seem primitive, crude and not really worth your attention when compared to classical art, this slot has also not aged well at all. The online casino industry has moved on, and right now most of the biggest online casinos in the UK don’t even support Wolf Run, or most other IGT slots (and overseas it’s not supported by any legal casino). Literally the only reason why you would want to spend your money on it would be out of nostalgia. Again – I mean no disrespect for the slots, as it’s pretty obvious that it used to be beloved by many, but in a market that’s so oversaturated by high-quality slots and only so much money you can invest in slots, there’s really no point in playing anything that’s not stellar. If you’re looking for the best that the slot industry has to offer in 2015, even if it is just to compare and contrast, then you need to look no further than The Avengers, based on the extremely popular Marvel movie. It offers the best music I’ve ever heard in a slot, awesome visual and cool bonus games. Another utterly brilliant slot is South Park, which captures the nature of its crude source material flawlessly and has been crafted with lots of care and respect for both its license and its players. And if you just want a non-licensed animal slot, then I can recommend Mega Moolah, which proves that you don’t need a lot of depth to make a really entertaining slot as long as you’ve got a gigantic jackpot waiting for you at the end.