Bivol Beasts 2 Pate Link Slot Review

If you played Pateplay's original Bivol Beasts, their new sequel, Bivol Beasts 2 Pate Link, is going to feel very familiar. It keeps the Western theme and the first game's published figures, but this time they've bolted on a progressive jackpot network. The entire game really revolves around one main feature: a hold-and-collect bonus where the board expands, and you don't see a dime of your payout until the very last spin.

To get into the bonus game, you need to land five or more suns and stars, which kicks things off with three free spins. The board instantly grows from three rows to six, though the downside is that the top three rows are locked at first.

During the bonus, the only symbols that land are suns, stars, multipliers, jackpot suns, and golden buffaloes. Everything sticks to the board except the multipliers. The mechanics can sound a bit complicated, but the gist is this:

• Stars are your best friends early on. They collect the values of the suns below them, add a free spin, and turn into a sticky symbol themselves. Every time you collect three stars, one of the locked rows opens up.
• The Golden Buffalo is the real MVP, but it only lands on the top row. This means it just sits there doing nothing until you manage to unlock that row. Once it's active, though, it adds two free spins and continuously collects the values on its reel for the rest of the round.
• Multipliers occasionally drop in to boost a random sun before disappearing.

One thing I actually like about this bonus is that the free spin counter only ever gets topped up and never resets. The suspense builds because the round only ends when you run out of spins or fill the board, and only then does the game tally up your total win.

You have a couple of options for how to play. There's a "Higher Chance" mode that makes every spin cost 2x your bet to help trigger the bonus, but I'd be careful with it: it lowers the game's RTP to 95.82%, which is the worst return in the game. On the flip side, buying the bonus outright for 100x your bet gives you the best RTP at 96.78%.

I paid 100x my bet for Buy Bonus Game. My trigger board landed with four suns and two stars, starting me off with five free spins. For the first ten spins or so, I was sweating a bit: my board only held about half of what I paid for the feature, and I had a golden buffalo just sitting inactive on a locked row. But on the next spin, the third row finally opened up. Two golden buffaloes dropped in and just went to work, sweeping their reels for the rest of the round. The feature lasted about 15 spins total and I walked away with a nice 197.5x my bet. It proved to me that the buffaloes absolutely drive the big payouts, but you are entirely at the mercy of landing enough stars early on to unlock them.

So, how does it stack up? As a sequel, it's really more of a lateral move. It shares the original game's high volatility, 96.50% base RTP, and 5,000x max win cap. The only real reason to play this over the first one is if you like chasing the Pate Link jackpots.

If you like this style but want to shop around:

• Pateplay's own Fruit Attack 10 Pate Link uses the same jackpots but caps higher at 6,000x (though with a slightly lower RTP).
• Fast Fox Heist has a similar collect mechanic but gives you more buy options and a cheaper Higher Chance.
• Looking at other studios, it reminds me a bit of Outlaw Rails: Hold & Win, though that game locks its collector to the middle reel instead of the top row.
• It also feels like the exact opposite of Primal Buffalo PowerGrid, in that game, the board clears if you miss a coin, whereas here, your symbols stubbornly hold their ground.

It's a solid, suspenseful slot that matches Buffalo King Megaways on its 5,000x cap, but you have to be okay with the "all or nothing" feeling of waiting for that top row to unlock.