Description
With the standard five reels across three rows, plus up to a whopping 3,125 ways of winning (and a minimum of 243). Dark Vortex Slot from Scandi slot supremos, Yggdrasil Gaming has a seriously dark feel. Enter its shadowy world and prepare to be spooked as you team up with evil forces!
The autumn 2018 release is rounded off by a corker of a soundtrack, which you should turn up to enjoy to the full. Plus, it’s populated by any number of suitably chilling creatures.
How to play
You can play Dark Vortex Slot on any device you like, including a mobile one, from 10p a go and up to £50 a pop. It also has a ‘win both ways’ structure, meaning wins are paid out from left to right and vice versa.
The symbols here include five monsters and five books in different colours. These aren’t regular reads, though – expect volumes with teeth, tentacles, spikes or an eyeball! Not to mention green slime. The top payer, the red beast with horns, forks out 6x stake for a full Payline of five.
Dark Vortex Slot special features
Special symbols
The large gold Wild icon is simple enough. As usual, it replaces all others bar the Orb and Vortex symbols. And you’ll only see it on the central three reels.
Bonus features
Vortex Reels
If you get a pair of Vortex icons on neighbouring reels, the vortex opens.
Travel to a new realm in which the three base-game rows become five. For example, you’re now playing on a 5×5 grid where stacked symbols, including Wilds and the high-paying creatures, can appear.
Each additional neighbouring Vortex icon awards a new Vortex Reel and a couple more spins. Clearly, playing on more reels gives you more ways to win.
The Orb symbols you’ll spot here come in blue and pink and enhance the free spins play.
Pink Orbs add Wilds to the central trio of reels, although they only show up on numbers 1 and 5 of the Vortex Reels. The blue ones, which land on the other reels, add a free spin per symbol displaying.
Whenever the vortex opens, you’ll receive five blue Orbs automatically.
Free spins
Trigger this once all five Vortex Reels have been activated. You’ll play it on the 5×5 grid, so stacked Wilds can rock up on the central three reels. In all, there are 3,125 ways of winning here, in each direction.
The Orbs you’ve collected will boost each spin, with the blue Orbs deciding extra spins, and the pink ones adding stacked Wilds.
Option to buy more free spins
You can do this at any point via the button at the bottom-left of your screen. Each one costs 80x stake.
The round kicks off by showing a couple of pick-and-click games in a row, and you need to select one of five choices from five cards each time. First, you decide how many Wilds will show up in your free spins round (as shown by the pink Orbs).
In the second game, you will find how many free spins turns you’ve won – the max is 20, with up to 10 stacked Wilds a time.
Jackpot
With no jackpot as such, and certainly not a progressive one, the top prize is an impressive 350,000 coins when all the bonus rounds mentioned above come together.
Return to Player (RTP)
This is a medium-to-high game, variance wise, so you should brace yourself for some fairly lengthy dry spells in between wins. RTP or Return to Player is a generous 96.5%.
Verdict
As ever with Yggdrasil, you can expect some exceptional visuals and smooth gameplay with this engaging slot, plus there’s a strong line-up of bonus features with plenty of evidence of this operator’s creativity and innovation. The pace here is brisk, and while Dark Vortex Slot is not as complex as it may sound, equally it’s not the simplest slot around, so it may not be ideal for novice players.
Finally, while ‘scary’ slots are hardly new, the shudder-inducing atmosphere should keep you coming back for more, and not just at Halloween.