Blood Diamond

Blood Diamond Review

At first glance, I was sure we were finally gonna see NoLimit City’s first-ever branded slot. However, Blood Diamond is actually not based on the 2006 Leonardo DiCaprio blockbuster of the same name, although it explores a similar theme. The game plays out in a war-ridden African country, where a young diamond-mining slave tries to escape with a massive gem in his hand. Needless to say, it doesn’t end too well for him, as you would expect from a NoLimit City release.

You can place bets between €0.2 to €40 per spin Blood Diamond slot, which caters to both penny punters and somewhat moderate high rollers. Unlike in so many NoLimit City games, there are no grid-expanding symbols, meaning the 5x4 grid remains static with 1,024 win ways. You win by landing matching symbols across at least 3 adjacent reels, from the leftmost reel towards the right. The high-value symbols are different characters, with the top-tier symbol being the diamond-snatching slave.

Blood Diamond Slot - Reels Screen

The character symbols pay between 1x and 2x your stake for 5 of a kind wins, while the lower-value symbols, consisting of the fist-clenching diamond, guns, whips, chains, and walkie-talkies, award between 0.5x and 0.7x your stake for the same. It’s also worth mentioning that the character symbols can land in size 1x4, with each covered position counting as one instance of the symbol. Wild symbols substitute for any pay symbol to help complete wins, while also paying 2x your stake for 5 wilds on a win way.

The random Chained Reels feature delivers synced reels, which can combine with the xNudge Desire feature to fill the entire grid with xNudge Wilds. Regular xNudge Wilds can also appear organically, increasing the win multiplier per nudge. The bonus round has 3 tiers in Blood Diamond, with 1 to 3 Big Bonus Scatter upgrades upfront, persistent win multipliers, and guaranteed Chained Reels per free spin. The top-tier RTP of 96.14 % is a tad above average, but lower RTP settings are a possibility. Blood Diamond is a high volatility release, boasting a max win of 14,780x your stake.

Blood Diamond Features

You get a mix of familiar xMechanics and innovations in the Blood Diamond slot, and we’ll make sense of it all for you below.

Chained Reels Feature

The Chained Reels feature can trigger randomly on any spin, linking at least 2 reels each time. Linked reels all land the same symbol in each adjacent position, increasing your chances of a larger payout.

xNudge Wilds

The xNudge Wild symbol always nudges fully in place to cover any reel it appears on, increasing the global win multiplier by +1 for each nudge. If multiple xNudge Wilds partake in the same win, the multiplier values are added together to boost any wins on the same spin.

xNudge Desire Feature

The xNudge Desire feature triggers at random times in the base game, turning 1 to all 5 reels into xNudge Wilds. If a Chained Reel is affected by this feature, all Chained Reels turn into xNudge Wilds. The xNudge Wilds may land fully or partially in view and will nudge fully in place to increase the win multiplier, as usual.

Oppression Free Spins

The Oppression Bonus Round triggers from 3 scatter symbols in view, awarding 5 free spins. One of the scatters will be the Big Bonus Scatter, which spins to award extra free spins, a higher win multiplier, extra guaranteed Chained Reels, a guaranteed xNudge Desire trigger per free spin, a guaranteed xNudge per free spin, or the game’s max win.

At least 2 reels will always be Chained Reels per free spin, unless you upgrade to get even more Chained Reels via the Big Bonus Scatter. The win multiplier is persistent for as long as the bonus round lasts, building from xNudge Wilds and potentially the Big Bonus Scatter upgrade. You can land up to 3 Big Bonus Scatters on the same free spin, with each symbol awarding an upgrade as described above.

Domination Free Spins

The Domination Bonus Round triggers from 4 scatters in view: 2 regular scatters and 2 Big Bonus scatters. The feature plays out like the Oppression Bonus Round, but with 2 Big Bonus upgrades upfront from the triggering scatters.

Enslavement Spins

You need 5 scatters in view to trigger the Enslavement Bonus Round, with 3 of the scatters being Big Bonus Scatters. This feature also plays out like the previous bonus rounds, awarding 3 Big Bonus upgrades before the feature starts.

Blood Diamond Slot - Free Spins

Blood Diamond Bonus Buy & Booster Menu (not UK)

The NoLimit Booster and Bonus Buy menu is found via the red lightning icon above the spin button. It comes with the following options in Blood Diamond NoLimit City:

• xBet - pay 3x your stake to get a Bonus Scatter symbol on reel 1 or 2.
• Chained Reels Booster - pay 7x your stake to get the Chained Reels feature.
• xNudge Booster - pay 35x your stake to get an xNudge Wild.
• xNudge Desire - pay 500x your stake to get this feature.
• Oppression Bonus - costs 85x your stake.
• Domination Bonus - costs 200x your stake.
• Enslavement Bonus - costs 500x your stake.
• Lucky Draw (33 % chance for either of the FS rounds) - costs 261x your stake.

Theme & Graphics

Despite the identical title, NoLimit City’s Blood Diamond is not a branded slot based on the Leonardo DiCaprio movie from 2006. It explores a similar theme, however, telling the story of a young diamond miner trying to escape his enslavement with a massive diamond, only to get shot in the back by the military guards. All the characters on the reels have intense expressions, and the soundtrack underscores the atmosphere of danger together with warning signs and weapons.

Pros and Cons of Blood Diamond

Our Verdict

When you consistently pump out top-notch slot games, in addition to constantly pushing boundaries in terms of themes and visuals, there are bound to be some slip-ups along the way. Blood Diamond comes across as one of those rare releases where you feel that the NoLimit City crew is not quite at the top of their game. Don’t get me wrong, Blood Diamond is still a decent game overall, but it does not feel as groundbreaking as many other releases.

When reviewing any given NoLimit City slot, you’re basically forced to compare it to their own catalog and nothing else. This provider operates in a league of their own, after all, which is why they are also held to a higher standard than most developers. First of all, the artwork of Blood Diamond, while polished and technically solid, still lacks the atmospheric depth we’ve gotten used to from NoLimit City. Also, while the subject matter may be serious enough, the game lacks the raw nerve and true grit found in many other NLC releases.

There is nothing truly controversial about this theme either. It’s a realistic depiction of the unfortunate conditions in certain poor and war-torn countries, where diamonds are mined to fuel the war effort. A young man tries to escape with a diamond the size of his fist and pays the ultimate price. Tragic, sure, but not really all that engaging. The Chained Reels feature is hardly revolutionary either, as synced reels have been seen many times before.

I had the most fun purchasing the xNudge Desire feature again and again during my test session. However, the 500x price tag is not exactly budget-friendly. The Big Bonus Scatter upgrades are another thing I enjoyed, not least since you can get more upgrades during the bonus rounds. The 1 in 278 spins hit rate is a bit below average though, and the 14,780x win cap is well below average for NoLimit City. It helps that the max win hit rate is a decent 1 in 1.2 million spins, but it’s still a low potential for this volatility level.