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Blood & Shadow 2 Review
Blood & Shadow 2 is the sequel to Blood and Shadow, which itself was a thematic follow-up to their earlier release, Book of Shadows. While the two predecessors only shared a similar dark aesthetic, Blood & Shadow 2 closely follows in the footsteps of the spooky original game. The horror element has been significantly dialed up this time, with the 5x4 grid set within a large Gothic cathedral. A pentagram surrounded by candles comes into view in front of a guillotine altar, as symbols are removed via the tumble mechanic.
With no background music, the eerie sound effects are amplified, and the echo of the symbols slamming down adds a sense of presence, as if you're witnessing the ritual from one of the benches in the foreground. The gameplay once again revolves around filling the Ritual Meter to level up your experience, unlocking sticky wilds, upgrading symbols, and awarding smaller doses of Candle Free Spins. Visually, each level-up moves you closer to the beheading ritual in the front, building towards the intense and gruesome climax.
Filling the Ritual Meter unleashes the Reign of Terror bonus round, and this is when all hell breaks loose. For starters, all low and mid-level symbols are removed for the duration of this feature, leaving only the possessed high-paying witch and animals on the reels. These award between 2x and 5x your stake for 5-of-a-kind, while the low and mid-level symbols pay between 0.15x and 1.2x your stake. In addition, the grid expands to 5x5, increasing the number of win ways accordingly.
The default number of win ways is 1,204, paying from left to right, but guillotine and dagger xSplit symbols can split both reels and rows to generate up to 3,125 ways to win. The RTP of 96.09 % is slightly above average, and the 16,161x max win comes with a solid hit rate of 1 in 3.3 million spins. Finally, the volatility is extremely high in this game, scoring 10 out of 10 on a scale, so this is hardly for the faint of heart no matter how you slice it.
Blood & Shadow 2 Features
There are tons of intricate features to cover in Blood & Shadow 2 slot, and we’ll do our best to make it as clear as possible below.
Tumble Wins
Winning symbols are removed via the Tumble mechanic, sometimes called cascading reels, allowing for new and existing symbols to drop down to fill the gaps. This process repeats as long as you keep winning, allowing for indefinite winning streaks.
Ritual Bar
You get a bottom row filled with locked and inactive wilds, and these are activated via the Ritual Bar progress meter as you level up. Both scatters and winning combos involving mid to high-paying symbols progress the meter, by +10, +1, and +2 points, respectively.
Each level-up eliminates the remaining lowest-value low symbol while also upgrading the remaining lowest-value medium symbol to its top-tier possessed counterpart. Each level-up also unlocks and activates a wild from the bottom row, and you need 20, 30, 40, 60, and 80 points collected to unlock levels 1, 2, 3, 4, or 5, respectively. The Ritual Bar resets per level up, but excess points are carried over.
Candle Spins and Sticky Wilds
You get 2 Candle Free Spins whenever you level up on the Ritual Bar until you reach level 4 or 5. Then, 6 free spins are granted in the Reign of Terror Bonus Round. The Ritual Bar continues like normal during Candle Free Spins, while sticky wilds drop to the bottom in both features. They remain in that position until used in a win, or until your next paid spin.
xSplit
The Guillotine xSplit symbol splits all symbols below itself on the same reel, while the Dagger xSplit symbol splits all symbols on the same row. All split symbols are upgraded with an x2 multiplier that also appears on all xSplit symbols. Both xSplit symbols turn wild after the splitting action, and symbols in the intersection between reel and row splits are split again, further upgrading the symbol multiplier. You can get up to x32 symbols in a single position this way.
Blood & Shadow 2 Free Spins
The Reign of Terror Free Spins feature triggers via the Ritual Bar, as mentioned above, awarding 6 free spins. The grid expands to size 5x5 as the Ritual Bar is removed, and you’ll only land high-paying symbols and special symbols during this feature. Each scatter that appears adds +1 free spin to your tally.
Blood & Shadow 2 Bonus Buy (not UK)
Eligible players can check the bonus buy menu via the red button with a yellow lightning icon located above the spin button. It comes with the following options in Blood & Shadow 2 slot:
- xBet 1 cost 2.5x your stake and gives you level 1 spins that increase your Reign of Terror FS chances by 3x (and max win hit frequency to 1 in 750k spins)
- xBet 2 costs 66x your stake, awarding a level 5 Dagger and Guillotine xSplit spin.
- The Halifax Gibbet FS round costs 100x your stake (see below).
- The Reign of Terror FS round costs 500x your stake.
- The Lucky Draw feature (40 % chance of level 3, 40 % chance of level 4, and 20 % chance of level 5) costs 240x your stake.
The Halifax Gibbet Free Spins feature is only available via the Bonus Buy menu. It starts you off at Ritual Bar level 3 with 6 Candle Spins and 3 low and medium symbols upgraded.
Pros and Cons of Blood & Shadow 2
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Tumble Wins for indefinite winning streaks | Customizable RTP ranges and extreme volatility |
| Ritual Bar FS w/ symbol upgrade and wild activation | |
| xSplit symbols split reels and rows w/ x2 multiplier | |
| Reign of Terror FS w/ 5x5 grid and only high symbols | |
| Win up to 16,161x your stake (1 in 3.3m spins) |
Our Verdict
Blood & Shadow 2 has undergone an impressive visual upgrade that truly brings out the potential of its satanic ritual theme. While playing out in presumably the same black mass cathedral and featuring similar symbols, the original game feels tame and static in comparison to the dynamic visuals in this sequel. This time, you really feel like you're part of the congregation, with strange creatures coming into view on the benches in front of you as you're drawn closer to the dark ritual with each level-up. The spacious sound effects reverberating within the massive cathedral add to this immersive experience, and this is a game best played with dimmed lights, a quality headset, and a larger screen.
Many providers would have simply given the original theme a minor facelift and called it a day, but not when they create a follow-up, which is rare, they do it properly. Blood & Shadow 2 is a testament to that, but the math model isn't as strong as usual. The game is extremely volatile, as expected, but the 16,161x potential doesn't quite match. It's an upgrade from the 6,666x of the original, but it's also around half of what's on offer in Book of Shadows. The 1 in 3.3m spins hit frequency is a solid improvement from the 1 in 97m spins hit rate of the original, though.
As you may remember, the hit frequency of the Cursed Spins bonus round in the original game was a staggering 1 in 10,000 spins. Luckily, it seems to be reduced to “only” 1 in 2,220 spins for the Reign of Terror bonus in this sequel. This is based on the fact that reaching level 4 (enough to trigger the feature) has a hit rate of 1 in 740 spins with the xBet 1 turned on. To be clear, the advertised 1 in 18 spins hit rate refers to regular Candle Free Spins, not the main attraction.
Even though you will most likely have to play for a good while to reach the Reign of Terror bonus, this game is as entertaining as it is terrifying. It's probably more fun if you're able and willing to take advantage of the bonus buy menu though, which does exclude many players. Testing the free play demo version of Blood & Shadow 2 slot is a good start, and if you take it all the way to the win cap, you'll experience the dark “Enlightenment” of having El Diablo himself stick his snake-like tongue down your throat.
