The Heat is On

Who didn’t use to play Cops and Robbers as a kid? This time around, the stakes are a lot more serious, as two attractive women face off in a battle of wits, charm and duty to see which one will come out on top. Will the sensual thief win out and make out with her loot, or will the policewoman put a stop on her crimes and earn a big prize for doing so? There’s no time to pick favourites, because the bank is in trouble, and we have to rush to the scene right now. With two high-impact Wilds, and a free spins bonus on the line, we can’t afford to waste time!

The slot has a 5×3 playing field with 45 paylines laid across them. Said paylines are fixed, and only pay left to right, which can make gameplay feel a bit conservative. That said, the rule doesn’t apply for Scatters, which can score a win no matter where they are on the reels, making them the most attractive option to find. The Heat is On plays with both gambling icons and some unique artwork that helps to set the theme properly. 10, J, Q, K and A can be found on the playing field alongside a bomb, a motorcycle, a police car, a helicopter, and a suitcase full of gold bars that has to be super heavy to lift up!

Along with that, you have our two rivals as Wilds, and the bank itself as a Scatter, serving to activate the special feature. The Autoplay in this game works fine, but it is far from the best we have seen. There are no loss or win limits, no ability to stop the slot from spinning when the free spins bonus becomes active, nothing but choosing the number of spins you want to do. It is disappointing, especially when other developers have already implemented it.

While we are certain The Heat is On will make quite a lot of people happy due to the wide betting range it has, which can go between $0.50 up to $100, it has other areas in which it can be quite disappointing. For one, despite having only 45 paylines, the slot charges you as if you are playing with 50, which is a discrepancy right there. Second, the wins are honestly somewhat disappointing for this Microgaming release. A full reel of Wilds will only win you 20x your total wager, which is honestly a very lacklustre reward. We can’t see high rollers being particularly pleased about this, or anyone else for that matter.

So, what’s to be said about the icons themselves? Graphics are on point, as we’d expect from the developers. While the inclusion of gambling symbols is an annoyance we’d like to see disappear from games all together, they look nicely on the playing field and don’t jump out too much. Meanwhile, the remainder of the slot has icons drawn specifically for the theme, making it look much nicer. There are two Wilds in play in The Heat is On. The policewoman and the cat-burglar both pay the same and work in the same manner – being able to replace any symbol except each other and Scatters.

That said, the pair does work together in earning you a win, but your wins are halved if you mix Wilds rather than using only one type. Scatters can pay from anywhere, but their bonus can only be activated if Scatters are adjacent to each other. The game also does some fun things as depending on the position of Scatters and how much Scatters on a single reel you have, it can increase your free spins, up to a maximum of 80! However, we aren’t satisfied with forced adjacency being a thing. Why even tie free spins to a Scatter if you remove the entire point of a Scatter?