Wild Swarm 2 Slot Review

The Bee Hive mechanic is Wild Swarm 2’s USP. The hive metre is found to the right of the reels and fills up by collecting the bees that land on the reels. The metre fills up five times faster with Queen Bees than with Worker Bees which increases the metre by one unit. A normal Wild Honey Symbol will appear in place of each Bee Symbol that lands on the reels as it flies into the Hive above the reels to add to the metre.

 Once the meter is at its maximum level and a bee appears on the reels there is the chance that the Hive will blow up, increased even more so by the Queen Bee. When this happens the Swarm Mode Feature triggers.

There are a total of five hive levels which must be scaled to reach the Swarm Mode feature. Each hive has more and more spaces, details of which are listed below, with the respective RTP values (for the game played at its optimal 96.67% RTP statistic):

• Level 1: Completed by filling 10 segments (96.31% RTP)
• Level 2 Completed by filling 30 segments (96.40% RTP)
• Level 3: Completed by filling 50 segments (96.51% RTP)
• Level 4: Completed by filling 100 segments (96.59% RTP)
• Level 5 (Max Level) Any additional bees have the chance to trigger the Swarm Feature (96.74% RTP)

Chest Feature

The Chest Feature will activate when a pink chest lands on the reels.

This is essentially a pick-and-win feature, where five Hidden Chest Prizes will appear on the screen when this function activates they will be shuffled and then the play gets to pick one of the chests to open, receiving the prize that is revealed.

There are multiple outcomes for what the players can receive:

• A huge range of multiplier prizes worth 2x, 3x, 4x, 5x, 6x, 7x, 8x, 9x, 10x, 15x, 20x, 25x, 30x, 40x, 50x, 60x, 70x, 80x, 90x, 100x, 125x, 150x, 200x, 250x, 500x, or 1,000x
•  Bonus spins can be awarded in the form of; 5, 6, or 7 Sticky Wild spins, 8 Sticky Wild spins, or 9 Sticky Wild spins.
• If swarm boost is revealed then the Hive Metre advances to the next level up.
• Instant access to the Swarm Bonus Feature

Free Spins Bonus Round

Landing three or more of the hive scatters in any position within a single spin will trigger the free spins bonus round. Three scatters will award 7 free spins with 3 sticky wilds, four scatters will award 8 free spins with 4 sticky wilds, and Five scatters will award 10 free spins with five sticky wilds.

Reels 2 and 4 will have multipliers above them during the Free Spins feature, with values of x2 and x4, respectively. This is where the 3-5 sticky wilds awarded when triggering the free spins bonus will appear. All bee symbols that appear will stick to the reels for the duration of the feature.

If a reel is filled with multiplier values then you will receive one additional free spin and this multiplier will be applied to all the wild symbols currently on the reels. The values of any multiple Sticky Wilds with multipliers that are part of a win will be totalled together.

Chest Feature During Free Spins

The Chest Feature can be activated during Free Spins, and the following rewards are up for grabs:

• 1-6 additional free spins
• A bet multiplier of  2x, 3x, 4x, 5x, 6x, 7x, 8x, 9x, 10x, 15x, 20x, 25x, 30x, 40x, 50x, 60x, 70x, 80x, 90x, 100x, 125x, 150x, 200x, 250x, 500x, or 1,000x bet
• Sticky wilds are automatically added to a multiplier reel.

Swarm Mode

As mentioned, this is the bonus feature that the Wild Swarm 2 slot is all about. It can be triggered by exploding the hive with a bee once the meter is at level 5, or by revealing the instant access prize during the chest feature.

Players will be given 10 free spins, with multipliers assigned to each reel as follows:

• Reel 1 – x2
• Reel 2 – x3
• Reel 3 – x4
• Reel 4 – x6
• Reel 5 – x8

Before the first spin, a single guaranteed stack of Sticky Wild Symbols will appear on a randomly selected reel; but no more free spins will be awarded for this. Any Bee Symbols that come into contact with the reels will also stick in position for the duration of this bonus. The Chest Feature can be activated in Swarm Mode, and the prizes are the same as in Free Spins.

Players will receive a level boost to either level 2, 3, or 4 on the Hive Metre when Swarm Mode ends, with the level they are boosted to being filled between 40-60%, to make future triggers of the swarm feature far more likely.

Bonus Buy Feature (Non-UK Only)

With the following Bonus Purchase options, players in eligible locations (Non-UK) can fast-track entry to the free spins bonus round, with moderately improved RTP percentages:

• For the free spins to be triggered with 3 Scatters players need to wager 74x bet (96.83% RTP)
• For the free spins to be triggered with 4 Scatters players need to wager 139x bet (96.88% RTP)
• For the free spins to be triggered with 5 Scatters players need to wager 332x bet (96.87% RTP)
• For the free spins to be triggered with a random number of scatters players need to wager 125x bet (96.85% RTP)

As far as sequels go, the Wild Swarm 2 slot is adequate but nothing all that special. Yes, the 10,000x top prize blows the original out of the water, but with a lower RTP (96.67% compared to 97.03%), very high volatility, and no information regarding the hit rate provided by developer Push Gaming, it feels like this sweet honey bee-themed slot might have quite a large sting in its tail.

The visual and design elements have had an upgrade as you might expect from technical improvements in the 6 years since the original games’ release. The symbols are on theme and are good-looking, but are not all that inspiring; for example, the playing-card symbols have been given some attention to detail with their wood and flora accents, but have this harsh silver border which makes the symbols feel as though they have been cut and pasted from a generic game. Even the worker bee presented in ‘work attire’ is a tongue-in-cheek pun that has been done over and over again.

When it comes to bonus features, I have to admit there is a large selection of features on offer, and at first glance, these seem great, but once again, I notice the sting in the tail behind many of these. For example, getting the Hive meter to level 5 takes 100 points (100 instances of the worker bee/25 of the queen bee), and even then, additional bees are not guaranteed to activate the swarm feature.

When doing my research for this review, I found several complaints by dissatisfied players, particularly regarding this feature, stating that activating it was such a rarity that it felt like a scam; a word a slot never wants to be connected to. Yes, you can gain instant access to the swarm feature from the chest feature, but who knows the likelihood of this, even though the end of the swarm feature can increase the hive meter making retriggering more likely, you still need to be able to trigger the swarm feature in the first place to achieve this.  

Even the exciting lineup of multipliers included in many of the bonus features of the game ranging from 2-1000x needs to be eyed with caution, as nine of the potential values are 10x or under, and 20 are 100x or under; so being realistic, the multiplier you are awarded is likely to be lower than the eye-catching 1000x multiplier potential suggests.

Overall, for me, the Wild Swarm 2 slot machine goes down about as well as a horde of wasps at a summer picnic. There are a lot of other honey bee-themed slots out there, not to mention the original Wild Swarm slot, that I would much rather play. Of course, as my rating is a balance of numerous criteria, I do have to score Wild Swarm well for its presentation and compatibility, overall the Wild Swarm 2 game, despite all its honey, leaves a sour taste in my mouth and scores 5.5/10.

Rating: 5.5