It’s late, the kettle’s on, and you’ve got a bit of bonus credit left in your account. You fancy a slot that keeps you spinning for a while rather than eating your balance in ninety seconds. Someone on a forum swears by an old NetEnt vampire game with a headline RTP that sounds almost too good. You type it in, and two titles come up: Blood Suckers and Blood Suckers 2. Which one do you actually load?
That’s the question this review is built around. Both are vampire-themed NetEnt slots, both have stood the test of time, and they appeal to genuinely different kinds of player. Below I’ll walk through how they work, what the numbers really mean for your bankroll, where they differ, and how to play them sensibly at UK-licensed casinos.
What is Blood Suckers?
Blood Suckers first appeared back in 2009, which in online slot terms makes it practically ancient. It’s a five-reel, three-row game with 25 fixed paylines and a gothic horror theme: garlic, holy water, crossbows, ghouls, and a cast of snarling vampires who look like they’ve stepped out of a late-night Hammer film.
The graphics show their age. There’s no cascading reels, no megaways engine, no bonus buy, and no 100,000x headline prize. If you’re after the visual fireworks of a modern release, this will feel plain.
What Blood Suckers does have is longevity, and that matters. NetEnt kept it in circulation for well over a decade because players kept coming back to it. The reason is simple: it’s a low-volatility game with a genuinely generous return-to-player figure, which means your balance tends to last. For anyone who values playtime over lottery-ticket payouts, that combination is hard to beat.
Blood Suckers vs Blood Suckers 2: the key differences
Blood Suckers 2 landed years later and was built as a proper sequel rather than a reskin. It follows a vampire hunter, Amilia, who arrives at the castle to reclaim a hidden treasure. The art style is sharper, the animations are smoother, and NetEnt bolted on extra features to give it more depth.
Here’s the short version of how the two compare:
| Feature | Blood Suckers | Blood Suckers 2 |
|---|---|---|
| Developer | NetEnt | NetEnt |
| Reels and paylines | 5 reels, 25 paylines | 5 reels, 25 paylines |
| Volatility | Low | Low to medium |
| Return to player | Traditionally one of the highest in the catalogue | Notably lower than the original |
| Free spins | Fixed number of spins with a win multiplier | Free spins with randomly awarded extra features |
| Pick bonus | Coffin-stabbing bonus game | Hidden treasure bonus with multiple stages |
| Top prize | Modest by modern standards | Modest by modern standards |
| Look and feel | Retro, chunky, unmistakable | Modern, character-led, animated |
One important note before we go further: always check the RTP shown inside the game itself. NetEnt titles are offered in several return-to-player configurations, and operators can select a lower version. The figure quoted on a review site is not necessarily the figure you’ll get.
RTP, volatility and what they mean for your balance
RTP gets quoted constantly in slot reviews, and it’s routinely misunderstood. It’s a long-run mathematical average calculated over millions of spins. It does not mean you’ll get 98% of your money back on a session. On any given Tuesday night you could lose the lot, or double up and walk away.
Still, RTP isn’t meaningless. Across a large sample of players, a higher return figure means the game takes less out of the pool. Blood Suckers has historically been published at the very top end of the NetEnt range, which is exactly why it’s been a favourite of bonus hunters for years. Blood Suckers 2 sits lower, which is the single biggest reason some players stick with the original.
Volatility is the other half of the picture. Blood Suckers is a low-volatility slot: wins land fairly regularly, they’re usually small to moderate, and big swings are rare. It’s the slot equivalent of a long, steady walk rather than a sprint with a cliff at the end.
Imagine two players with £50 each. The first plays Blood Suckers and gets an hour of entertainment, lots of small hits, and finishes somewhere near where they started. The second plays a high-volatility jackpot slot and busts out in fifteen minutes — or hits something big and quits ahead. Neither outcome is guaranteed, but the typical experience differs, and knowing which shape of session you want is half the battle.
Blood Suckers bonus features explained
There are two things that keep people spinning this slot.
Free spins with a multiplier
Land the right scatter symbols and you trigger the free spins round. Wins during free spins are multiplied, which is where the game’s better payouts come from. It’s not a complicated mechanic, and that’s part of the appeal — you always know what you’re playing for.
The coffin bonus game
This is the signature feature and still one of the more entertaining pick bonuses around. Trigger it and you’re taken to a crypt full of coffins. You open them one at a time, stabbing whatever’s inside. Vampires pay out; an empty coffin ends the round. It’s darkly funny, it’s quick, and it breaks up the base game nicely.
Blood Suckers 2 takes that idea further with a multi-stage hidden treasure bonus, plus extra modifiers that can drop into the free spins round at random. There’s more going on, more to watch, and more variety between sessions.
Which one suits which player?
This is where the head-to-head really settles.
Choose the original Blood Suckers if you:
- Want the strongest theoretical return of the two
- Prefer simple, transparent bonus mechanics
- Like long sessions with a small bankroll
- Enjoy retro slot design and don’t need cinematic visuals
- Are working through wagering requirements and want steady turnover
Choose Blood Suckers 2 if you:
- Want better graphics, sound and animation
- Prefer more varied bonus rounds with layered features
- Don’t mind a slightly rockier ride for a more modern feel
- Already know the original and want a change
For pure bankroll efficiency, the original wins. For entertainment value per spin, plenty of people would argue for the sequel. Neither is the wrong answer.
Playing at UK-licensed casinos
If you’re playing from the UK, the site you use needs a licence from the Gambling Commission. That’s non-negotiable, and it’s the single most useful filter you can apply before you look at anything else.
A UK-licensed casino gives you access to regulated game versions, protected player funds in some form, published complaint procedures, and mandatory safer gambling tools. It also means the operator can’t quietly disappear with your balance. Offshore sites offering NetEnt titles to UK players are doing so outside the rules, and you’d have nowhere meaningful to turn if something goes wrong.
Practical things worth checking before you deposit:
- Withdrawal speed and limits — how long do payouts actually take, and is there a cap per transaction?
- Payment methods — debit cards, PayPal and other e-wallets are standard at decent UK sites. Credit card gambling is banned in the UK, so any operator offering it should raise alarm bells.
- Customer support — live chat with real hours, not a contact form into the void.
- Game library depth — if Blood Suckers is there, check what else NetEnt and other studios provide.
Mobile play
Both titles run fine on phones and tablets. Blood Suckers 2 has the edge on smaller screens thanks to newer HTML5 builds and cleaner art, but the original is perfectly serviceable and loads quickly. The pick bonus works well with a touchscreen — tapping coffins feels more natural than clicking them, if anything.
If you mostly play on mobile, check that the casino has a properly optimised site or a well-reviewed app rather than a shrunken desktop lobby. Small details like readable bet controls and easy cashier access make a bigger difference than people expect.
Bonuses, wagering requirements and the fine print
Older slots like Blood Suckers have historically been popular with bonus players precisely because the high RTP and low volatility made wagering more survivable. Operators know this. It’s common to see classic high-RTP games either excluded from bonus wagering entirely or weighted at a reduced rate.
Before you accept any welcome offer, check three things:
- Game weighting — does Blood Suckers contribute 100%, 50% or 0% towards wagering?
- The wagering multiple and time limit can vary considerably at a new non gamstop casino. — a big bonus with a tight deadline is often worse than a small one with a fair one.
- Maximum bet while a bonus is active — breaching it can void your winnings.
Bonuses are marketing, not free money. Treat any offer as a way to extend playtime rather than a route to guaranteed profit, and you’ll make better decisions with them.
Playing responsibly
Both games are designed to be entertaining, and the house keeps an edge over time — that’s how the maths works, on every slot, always. The best sessions are the ones where you’ve decided in advance what you can afford to lose and you stick to it.
At UK-licensed casinos you’ll find deposit limits, reality checks, time-outs and self-exclusion tools, and they’re worth setting up before you play rather than after. If gambling stops feeling like fun, stop. BeGambleAware and GamCare offer free support, and self-exclusion through GamStop blocks access across participating operators.
So which should you play?
Blood Suckers versus Blood Suckers 2 comes down to what you want from a session. The original is the sharper tool for bankroll management: strong published RTP, low volatility, straightforward features, and a bonus game that still raises a smile after all these years. It looks dated and it will never pay you a life-changing sum.
Blood Suckers 2 is the better production, with richer features and a more modern feel, but it gives up some of that theoretical return in exchange.
My honest take? If you’re new to either, start with the original and see how it treats you. Just make sure you’re playing at a UK-licensed site, check the RTP in the game’s help file, set a deposit limit first, and remember that no review — including this one — changes the fact that the house has the edge.