Step into the Wild West With Van Der Wilde & the Outlaws

Van Der Wilde & the Outlaws is the latest addition to the iSoftBet portfolio of online pokies. Try it at an online casino near you.

Van Der Wilde & the Outlaws is the pokie for you if you love the Wild West. Fans of Westerns, and cowboys and Indians will love this iSoftBet machine. It is a brand new addition to the iSoftBet library, launching at online casinos on October 13, 2021. Is it worthwhile playing? We tested it and here are our findings.

Van Der Wilde & the Outlaws Fundamentals

There are dozens of Wild West pokies in the online casino world, so it makes you wonder why iSoftBet added another. These games are popular, which is one reason, but iSoftBet obviously thought they could make one that stands out from the crowd. That is no easy task.

iSoftBet’s Van Der Wilde & the Outlaws has a simple yet effective base game. It runs on a 5×3 layout with a mere ten win lines running left to right. The Return to Player (RTP) is exactly 96%, putting it in the average category.

The game’s variance is anything but average, however. The variance is extreme; you have been warned. iSoftBet have some highly volatile machines on the market, and this is one.

Bet sizes start at only $0.01 and increase to $10. The relatively low maximum spin will keep high rollers away. As will the 8,827x maximum payout, although that equates to between $88.27 and $8,270 at minimum and maximum stakes.

Van Der Wilde & the Outlaws Symbols

Van Der Wilde & the Outlaws is set in a superbly drawn Western town complete with gun-toting outlaws. All the symbols have a convincing metallic look to them, and they sound great when they spin and land.

The game uses iSoftBet’s Xtreme Pays which means you will see plenty of dead spins. Van Der Wilde & the Outlaws keeps your bankroll topped up with some juicy base game wins. For example, the titular Van der Wilde pays 250x for landing five matching symbols.

There are only nine paying symbols; five are low-value royals. The four high-value symbols are the game’s outlaws. They pay 1x to 250x for landing three to five.

Symbol Three Four Five
Van der Wilde (Blue) 10x 50x 250x
Bonney Cassidy (Purple) 5x 20x 50x
Buffalo Butch (Green) 2x 8x 20x
Mad Dog (Orange) 1x 5x 10x
Aces and Kings 0.5x 3x 8x
Queens, Jacks, Tens 0.5x 2x 6x

Van Der Wilde & the Outlaws has a Wild symbol that doubles as the game’s scatter. It has no value on its own but it triggers the expanding wins feature and free spins bonus.

What Are The Game’s Features and Bonuses?

Van Der Wilde & the Outlaws uses the Expanding Wins feature the “Book of” series made famous. Any win that uses the wild symbols pays out the regular amount before winning symbols expand to cover full reels. This gives you a new payout.

Three scatters anywhere triggers the free games round where you receive eight free spins. A wheel appears which selects one of five games. The four high-value symbols have their own game, but they are essentially the same. The symbols become “super,” which mean wins made with it expand without wilds.

However, the Super Spins game is what you want. It gives you five super spins which happen on four 5×3 boards at once! Again, the chosen symbols expands without the need for wilds, but wilds also play, making full-screen wins possible.

Both Super Spins and the Free Games can retrigger.

Conclusion

Van Der Wilde & the Outlaws is like visiting an old western saloon. It is steady away and quite tranquil most of the time, with a splattering of intense action on occasion.

We are fans of the expanding wins feature because it helps rack up large wins. The free games are cool, too, especially when Super Spins activate. However, despite the fun, the variance is just too much. Even those most hardened pokie player will struggle to deal with the variance; it is downright unforgiving.

The 8,000x maximum payout is juicy enough for most players, but not the type of players who will handle the volatility well. Perhaps iSoftBet will tone it down in a future release? It has a great machine on its hands if it does.