The spookiest time of the year is already upon us, and it’s also time for the slot industry to flaunt its latest Halloween releases. You can almost smell the carved pumpkins when you try such a slot, and many are on offer. Haunted Reels is one such release. Developed by BGaming, it’ll spook you straight from the beginning, but in a cheeky manner.

The cartoonish visuals and medium variance give this slot a light-hearted touch. Nothing’s light-hearted about the RTP, though, which races straight up to 97%. This promises a lot of great action, although you’ll need Lady Luck on your side. The good news is that there are thousands of ways to win – 3,125 to be exact – as well as features such as multipliers to balance things out.

From carved pumpkins to a skeleton host, Haunted Reels looks and feels like a spookily good time. If you’re in for a bit of trick-and-treat, read my Haunted Reels review below. After that, you can taste a sample of it right here, on this page or try it for real money at the best rated online casinos with BGaming games.

Most themed slots centered around Halloween have the same look, at least thematically. Haunted Reels is along those lines. Symbols include various treats, candies, cheeky spiders, and skulls. The 5x5 grid dominates the central part of the screen, while the controls are in a transparent case beneath them. It’s easy to reach every element, whether you’re playing it on your PC or mobile devices at the top casino sites.

What’s great is that you can click on the symbols on the grid to see their payouts, so there’s no need to access the paytable. Setting your bet and spinning the reels is easy as well. The buy bonus sits on a gravestone on the left, which is also a nice touch. The animations and the soundtrack fit the theme like a Halloween zombie glove.

To start playing the Haunted Reels online slot, you’ll first need to choose a bet. Beginners can go as low as 20c, a tad higher than the average min bet. High rollers can select up to $50 per spin. When you’re ready, hit the spin button or choose up to 1,000 (or infinite) auto spins courtesy of the autoplay option.

The three colored skulls are the highest-paying symbols. A bat and a spider fall down in the middle before giving way to Halloween candies and candles. The higher-paying symbols pay up to 3x for five-OAK combinations, while the maximum with the lower-paying symbols is 0.75x. 

A glowing ghost is the wild and can substitute for any other symbol in a winning combination. To make things more exciting, the developer has also attached a multiplier to the wild. Values range from x2 to x10. There are no other specials in the base game. You’ll need the pumpkin scatter to get to the exciting bonus round.

You need three or more pumpkin scatters to get to the slots bonus round. Three, four, or five bring 5, 7, and 10 free spins respectively. Before you start the feature, you’ll be presented with three gravestones in different colors.

• Green: all symbols are shot by multipliers
• Red: only high symbols (skulls) are shot by multipliers
• Purple: all high symbols are double-shot by multipliers

Make your pick carefully, as it can drastically impact your bonus round experience. During the feature, coffins can randomly pop up and reveal a prize. They can award additional free spins, multipliers, or a sticky symbol type, which is selected randomly.

Of course, the multiplier shot feature is active for the duration of the bonus round, depending on your pick. This can lead to great rewards if you get lucky and land the symbols above. Multipliers go as high as x10, which can result in nice wins.

If you don’t want to wait for a traditional trigger, you can buy into any bonus round. The green one costs 50x, the red one costs 100x, while the purple one costs 300x the bet.

The Haunted Reels slot reignited my passion for Halloween-themed slot games. It was a fun experience, even if it doesn’t do much regarding special features. It’s a bit multiplier-heavy, which some players might not like. But that only happens if you don’t hit a win involving a multiplier. I did that pretty soon — after 7 or 8 spins. It was only a doubled win, but it proved that the wild multiplier worked.

I started playing with a bet of $1 and didn’t lose too much of my bankroll after about 30 spins. I then decided to buy the red bonus, which set me back 100x the bet. It wasn’t the ROI I had hoped for, but the multipliers on high symbols did provide a total win of 82x the bet. Getting to the bonus round in a traditional way is a bit hard, so you might want to buy the bonus.

Haunted Reels is a medium-volatile slot game with an excellent RTP of 97.00%. The maximum win you can hit in the bonus round is 5,000x the total bet.

While Hallows Eve can be spooky, this slot has a light touch. It shines with great décor but keeps things simple so as not to scare some players off. The high RTP and medium variance will be a draw for both new and experienced players. Anyone who likes multiplier fun will love this game, too.

Multipliers are active in all stages of the game, and as I witnessed myself, they can deliver some pretty neat returns. Land a few wild multipliers or pay more for the bonus round, and those multipliers can fill your trick-or-treat bag to the brim.

If you prefer something scarier, NetEnt’s Halloween Jack is a good choice. You can also go with Big Bass Halloween by Pragmatic Play if you’re looking for something familiar with a twist.