The highly anticipated Batman: The Dark Knight Rises video slot has finally arrived at Microgaming powered online casinos across the net. Of course this sequel was one that just couldn’t be missed and so we took it for a test run as soon as it made its debut at the end of August.

As expected the graphics are nothing short of outstanding, with actual movie clips embedded into the reels for certain symbols as well as some stunningly animated features that are enthralling from the very first glance. Game play is smooth and the pace is fast enough to be exciting and keep you on the edge of your seat.

From the initial impression The Dark Knight Rises video slot seems to be nothing short of epic, a worthy sequel to its predecessor, Batman The Dark Knight video slot, and yet another win from Microgaming who is famous for a number of awesome slots games that are loved by players the world over.

With that said though, there is something that you need to be aware of when playing this slot and that is the fact that at the start of the game all features including the heat-seeking-wilds and extra-joker are locked in the initial stages of the game. For experienced players this may not seem like a big deal because many existing slots like Thunderstruck 2 and Immortal Romance have “locked” features wherein you’ll start off with Feature 1 when it is activated which offers the same odds of earning the same level of payouts as the subsequent 3 features which are “unlocked” as you progress through the game.

The initial stages of The Dark Knight Rises slot differ in that the locked features are not accessible until you’ve played for a very long time which means that no matter what the value of bets you are playing, you will not be in line for big wins in the initial stages of the game.

So effectively it would seem that the start of the game has a much lower Return to Player (RTP) than the later stages when you have unlocked the features.

In order to compensate for this, the best slots play strategy for this game would be to start the game off with low coin limits of a few cents (and be prepared to spend some time on it) and once you have unlocked the features you can then increase your coin size to larger denominations where your money has the potential to earn you bigger wins.

So while this is a game that we definitely enjoyed and would recommend based on the sheer brilliance of the graphics and game play, after all, it is a Batman slot, we do advise that you go into this game aware of the fact that it does differ in earnings potential from other games based on whether or not the features are unlocked and you should adjust your slots strategy accordingly in order to reap the maximum returns possible.