Guess what just washed up on your doorstep? Another underwater slot from ELK Studios! Or rather, let me put it across this way…a follow-up to the Stockholm-based company’s 2023 release, Oxygen!
The original slot emphasised symbol transformations, multipliers, and special wilds.
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Cluster pays with cascades | The default RTP is below par |
Several in-game modifiers | An overused underwater theme |
Lucrative win cap of 25,000x bet | |
A magnificent design | |
Multiple bonus buy options |
When air dissolves in water, the main components are Nitrogen (around 66%) and Oxygen (around 33%). Given the prevalence of the latter, I can’t comprehend why ELK Studios opted to name this video slot Oxygen 2 instead of Nitrogen 2.
But, I’m not in the business of naming online slots, so I’ll just leave that to the professionals.
The 6 columns and 7 rows are transparent, floating inside what appears to be a sunken submarine or circular vessel. Although the surrounding waters are dark, a dim light focuses on the reels, enabling you to follow your gameplay without straining.
Honestly, the design isn’t so different from its predecessor. However, the graphics are more defined, with colourful but weird-looking creatures forming part of the reels. To top the design off is a tropical electric melody and ambient bubbly sounds.
Only seven symbols complete the paytable in this video slot. They are all thematic, some serving as high-paying and others as low-paying, depending on their payout levels.
Since the slot has embraced a Cluster Winning engine, you must connect matching symbols horizontally or vertically to generate a winning combination. Like most cluster slots, you need at least 5 of the same to complete a win.
Oxygen 2 uses an avalanche technique, whereby all the winning symbols are either exploded or if the symbol is a special wild, it becomes activated to be exploded later. The remaining symbols fall vertically to a resting position, while new symbols drop to occupy the empty spaces. The process repeats as long as new winning clusters appear.
A win is evaluated as the paytable prize multiplied by the stake!
This time, I’ll start with the premiums. They include the Green, Orange, Pink, and Red creatures integrated into trash poured into the sea. As per the listing order, they pay 0.3-25x, 0.4-30x, 0.5-50x, and 1-100x the bet for 5+ of the same.
Then, the minor symbols are the Green, Orange, and Pink Floaters worth 0.1-10x, 0.15-15x, and 0.2-20x the bet, respectively.
Oxygen 2 also has several wilds, including special ones. They all substitute for any paying symbol and can pay as the highest-paying symbol when a combo of only wilds hits. Further, big 2x2, 3x3 and 4x4 symbols with multipliers may appear in any symbol drop.
The selection of features, including several multipliers, special wilds, and free spins will leave you wanting more spins.
When a symbol explodes initially, an Oxygen Bubble with a 1x multiplier forms in its position. Whenever a symbol explodes on a bubble position, the multiplier doubles up to 2,048x.
The Oxygen Bubbles don’t participate in the cascades, and all of them, including their multipliers persist between free drops in bonus mode. The Multiplier Strike adds random multipliers on the Oxygen 2 grid and can trigger in any game.
The Jellyfish feature is random, where at least one Jellyfish appears with a multiplier. Every Jellyfish stops at random symbol positions, adding its multiplier to the position it stops. If it stops in a position with an existing multiplier, both multipliers (Jellyfish and existing multipliers) will add to each other.
Meanwhile, an Octopus can randomly appear behind one symbol position. Winning on the symbol position with the Octopus activates the Octopus feature. The feature adds a random selection of the available multipliers outside the winning cluster to the win, boosting the win multiplier.
The Exploding Wild triggers an explode feature when part of an Oxygen 2 winning cluster. The explode feature ejects all the payout symbols within two cone-shaped areas facing up and down or left and right from itself. The Exploding and Blaster Wilds within the cone-shaped areas will be activated.
The Super Exploding Wild activates all unactivated Oxygen Bubbles behind the exploded symbols.
The Blaster Wild activates when it’s part of a paying cluster. The Blaster feature activates a random payout symbol or wild and the Blaster Wild then explodes and replaces all payout symbols with the selected symbols in an X or Plus-shaped pattern.
Any Exploding Wilds or other Blaster Wilds along the pattern will be activated. The symbols affected by multiple Blaster Wild patterns will become wild symbols.
Hit 3 bonus symbols to trigger the bonus game with 10 free drops. The multipliers are persistent when entering the bonus game and between free drops. In addition, the Octopus persists in the bonus game and randomly shifts at the beginning of each free drop.
Meanwhile, 4 bonus symbols in Oxygen 2 trigger the Super Bonus, where the Jellyfish is triggered per free drop. Hitting 2 or 3 bonus symbols during the bonus and super bonus games retriggers +3 and +5 free drops. Meanwhile, landing 4 bonus scattersupgrades the feature to a super bonus with +7 free drops.
You can buy different features, including the bonus and super bonus, directly from the base game using the X-iter function. However, be ready to part ways with between 3x and 500x the stake, depending on the feature selected.
If you’re willing to play this game, then your budget should support between €0.20 and €100 wagers for every spin.
If it does, pick an ideal bet amount before spinning the 6 columns and 7 rows. You click on the Spin button to ignite the reels or use the Autoplay function to preselect and gamble several game rounds automatically.
Oxygen 2 features a cluster wins engine, translating to wins formed when 5+ identical symbols touch vertically or horizontally. An avalanche mechanic starts after a win, as mentioned above.
The developer has also included a Menu function for ease of setting up your game. It exposes the settings, game rules, and the paytable options.
It seems ELK Studios has a strict adherence to the 94% RTP value because it’s the same for this video slot. Then, the maximum amount you can win is 25,000 times the bet but the volatility hasn’t been publicly declared yet.
By reading this review, you should have picked that this game follows the original Oxygen released in 2023. Two years on, has ELK Studios made any mouth-gaping changes to this new chapter for a more advanced experience?
First, most of the action from the prequel returned here, with the Oxygen Bubbles being the centre of attraction. As mentioned, winning on them doubles the multiplier up to 2,048x the stake, hence significantly boosting your winning chances.
Further, Oxygen 2 makes use of many other features, including special wilds, big symbols, symbol replacements, and two types of free spins. Sadly, I didn’t experience heightened action in the super bonus, except for the fact that the Jellyfish feature triggered during every free drop. Otherwise, I’d recommend only buying the regular free drops and hoping that 4 bonus symbols land to upgrade you to the super bonus.
Despite the almost identical nature to the predecessor, its gameplay was engaging to say the least. Plus, a 25,000x bet max win?! Who wouldn’t want to try their luck at winning the life-changing sum?
Theme: | Gems & Jewels |
Provider: | ELK Studios |
RTP: | 94% |
Paylines: | Cluster pays |
Release date: | 2025-03-04 |