Hacksaw Gaming has built a reputation for slots that sit somewhere between quirky and unsettling, and Beast Below fits that mould perfectly. Released in June 2023, this underwater-themed slot drops players into a murky oceanic setting where strange, spiny creatures lurk in the gloom. It’s not outright horror, but there’s a persistent sense of unease to the whole thing. The art style leans slightly cartoonish, which keeps it from being genuinely creepy, though the dark colour palette and shadowy backgrounds do a solid job of setting the tone. It’s an odd one, frankly, and that’s part of the appeal.
Slot Basics
Beast Below runs on a 5-reel, 4-row grid with 14 fixed paylines. It’s a relatively compact setup compared to some of Hacksaw’s more ambitious layouts, but it works well enough for the game’s mechanics. Wins are formed by landing three or more matching symbols from left to right along a payline. The low-paying symbols are your standard 10-through-Ace card ranks, while the premium symbols are five different sea creatures that look like they’d ruin your day if you bumped into them while swimming. A full line of five premiums pays between 5x and 10x the stake, and anchors serve as wilds, substituting for all regular symbols. Five wilds on a line pays 20x your bet.
The RTP sits at 96.29%, which is respectable and in line with what most players would expect from a modern Hacksaw release. Volatility is rated high, so dry spells are part of the package. Stakes range from £0.10 up to £100, giving a decent spread for different bankroll sizes. Hit frequency is listed at around 25%, meaning roughly one in four spins should return something, though many of those wins will be small. The maximum win caps out at 10,000x the stake.
Bonus Features
The feature set in Beast Below revolves around expanded wilds and multipliers, with a few different bonus triggers to keep things interesting. Wilds can expand across the reels under certain conditions, covering more positions and creating better chances for multi-line wins. When multipliers get involved, the maths starts to shift in your favour more noticeably. Sirens and divers both play a role in triggering bonus activity, though the specifics can take a few sessions to fully grasp.
There are four different feature buy options available for players who prefer to skip straight to the action. These come at varying costs and can alter the RTP slightly depending on which option is selected. It’s worth checking the paytable before committing to a buy, as the value proposition differs between them. The base game itself can trigger bonuses organically, but as with most high-volatility Hacksaw slots, patience is part of the deal. Free spins rounds tend to be where the real potential lives, with expanding wilds and multipliers combining to push payouts towards that 10,000x ceiling.
Beast Below is a decent slot, though not one of Hacksaw Gaming’s most memorable. The theme is atmospheric without being groundbreaking in its execution, and the feature set is solid rather than spectacular. That said, the combination of expanded wilds and multipliers gives it enough mechanical depth to hold attention during longer sessions. It suits players who enjoy Hacksaw’s particular flavour of high-volatility gameplay and don’t mind a slower burn in the base game. If you’re looking for something with a bit of edge and a dark aesthetic, it delivers on that front. Just don’t expect it to compete with the studio’s top-tier releases for sheer excitement.
