Death Becomes You

Death Becomes You Review

If anything, Hacksaw Gaming is a game developer with both brilliant minds behind the screens and a strong sense of poetry and psychology. The provider is equally capable to deliver what most players desire: cartoonish adventures, sweet cones and candies, Westerns, etc., and games based on the meaning of life. Death Becomes You is the newest chapter in the latter and far from being the first one. It is at least the third in the Life and Death series, after the original title and Circle of Life.

Hacksaw Gaming needs no presentation, as the award-winning provider has proved itself in multiple categories, including slots. The Maltese company started paving its path in 2018 and already has 265+ released games. Most of them fill in categories that most studios out there prefer not to close by. Hacksaw’s Horror-themed games are brilliant in every aspect, offering moments of true darkness and powerful mechanics.

Death Becomes You is far from slots like Dark Spiral and Evil Eyes, but focuses on mortality and offers rather psychological horror. Very few of us, as mortals, have never felt existential dread and the fear that comes with it. So, if you are not feeling the theme appropriate, better skip the title and my review, but otherwise, you’re welcome to try the Death Becomes You demo.

Death Becomes You offers a 5x4 grid, monochrome aesthetics, a pair of beating hearts colored in red, and 14 fixed paylines. They stretch from the left side of the board to the right and pay for 3 to 5 symbols of a kind. The online slot features Hacksaw Gaming’s iconic DuelReel mechanic with expanding VS symbols, multipliers, and aDuel with Death upgrade. There are 3 rather creatively developed bonus games and several Buy Bonus features, too!

Death Becomes You Slot - Reels Screen

Death Becomes You is strange in every aspect and offers such a deep symbolism that it’s sometimes impossible to understand what the designers had in mind. As usual, the paytable is divided into low- and high-paying symbols, 5 in each group. “Eye of the Heart” tops the list of premiums and delivers payouts of 1.50x to 6x the bet. Next in line are Hearts - 1x to 4x, Owls - 0.70x to 3x, Moths - 0.60x to 2.50x, and Fish - 0.50x to 2x.

Instead of the usual card letters and numbers, the provider has been creative again and has filled the Low Pays section with something else. The letters D, E, A, T, and H pay from 0.20x to 1x the bet each and are the key to a special feature. Death Becomes You has a wild symbol as well that substitutes for all the regulars and pays 10x for 5-of-a-kind combinations.

The Death Becomes You RTP ranges and goes as high as 96.34%, while the alternative rates are 94.36%, 92.23%, and 86.28%. The game has high levels of volatility and a Hit Frequency rate of 20.89%. Bets range from €0.10 to €50 per spin, up to €150 via the ante bet. The Death Becomes You max win is solid - 15,000x the bet, or up to €750,000.

Death Becomes You Features

Death Becomes You features DuelReels, which has become one of the favorite bonus mechanics to the provider, along with Free Spins and Buy Bonus. It can manifest in all game stages and evolve into the Duel with Death. As I already mentioned, you can activate 3 bonuses - Meet Your Maker, Drop Dead, and Epic Death. Find all the details in the following paragraphs:

DuelReels & Duel with Death

DuelReels activates when a VS symbol lands and it can theoretically complete a winning combination. If so, it will expand in DuelReel, covering the entire reel and counting as a Wild Reel. Two deities will then fight to award a multiplier, which can be from x2 to x10, x15, x20, x25, x50, x75, or x100. If more than one DuelReel participates in the winning combinations, their multiplier values will be added together.

Duel with Death is an upgraded version of the DuelReels mechanic. It triggers when you spell out DEATH horizontally on any row using the respective low-paying symbols. After the feature is active, reels 2, 3, and 4 merge to display a single Death DuelReel. Life Meter with 3 lives is also displayed to the right. A duel begins between the player with a multiplier of x5 and Death with a random multiplier of x2 to x100.

Whenever the player wins a duel, Death's multiplier value is added to the player’s one. Whenever Death wins a duel, the player loses 1 life. The sequence continues until the player loses all lives and determines its final multiplier. Then, paying symbols, wilds, and VS symbols will be drawn on reels 1 and 5 to determine the final outcome of the feature.

Bonus Game - Meet Your Maker

Meet Your Maker is the most basic bonus minigame in the slot and it triggers when you land 3 scatter symbols. You'll receive a starting batch of 10 free spins and +2 or +4 rounds every time landing 2 or 3 scatters. Meet Your Maker keeps the base game mechanics, but it comes with boosted odds for landing VS symbols and activating the Duel with Death feature.

Bonus Game - Drop Dead

Drop Dead is the second bonus in the game, and it requires 4 scatter symbols. You will receive 3 lives on a rather strange minigame with no round limits. Reels will spin until VS symbols land and expand in DuelReels. Whenever that happens, you will either win or lose the duel, and either lose a life or get a win on the meter to the left. If you trigger the Duel with Death feature, the Life Meter will be refilled. You can defeat each of the 5 DuelReels monsters only once!

Hidden Epic Bonus - Epic Death

Epic Death is the hidden bonus in the Death Becomes You slot, and you can’t buy it, but only activate it with 5 scatters. The minigame starts directly with a Duel with Death sequence, but you’ll have 5 lives instead of 3. After every duel, payout symbols, wilds, and VS will land on reels 1 and 5. The bonus ends when all lives are consumed.

Death Becomes You Slot – Duel with Death Bonus Screen

Buy Bonus

Buy Bonus is part of Death Becomes You unless you play from a region where the local regulator restricts such features. As usual, Hacksaw Gaming has been generous in options in that menu. You can either boost the odds of a natural bonus game trigger, directly buy 2 out of 3 minigames, or the core features. Here is what’s in the menu:

• BonusHunt FeatureSpins - 3x the bet - times more likely to trigger a bonus game (96.29%)
• Death Row FeatureSpins - 60x the bet - at least 1 VS symbol is guaranteed to land (96.32%)
• Duel with Death FeatureSpins - 500x the bet - a Duel with Death feature is guaranteed (96.29%)
• Meet Your Maker - 100x the bet - get 3 scatter symbols (96.35%)
• Drop Dead - 250x the bet - get 4 scatter symbols (96.32%)

Theme & Graphics

Death Becomes You uses a Horror theme of a Hacksaw kind, as I already mentioned in the beginning. The intro is solid, as always, informing the player that Death has awakened from its morbid slumber. It is eager to corrupt and ready to devour, crawling out of the dark, stretching, and yawning. The artwork and animation effects confirm that, as well as sinister audio effects that made me shiver.

Death Becomes You uses the monochromatic design of Life and Death and Circle of Life, but also offers red-colored elements. Two of them are the hearts beating on both sides of the grid. The artwork, especially in the decorations around the active zone, is magnificent, as is the script itself. The dominating colors continue to be black and grey, and that actually makes the slot look very good on Android and iOS mobiles.

Death Becomes You Free Play

You can find a Death Becomes You free play link at SlotCatalog to access the demo version of the game. Thus, you will be able to evaluate the pros and cons of the slot through your own prism. Make sure to spend enough time and test different strategies before making your final decision. Playing for free will also help you test the game’s dynamics and features with no risk of financial loss.

Pros And Cons Of Death Becomes You Slot

Our Verdict

Death Becomes You is definitely not an ordinary online slot, and it’s not created to attract every player. Hacksaw Gaming has plenty of light-hearted games, but never stops to surprise its most passionate fans. Moreover, it shows a desire to upgrade the DuelReel feature, adding extra flavor and more sophisticated solutions for the bonus minigames.

Death Becomes You also impresses with the deep symbolism and minimalist yet fascinating designs. You can go as deep as you want and treat elements regularly or seek what the provider has had in mind. A good example is the “Eye of the Heart” figure in the paytable, symbolizing emotional awareness and spiritual awakening. Or, it is just the highest-paying cartoon there!

With a win cap of 15,000x, Death Becomes You ranks easily among the 14-line slots of the provider with the biggest payout potentials. The RTP is also good, at least if you aim for the highest rate, and volatility is not as high as I expected (4 out of 5). I like the way Bonus Games are crafted and the different experience every mode provides. So, if the psychological horrors are not an issue for you, Death Becomes You should be in your to-check list!