Posted in Game Reviews, New Games July 31, 2019
Play’n GO Adds a Brand New Game to the Rich Wilde Series
Hundreds, if not thousands, of slot machines are released every year. Due to the massive growth in the online gambling industry, players have a tough time filtering through all those new games and finding the most interesting and fun ones to play. The best filter you can apply is to look for games developed by proven teams and leading companies from the industry, such as Play’n GO.
Not only is Play’n GO one of the most dominant companies on the market currently, but the Rich Wilde series is one of the few series that is still relevant, although the first game in the series came out a long time ago. The most recent title in the Rich Wilde series is the Tome of Madness slot machine.
First Impressions
Although first impressions can be overrated, they are extremely important when it comes to online slots. Play’n GO made sure that you feel welcomed by putting the main game and all its elements on the screen when launching the game with a nice welcome page, followed by a short cutscene. We recommend listening to the monologue at the beginning, as it’s fairly short and sounds pretty cool.
The reels appear right after the cutscene, and the first thing we notice is that there are a lot of fields out there. To be precise, there are 25 symbol fields thanks to the 5 by 5 structure. The one thing players might find weird about the game initially is that there is no information about the paylines whatsoever. Although that looks like a clear mistake by the development team, there are in fact no paylines or ways-to-win combinations available. The goal is to get the matching symbols to touch each other either vertically or horizontally, connecting as many as possible (maximum is 25, which covers the entire table).
Is that a cool way to play slot machines? Absolutely. Could and should the developers have put a small tutorial or at least an info bar explaining the system at the beginning? Definitely.
Eye Marks, Portal, Multiplier Wilds, and More
Before talking about bonus features in Rich Wilde and Tome of Madness, let’s see what we are working with and which symbols we can expect to see on the reels. The one thing players are going to appreciate for sure is that there are no card values in the paytable.
Play’n GO took some time and designed eight unique symbols. It all starts with 4 gemstones — green, blue, red, and purple, from the least to the most valuable one. As we are looking at the paytable and changing the bet size, the paytable values update in real time, which is yet another nice user interface and user experience feature.
Four gemstones are followed by a skull mask, ring, sword, and some sort of an amulet. The amulet is actually the most valuable regular sign, as you can get 10,000 coins for combining ten or more of them, in case you are betting the maximum amount.
There are five wild cards available in the game, each one bringing a unique benefit to the player. For now, let’s just mention three of them, as the other two are working along with bonus features which we will go over in the following section.
All three substitutes for the eight regular signs, trying to create the best possible combination on the reels. The special wilds trigger Portal effects, multiplier wilds double all the prizes won that round, while the Mega Wild moves the entire grid, allowing new symbols to appear on the screen and thus increasing your odds of making a winning combination.
Bonus Features
The Portal is the main feature in the game. As if winning a prize by combining matching symbols wasn’t enough, the Portal feature is activated after each win in a new round. By charging the portal, you can get 2 special wilds added to the table. Make a winning combination with one of the wilds and activate two additional features:
- Abyss — Removes a column or a row
- Void — Randomly selects one of the symbols from the table and removes all of its instances across the reels
After winning on 42 symbols on the reels, you will activate the Other World Free Round. After every 3 winning signs, an additional Portal Effect is added, up to 7 of them in total. One unique Portal Effect will also be activated when there are no more wins on the reels. The feature ends when all the Effects are used.
Bet Sizing & RTP
When a game has no paylines or does have a fixed number of them, you have one less option when it comes to adjusting the bet size. In this game, you are directly choosing the total bet size by picking the amount from the list below the reels. There are no additional pots or micro-management menus.
Some people might prefer having more options when it comes to setting up the total bet, but the majority enjoy the simplicity games such as what Tome of Madness offer. Always pay attention to the conversion between the money you have in your wallet and the in-game currency, as it may vary across different online casinos.
We are in the era when players are not thinking about the RTP that much as they used to a decade or two ago. The reason is that 3D animations, great looks, and entertaining features are a lot more important nowadays. However, Play’n GO isn’t letting anyone down by lowering the RTP behind the curtain since they decided to set it to 96.59%, which is way over the market average.
Learn more about RTP (Return to Player) here.
Final Words
All we can do after thoroughly analyzing all the important aspects of the game is to sum everything up — we have a brand new, great looking, and fun to play slot machine with a fairly high RTP.
If you don’t think you’re ready to play the game with real money right off the bat, you can always opt for the free version where you can try out all the features and play the game using demo credits for as long as you like.
Below we picked some of the best online casinos out there, offering free games from Play’n GO. Happy spinning!
Top 10 Play’n GO Casinos
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Min. Deposit: £10
W.R: 35x
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Min. Deposit: £10
W.R: 35x
Cashable: No
Bonus: 100% up to £300+ 300 Free Spins on pre-selected games. 18+. New Players only. T&Cs apply.
Min. Deposit: £10
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W.R: 40x
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Min. Deposit: £10
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Cashable: Yes
Bonus: 200% bonus up to €500 + 30 Extra spins on Wild Scarabs
Min. Deposit: €20
W.R: 40x
Cashable: Yes
Bonus: Welcome bonus worth up to £1,000 + 200 Free spins. 18+. New players only. Deposits made via Skrill or Neteller are not eligible for the welcome offer. After first deposit 20 Free spins per day for 10 days at Starburst (valid for 72 hours). Full T&C's apply.
Min. Deposit: £10
W.R: 40x
Cashable: Yes
Bonus: 100% Match Bonus on your First Deposit or Get your money back! (up to €40) 18+. New Players only. T&Cs apply.
Min. Deposit: €10
W.R: 35x
Cashable: Yes
Bonus: €25 Risk Free First Deposit – Double up or get it back (up to €25)! Wager-free welcome offer. Double your bonus in 24 hours or get your money back, in cash! 18+. New players only. T&Cs apply.
W.R: 0x
Cashable: Yes
