Take The Kingdom

Take The Kingdom Overview

BetSoft, with its final release of 2021, has chosen to go with a classic medieval theme, with dragons, knights, villages, and a huge stone castle. However, differing from the traditional narrative of the knight coming to rescue a princess from the clutches of the evil dragon, this time, the knight has much more monetary motives. Indeed, the knight is after the hoard of gold that the dragon sits on rather than the hand of the fair lady. This aligns much better with the dynamics of a slot game anyway.

In pursuit of this gold, players will benefit from 100 pay lines and several exciting features.
Speaking of the features, everything happens in seven-spin cycles. In this game, you are mainly on the lookout for dragon symbols that subsequently transform into fireballs that become sticky. During the final spin of each seven-spin cycle, all of these fireballs turn into wilds and help you win bigger payouts. The other main feature in this game is a free spins round triggered when players land three treasure chest scatters on the reels at the same time. This bonus round comes with extra wilds to make it more lucrative. All bonuses will be explained in more detail later on in the review.

Theme and Symbols

The theme for Take The Kingdom is a classic medieval theme with all the normal features that this usually entails. This means a big fire-breathing dragon, a courageous knight, a village full of terrified citizens, and an imposing castle full of gold. In this sense, this game mirrors the Hobbit in its setup, with the main character looking to recover the stolen treasure from the beast. Even the aesthetics look very similar to some of the original drawings of Smaug the dragon and his enormous halls of wealth.

The background for this slot is a burning forest within the castle walls where the dragon is causing chaos with its incendiary behaviour. You can see a full moon hidden behind a small bank of clouds in the far distance, indicating a dark night. The dragon itself is wrapped menacingly around the reels, its long, sharp talons gripping the stone edifice. In the foreground, finally, are several soldiers trying desperately to subdue the beast. The whole tableau looks like an excellent page from a children’s story, illustrated in magnificent detail.

The playing board is an extension of the castle, made from stone and decorated with knights wrought out of rock
The symbols for this game are split into low-paying, high-paying and special symbols. The low-paying symbols for this game are the 10, J, Q, K and A in playing card royals. These all pay the same for the top combination- 0.24x the stake. On the other hand, the higher paying symbols are the mace, the bow and arrow, the axe, and the sword and shield. The latter icon pays 0.48x the stake for the top combination. However, the most lucrative symbols are the knight, the princess, and the King in golden armour, who pays out at 2.8x the stake. Finally, the specials are the dragon wild, the fireballs, and the treasure chest scatter.

Game Play

Take The Kingdom is played on a 5-reel, 5-row machine with 100 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 Take The Kingdom is 25p to £10 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 low range. The return to player percentage for Take The Kingdom is 96.53%, which is above average. The biggest payout that players can win on one spin is 3,640x your stake.

Features

The first and most frequent feature in this game is the fireballs wild feature. This game, as explained above, takes place in cycles of 7 spins. Players should hope that dragon symbols fall onto the reels during these spins. These icons will then transform into fireballs and stick to the reels for the remainder of the 7-spin cycle. During the last spin of the cycle, all fireball wilds will turn into wild icons following a dramatic explosion.

The wilds will then help you find more patterns as these icons substitute for any other regular symbol, creating more wins. If a reel has five wilds on it (fills the reel), each wild will payout at the rate of the top paying symbol.
The other main feature in this game is the free spins round. Players need to land three of the treasure chest scatters on reels 2-4 simultaneously to trigger this bonus. Doing so award you with 12 free spins. The seven-spin cycle dynamic is paused while you play out this round. The free spins round guarantees six to twelve wilds on the reels, which move to new places after every spin to increase the likelihood of you triggering wins.

Conclusion

If you enjoy the medieval aesthetic and fancy a game with low volatility and fun features, this is perfect for you. The seven-cycle mechanic is also a novelty that separates this game from some of BetSoft’s other products. The letdown here is that the top payout is pretty poor, plus there isn’t much flexibility in the betting range. Overall, though, this is a fun and engaging game that should have plenty of people willing to play it.