Introduction to Western Gold
Western Gold is set in the old Wild West of America and is a fun, engaging pokie that will appeal to novice and experienced gamers alike. It's certainly got similarities with other pokies - such as NetEnt's hugely successful Dead or Alive - but it's no less entertaining for that. The free spins bonus round is excellent and offers good win potential. It's a very nicely designed game with flawless graphics and smooth gameplay. If you haven't seen much from Just For The Win previously, we strongly suggest you check out some of their other online pokies, as they are all developed to the same high standards as this one.
Theme, Graphics & Soundtrack of Western Gold
Set in the Wild West of America, this game is full of cowboy boots, lucky horseshoes, pistols and all the other paraphernalia you might expect. It's a stunningly well design pokie with great graphics and meticulous attention to detail. The soundtrack is great, too. It consists of movie-style music and lots of sound effects which are triggered when the reels spin or when you land a win.
Western Gold RTP and variance
This is a high-variance pokie, which might not suit everyone. Generally speaking, high-variance pokies pay out less frequently than those with lower variance. They also, however, tend to have the potential for huge wins. This is why some players make a beeline for high variance pokies - they can be very exciting to play!
The game's RTP (return to player) is 96.12%. This is a decent return and is towards the upper end of average returns for online pokies. The RTP gives a rough indication of how much of your money you can expect to win back. If you bet 100 coins on this game, you would expect to win back 96.12 coins. Of course, there will be huge variations in the actual amount won, with some players winning far less than this (or nothing at all) and others winning much, much more.
How to Play Western Gold
This is simple to play and will suit novices as well as more experienced gamers. The game has 40 paylines and these are fixed, meaning you will always be betting on all 40 paylines. This makes things nice and simple when it comes to playing! You only need to select your total bet size - no need to change your lines or bet per line. It should be fairly obvious how to play, but here are full step-by-step instructions in case you need them.
1. Launch the pokie and wait for the intro screens to finish playing.
2. Locate the bet button - a casino chip with two small arrows inside it. Click on this button and a pop-up menu will appear.
3. Use the up and down arrows to cycle through the available total bet sizes. When you find an amount you're happy with, click on it and then close the pop-up by clicking on the "x" button.
4. Hit the spin button and you're away!
There is no autoplay function in this game, so you can only play by manually pressing the spin button every time you want to spin the reels.
Bet Sizes & Paytable Wins of Western Gold
The smallest bet available is 20 coins, which is equivalent to 0.5 coins per payline (there are 40 paylines). The exact bet structure might vary depend on the site you play on and the currency used. The largest win available from a single spin of the reels is 4000x your line bet, and this comes from landing a total of 12 lucky horseshoe scatters. The next highest win is a total of 120x your line bet and comes from landing five wilds on a single payline.
Western Gold Bonus Features
Western Gold has a free spins bonus feature that you can trigger by landing three free spins scatter symbols in the base game. These symbols can only land on the central three reels - 2, 3 and 4. When these symbols land, you will be awarded three free spins. In the free spins round, any scatters that land are not paid out - instead they are collected. If you collect scatters in a free spin, the free spin counter resets to three, so you will constantly have three spins left for as long as you are collecting scatters. You can hold up to 12 scatters at any one time. If you have 12 already and further scatters land, they will still reset your free spins total to three but will not be added to your scatter total. At the end of your free spins session, you will be paid for your total number of scatters.
Overall Western Gold Review
8/10. While there is nothing particularly original here, this is an entertaining pokie and the decent RTP boosts it. It also has excellent graphics, smooth gameplay and a great soundtrack.