Buried By Night Demo & Slot Review

Buried By Night Review

Wild West is a pretty common theme for online slots, but let's be honest: truly memorable releases are quite rare. For me, some of the most stylish, feature-heavy, and overall strongest slots in this theme come from Hacksaw Gaming.

Yes, compared with their Le series and other more niche releases, cowboy slots make up a smaller part of the catalogue. Still, Wanted Dead or a Wild remains one of the provider's most popular releases across several geos according to our SlotRank. Duel at Dawn and Bullets and Bounty have not reached the same level, though both still hold pretty strong positions in casino lobbies.

Today, I'm putting my imaginary cowboy hat on once again because Hacksaw Gaming has cooked up another Wild West release: Buried By Night.

The core of Buried By Night is built around a 5x4 grid with 14 betways paying from left to right. You can bet from €0.10 up to €50 per spin, which is enough for regular play but leaves very little room for serious high-rolling.

Besides the regular paying symbols, the base game includes Wilds with the usual substitution role and two types of Scatters tied to the bonus game. The paytable looks like this:

On the math side, Buried By Night comes with several RTP settings: 86.35%, 92.26%, 94.34%, and 96.32%. The version you get depends on the casino, so checking the RTP before playing makes sense here.

Volatility sits at medium-high. Hacksaw does not give it the full 5-out-of-5 rating, though wins can still come with fairly long gaps between them. Hit frequency is listed at 29%, while the maximum win reaches 15,000x the bet, which is a pretty juicy ceiling.

Buried By Night Slot - Reels Screen

Buried By Night Slot Features

Feature-wise, Buried By Night follows a pretty familiar Hacksaw Gaming setup: one main mechanic supported by several bonus round variations that push it further. We have already seen the Duel Reel idea in the studio's earlier cowboy releases, and I still think it is one of their more original concepts. This time, Hacksaw turned that idea sideways, quite literally, with Duel Rows taking the central role.

Duel Rows

Concept-wise, Duel Rows are not entirely new territory. The mechanic is triggered by the VS Symbol, which can land on reels 2, 3, or 4 but cannot appear on the top or bottom row. Once it lands, the symbol expands horizontally depending on its reel:

• Reel 2: expands across reels 1-3.
• Reel 3: expands across reels 1-5.
• Reel 4: expands across reels 3-5.

After the row expands, two duelists face each other, with one multiplier assigned to each side. One duelist survives, and their multiplier applies to all wins connected to that Duel Row.

If several Duel Rows contribute to the same win, their multipliers are added first and the combined value is applied to that payout. Available multipliers are 2x, 3x, 4x, 5x, 10x, 25x, 50x, and 100x.

Duel Rows cannot overlap, which limits how many expanded rows can be active around the same area of the grid.

Trigger Warning

Trigger Warning is activated by landing 3 FS Scatters in the base game and starts with 10 Free Spins. The regular game mechanics stay active, while VS Symbols have an increased chance of landing, giving Duel Rows more room to show up during the round.

Extra FS Scatters can extend the bonus. Landing 2 FS Symbols on the same spin adds 2 Free Spins, while 3 FS Symbols add 4 Free Spins.

Shoot to Kill

Shoot to Kill is the stronger of the two regular bonus games. Landing 4 FS Scatters in the base game awards 8 Free Spins and adds a progressive DuelSpin Bar outside the grid.

Every FS Symbol fills the bar by one step, and every 3 steps move it up by one tier. Each tier awards a DuelSpin with a minimum number of VS Symbols, a set number of Nudges, and 2 extra Free Spins:

• Tier 1: at least 1 VS Symbol, 3 Nudges, and 2 Free Spins.
• Tier 2: at least 2 VS Symbols, 4 Nudges, and 2 Free Spins.
• Tier 3: at least 3 VS Symbols, 5 Nudges, and 2 Free Spins.
• Tier 4: at least 4 VS Symbols, 6 Nudges, and 2 Free Spins.

During a DuelSpin, every Nudge moves all reels down by one row. Wins are paid after each Nudge before the reels move again. The DuelSpin starts immediately after the Free Spin that unlocked it and does not count towards the remaining Free Spins. If several DuelSpins are unlocked on the same spin, they are played one after another before the next regular Free Spin.

Buried By Night Slot - Bonus Game Screen

Hot 100 Bonus: Six Feet Under

Six Feet Under uses a separate Hot 100 Scatter. Landing 3 of them in the base game awards a single Free Spin, but that one spin can become a fairly long affair.

Nudges keep triggering during the spin until 100 wins have been awarded. Each win is counted on the Hot 100 Meter outside the grid, and once the meter reaches 100, no further Nudges are triggered. FS Symbols cannot land during this bonus.

Bonus Bet

The Feature Buy menu includes two Bonus Bet options for players who want to increase feature activity in the base game:

• 2x bet: increases the chance of triggering a bonus game.
• 60x bet: guarantees at least one VS Symbol on the spin.

Bonus Buy

There are also two direct Bonus Buy options:

• 80x bet: triggers the Trigger Warning bonus game.
• 200x bet: triggers the Shoot to Kill bonus game.

Theme and Graphics

As usual, presentation is one of the strongest parts of Hacksaw Gaming's cowboy slots. Buried By Night goes for another gritty Western setup, with a sunset desert in the background and an old vaquero standing beside the reels.

The reels themselves look like a worn-out bulletin board, which fits the dusty frontier theme very well. Art quality is great overall, and the animations are also strong, although the cowboy's movement can look a bit clunky at times.

Sound design gets the same level of attention. The soundtrack fits the setting well, while the smaller effects around spins, features, and wins help maintain the Western atmosphere throughout the session.

Pros and Cons of Buried By Night Slot

Buried By Night Free Play

You can play Buried By Night for free here on SlotCatalog without registration or deposits. Considering how much of the game revolves around VS Symbols and Duel Rows, a few demo sessions are a good way to see how often the main mechanic actually gets involved.

Buried By Night demo includes the full feature set, so you can test Trigger Warning, Shoot to Kill, Six Feet Under, Bonus Bets, and Bonus Buy options as well. I'd spend some time watching how Duel Row multipliers stack when several rows connect to the same win, since that is where a big chunk of the slot's potential sits.

Final Words

Buried By Night is another proof of Hacksaw Gaming's superiority when it comes to Wild West slots. Visually and audibly, this release is a real treat, while the math is also pretty good if you get the 96.32% RTP version.

The Duel Rows mechanic works well as a sideways variation of the studio's older duel ideas, and the different bonus rounds give it enough room to develop beyond the base game. Shoot to Kill is probably the main highlight for me, since the DuelSpin Bar, guaranteed VS Symbols, and Nudges can push the core mechanic much harder and keep wins moving across several reel positions.

My main issue is the RTP range. Seeing the same slot offered at anything from 86.35% to 96.32% is a huge gap, so checking the version available at a casino matters a lot here. Outside of that, Buried By Night feels like another strong cowboy release from Hacksaw, with a 15,000x max win, additive Duel Row multipliers, and enough feature depth to keep the formula interesting.