Introduction to CollectOrbs: Wild West Wilds
CollectOrbs: Wild West Wilds is a casino slot from Playtech that welcomes a new gameplay mechanic alongside a familiar Cowboy setting. This new titular mechanic is the CollectOrbs, and this is the first installment sporting said feature. However, as it isn’t the most genre defining nor mind blowing, Playtech seem to have gone with the safe route, coupling it with a pretty standard Wild West theme, which can be a make it or break it situation, as if the gameplay isn’t interesting enough, the game might just fall into redundancy. But let’s not jump to conclusions just yet, as the CollectOrbs feature isn’t all too bad, just relatively basic and doesn’t feel very thematic. The gameplay loop is all about hitting Collect Orb Symbols, which help pay out the other 3 types of Orb Symbols, including Coin, Jackpot Prize, and Free Spin Orbs. Alongside this are Extra Orb Features that will award bonuses such as Expanding Orbs, Match Coin Orbs, or Respins. It all plays relatively well, with some volatility sprinkled in, but can feel a bit too reliant on the titular Orb feature. But if you enjoy the spins, you might just even want to hunt down the max win of 1,000X the bet.
Playtech delivers on a new titular feature in the form of CollectOrbs, bringing with it 4 types of Orbs, 3 of which offer prizes, alongside a few extra bonuses.
Theme, Gameplay, & Payouts
CollectOrbs: Wild West Wilds is a video slot from Playtech with 6 Reels, 5 Rows, and 40 paylines. You can choose between making a Min.bet of 0.1 and a Max.bet of 390. CollectOrbs: Wild West Wilds comes with an average RTP of 96.42%, medium volatility, and a low max win of 1,000X the bet.
As previously mentioned, CollectOrbs: Wild West Wilds comes with a Wild Western theme, however, it isn’t anything remarkable, with a small town as the background and the reels coming with a handful of thematic symbols. Its visuals and setting aren’t anything all too interesting or noteworthy, but it does feel like it can clash a bit with the titular feature, which seems to be the focus of the game. You can play the game on most mobiles, desktops, and notepads.
The lower-paying symbols are J, Q, K, and A. Creating a win with 6 of the same symbols will pay out 3X the bet. The higher-paying symbols are a horseshoe, a revolver, a bag of coins, a cowboy, and a sheriff. Landing a win with 6 of the same symbols pays out 5X to 10X the bet. The Special Symbols include Wilds, Cash Orb, Prize Orb, Free Spin Orb, and Collect Orb Symbols, and more on these in the next section.
Special Features & Mechanics
What is the max win in the slot CollectOrbs: Wild West Wilds?
You can win up to 1,000X the bet.
What features are available in the slot CollectOrbs: Wild West Wilds?
The features are Wild Symbols, CollectOrbs, Extra Orb Features, Free Spins, Ante Bet, and Feature Buy.
Wild Symbols
Wild Symbols help form winning combinations by being able to substitute for all symbols except Orb Symbols.
CollectOrbs
Orb Symbols come in 4 versions, including Cash Orbs, with random values of 0.5X to 10X the bet, Free Spins Orbs, which can award 1 to 10 spins, Prize Orbs, which award the Prize mini game, rewarding you with a random Jackpot of Mini, Minor, Major, or Grand, with up to a maximum of 5X Multiplier. However, these Orbs need the 4th Collect Orb to land before they can pay out anything. The three lowest Jackpot Prizes can also be increased by landing any type of Orb Symbols, resetting whenever they pay out. The prizes are as follows:
Mini Jackpot = Starts at 10X and can be increased up to 50X.
Minor Jackpot = Starts at 20X and can be increased up to 100X.
Major Jackpot = Starts at 100X and can be increased up to 500X.
Grand Jackpot = Starts at 1,000X and cannot be increased further.
Extra Orb Features
Whenever a Collect Orb Symbol lands on the reels, it will be collected by the Reel-Specific Extra Orb Feature, needing 6 Collect Orb Symbols in the base game to trigger. The Extra Orb Features are as follows:
Expand = Can be triggered with orbs on reels 1 and 2. When activated, it will turn the Collect Orb into an Expanded Symbol, filling up the reel with random Orb Symbols and then collecting them.
Respin = Can be triggered with orbs on reels 3 and 4. When activated, it will lock in all Orb Symbols and award a Respin, continuing to Respin until no more Orb Symbols land. If all positions are filled, you will be awarded the Grand Jackpot.
Match = Can be triggered with orbs on reels 5 and 6. When activated, all Coin Orb Symbols will copy the highest-paying Coin value on screen before being collected and paid out.
Free Spins
By collecting a Free Spins Orb Symbol, you will be awarded the Free Spins feature with the collected number of spins. During the bonus game, all Extra Orb Features can be triggered by only landing 3 Collect Orb Symbols, and after being activated, they will trigger on any spin that lands a Collect Orb Symbol on the respective reel.
Ante Bet
By turning on the Ante Bet, the Extra Orb Features only need 3 Collect Orb Symbols to trigger, however, at the cost of increasing your current bet by 1.5X.
Feature Buy
Through the Feature Buy, you can instantly enter the bonus game for a price based on the current bet.
60X = Awards 5 Free Spins and 1 randomly unlocked Extra Orb Feature.
110X = Awards 8 Free Spins and 1 randomly unlocked Extra Orb Feature.
145X = Awards 10 Free Spins and 1 randomly unlocked Extra Orb Feature.
250X = Awards 25 Free Spins and unlocks all Extra Orb Features.
Final Thoughts on CollectOrbs: Wild West Wilds
While CollectOrbs: Wild West Wilds is the debut release of the titular CollectOrbs mechanic, it sadly just doesn’t land as a very impressive feature that can completely carry a title by itself. However, this seems to have been fixed in the next title, as only two months later, we saw the release of CollectOrbs: Fox’s Trail, which has an interesting theme, better visuals, and utilizes the titular mechanic, alongside other features, in a better way. However, even with that criticism, we still think CollectOrbs: Wild West Wilds is a valid title, and while we feel like its rather stale theme isn’t doing much to help it, it at least has decent visuals and good enough spins, which served as a good foundation for future releases.
When it comes to gameplay, CollectOrbs: Wild West Wilds is all about its titular Collect Orbs, both for collecting Coins and Prize rewards but also to trigger the Extra Orb Features, which are the actual highlight of the game. The standard gameplay loop of the CollectOrbs feature works similarly to most other Cash Collect mechanics, meaning it can feel a bit uninspired. That’s where the Extra Orb Features come in, as while they’re not anything especially new in terms of mechanics, they do feel refreshing in a Cash Collect formula, granting mini bonuses and bonus games to break up the standard spins. These are then massively improved upon in the Free Spins bonus game by making them stay active and also needing fewer Collect Orbs to activate.
However, this still comes with the caveat that you’re still only spinning for Orb Symbols, especially as the paytable isn’t all that great, and if you’re not a fan of this mechanic, there’s very little else that the game offers. But, even so, we enjoyed our time with CollectOrbs: Wild West Wilds, even if we think the uninspired Cash Collect wins are, for the most part, carried by the Extra Orb Features and can still end up with rather disappointing wins, as the max win is stuck at only 1,000X the bet.
CollectOrbs: Wild West Wilds is the debut release of Playtech’s titular CollectOrbs mechanic, coming with four types of Orb Symbols that work similarly to a Cash Collect mechanic, set in a bit too small a Wild Western town.
