Game Provider: SG Digital

Into The Storm

Into The Storm Overview

Created by Williams Interactive, or WMS as they are sometimes referred to, this new game plunges us deep into the world of the Vikings and their marauding adventures across the North Sea. With five reels and 20 pay lines, this game has plenty of opportunity for big wins. The top payout here, in fact, is 10,500x the stake. Other highlights of this game include the fantastic onscreen artwork and the exciting range of bonus features available.

The features for Into The Storm start with a re-spin feature that is randomly triggered during the base game. When it is, two, three or four walking wilds are distributed onto the reels, moving one position with every re-spin. However, the main feature here is the Into The Storm bonus feature triggered when three or more Kraken Bonus scatters land on the board at the same time. The more scatters that you land, the more ‘hot zones’ will be active during the feature. You then go on to play a game where the aim is to land special symbols in an attempt to fill the grid and win the top prize of 10,500x the stake. There is also a bonus buy feature. All bonuses will be explained in more detail later on in the review.

Theme and Symbols

The theme for this game is a fun and high-quality Viking theme, popular with many slot designers for its visual interest and instant appeal. Vikings make for a great theme with their longboats, ornate decorative weapons, and intriguing runes. Yes, these Vikings aren’t historically accurate, but a slot machine is probably not where people look for historical accuracy. The main visual draw for this game is that the screen has been designed to look like a ship with its red and white sails and wooden planks underfoot. However, we also have bearded warrior Vikings and the mythical Kraken adding visual spice to proceedings.

The background for this game is a Viking longboat or longship created by Scandinavian cultures (including Vikings) as far back as the 4th century. These vessels are iconic in Norse culture as symbols of war, commerce and exploration. Each of these ships has many complicated carvings into the wood that describe the stories of the people that sailed it and their aspirations for the future, such as conquest and prosperity. The longship illustrated in this game is an admirable representation of the sea craft and one that is instantly engaging to look at.
The playing window for this game is an interesting construction made from wood and iron with an ornate wooden dragon at its back.

The symbols for this game are split into low-value, high value and special symbols. The low-value symbols are the five different runes in blue, yellow, green, purple and red. The red one is the most valuable of these, paying out at 2x the stake for the top combination. The more valuable symbols are the helmet, the ginger Viking, the Viking girl and the Viking chief called Leif. He is the most valuable symbol on the board, worth 20x the stake for the top combination. The special symbols finally are the standard wild, the walking wild, the Kraken bonus icon, the hammer modifiers, the treasure modifier and the Viking coin.

Game Play

Into The Storm is played on a 5-reel, 3-row machine with 20 fixed pay lines. To win combinations, players must land three or more matching symbols on pay lines moving from left to right, starting from the leftmost reel.
The betting range for Into The Storm is 20p to £20 per spin. To adjust their bet levels, players can toggle their stake up and down using the tool located at the bottom left-hand side of the screen.

Further information, including a short tutorial and a display of the paytable, can be found via the menu button in the right-hand corner of the screen. The spin and auto spin buttons are located in the centre of the screen.
Volatility for this slot is rated in the high range. The return to player percentage for Into The Storm is 96%, which is average. The biggest payout that players can win on one spin is 10,500x your stake.

Features

The first bonus in this game is the re-spin feature which is randomly triggered when you are in the base game. Between two and four walking wilds are added to the reels when it is. Each of these walking wilds moves one position for every re-spin. When walking wilds land on a normal wild, a 1x multiplier comes into play. The feature ends when all walking wilds have walked off the board.

The next bonus feature in this game is called the Into The Storm feature and is triggered when players land three or more of the Kraken bonus scatters on the reels at the same time. Doing so will bring up a new playing window – a 9×5 grid. The more scatters that you used to trigger the bonus, the more ‘hot zones’ will be active for the duration of the bonus.
The grid will then spin to reveal either a multiplier, blank space or 1 of 4 modifiers. If any of these special symbols land within a hot zone, they will become stuck to the board. Starting the game with three lives, the idea of the bonus is to land as many valuable symbols as possible before your lives run out. You will lose a life if no new multiplier or modifier symbols land. If one does land, however, your lives are recharged to three.

The feature ends when you either run out of lives or fill the entire grid with symbols – granting you the top payout of 10,500x the stake. All multipliers and special symbols at the end of the game are totalled and applied to your stake, and paid out to you. Additional Kraken symbols also reveal multipliers.

The modifier symbols are as follows:
Hammer: Lightning strikes a random number of multipliers to double them.
Treasure Chest: Adds up all current gold multipliers and applies them to the total multiplier of the treasure chest. If it lands in a Hot Zone, they are then multiplied by the multiplier displayed in the Kraken Hot Zone.
Viking Coin: Increases the total lives to 4 for the duration of the feature.
This game also has a bonus buy option. However, it is not available in the UK.

Conclusion

A Viking theme is usually a winner for most people, and when combined with some great features and excellent win potential, it can be very appealing indeed. The level of detail, the thoughtfulness put into the gaming experience, and the terrific top win all give this game the green light from us. Into The Storm is also available to play on mobile, tablet and desktop.

Invaders Megaways

Overview Invaders Megaways

The WMS studio takes players to a quiet rural town deep in the heart of Louisiana where nothing is quite what it seems. Indeed, night after night strange disappearances have been occurring in the town from farm animals to people. What is to blame? It can only be a race of super-intelligent aliens who have flown here from some far-away galaxy in their flying saucers. That’s right, this slot is a classic alien invaders game complete with little green aliens, crop circles and big silver spaceships.

Features for this slot include a cascading reels feature (a classic accompaniment to any Megaways slot), the hilarious Unicow feature, the UFO Wild selector feature and a quite complicated free spin feature. The cascading reels feature, most players will have come across before in some form or another. This feature is triggered when a winning combination is found and replaces the winning symbols with a set of new symbols to immediately try and get another win. The UFO wild feature zaps a symbol and turns every iteration of that symbol into a wild. The Unicow and free spins feature however need more explaining, which we will do later on in this review.

Theme and Symbols

The theme for Invaders Megaways is one of the aliens, specifically, the classic alien-type movie you might have seen in the 50s’ where abduction and silver flying saucers were all the rage. For example, this movie could be based on “Plan 9 From Outer Space,” a movie in which aliens invade earth planning to stop humans from creating a superweapon that could destroy the universe. The theme is very melodramatic but also cartoonish and light-hearted in its style and finish.

The background for the base game is a farm somewhere in the deep south where aliens have flown in and created crop circle in the wheat fields. To the left of the reels, players can see the house of the local farmer which glows green thanks to the extra-terrestrial life that has now invaded it. The background for the bonus free spins game on the other hand is the surface of a foreign planet. Its surface is dominated by conical structures and strange Martian craters. The implied narrative is that you have been abducted and taken to the home planet of your captors.

The board by comparison is a simple rectangular creation that has very few design features at all. The only discernible one perhaps being the glowing transforming margin.

The symbols for Invaders Megaways are as ever split into low-paying, high-paying and special symbols. The low-value symbols are the 9 to A in card royals styled in a cool retro Hollywood idea of the alien script. Up from these in terms of the game symbols are the ray guns, the flying cow, the little green alien and the mad scientist character. However, the top paying symbol is the game’s logo. This symbol rewards you with 4x your stake for 6 on a pay line. The specials comprise the wild, which is any symbol with a wild label on it and the free spin bonus scatter, which is the orange planet with the word ‘bonus’ written across it.

Game Play

Invaders Megaways is a 6 reel, Megaways slot game. The Megaways aspect means that the number of symbols that appear in each row per spin changes. The more symbols that are on the reels at once the more pay line there are available to play. The maximum number of Megaways that you can play on is apparently up to a million with the help of the Unicow feature. To achieve wins on this slot, players must match 3 of a kind on a pay line or use the special symbols to make combinations. Each combination made must start on reel 1. The betting range for Invaders Megaways is 10p and £10 per spin.

To adjust their bet levels, players can toggle their stake up and down using the bet adjuster located to the right of the reels. Information about the slot, including the paytable and the auto spins options, can be found via the settings button to the left-hand side of the playing board.

The volatility rating for Invaders Megaways is very high. The return to player percentage for Invaders Megaways is 96.30%, which is about average for a slot like this. The biggest payout that players can win on one spin is £250,000.

Features

There are quite a few features for this game so why don’t we just dive in. The first feature for this game is the cascading reels feature. This feature is activated when players score a winning combination. The winning symbols are removed from the board and immediately replaced by a new set from above to try and find another win from the same spin. This feature continues until the new set does not trigger a win.

The next feature is called the UFO Wild selector feature. On top of the regular vertically spinning reels you will see an extra reel that spins horizontally. At some points in the game, a UFO will appear and select one of these symbols in this reel by zapping it with its ray gun. All iterations of these symbols that appear on reels 2 to 5 then turn wild for that spin and any cascades that follow.

Next is the Unicow feature. Somehow one of the abducted cows has learnt to use one of the flying UFOs and will appear at random on any base game spin and grow the number of symbols in all the reels. In doing so it will boost the number of pay lines from 168,070 up to 1 million Megaways.
Finally, there is the free spin feature. To trigger this feature players must land 4 or more of the scatter symbols on the reels on the same spin. The more scatters that the bonus is triggered with the more spins that are granted. These are as follows:
4 scatters = 7 free spins
5 scatters = 12 free spins
6 scatters = 15 free spins

On every free spin 1 of the higher value symbols is selected to become wild for just that spin. The wild will also come with a modifier attached to it. The modifier that is applied depends on the symbol that is chosen to become wild. The modifiers and their respective symbols are as follows:

The Invaders Logo: This symbol if turned wild will expand to fill the entire reel on which it lands.
The Mad Scientist: If this symbol is chosen it means that cascades double an attached multiplier, starting at 2x but potentially reaching a maximum of 256x.
The Little Green Alien: This symbol increases the number of symbols on the reel that it lands on and the next-door reels too.
The Cow: Every cow on the board counts as 2 wilds.
The Ray Gun: Every Ray Gun that lands add another wild to the reels for that spin.
Retriggers are possible by landing additional scatters.

Conclusion

Light-hearted, ludicrously fun and a great them to boot, Invaders Megaways is a top-quality slot not to be missed by pro or amateur. Statistically, the slot also stands up pretty well, having both a great top payout and a decent RTP. The large range of features also means players are very unlikely to get bored playing this game.