Gemix 2

Overview Gemix 2

Gemix 2 is in more ways than one a Candy Crush Saga inspired game adapted for the online casino world. Play ‘n GO have combined the candy or ‘Gem’ destroying satisfaction of the wildly popular mobile phone game, with the risk and reward mechanics of an online slot. The result of which is a multi-coloured dopamine machine, designed to make your brain pop and fizz with little hits of pleasure chemicals. This combination makes for one of the most engrossing slot games ever to come out of the famous studio’s metaphorical factory doors.

Gemix 2 also has a delightful range of bonus features that provide layer upon layer of new gaming experiences. One of the key ones being the game’s cascade feature. Without this feature the cluster pays dynamic would fall a bit flat. Briefly, this bonus means that for every winning cluster that you create, a new set of symbols will come tumbling down replacing the winning ones to give you more chances of forming multiple wins from one spin. However, there are far more features to discover, which will be explained further in the review.

Theme and Symbols

As is strongly implied by the title, this game is concerned with the collection of precious gemstones, which in the game look a lot more like hard-boiled candies. Either way, the theme is light and colourful. There is also a medieval element to this game’s aesthetic. Not in the sense of terrible wars and plague, but more princesses and beautiful white castles, which is much more harmonious with the soft-edge and slightly infantile theme.

The background for this game changes as you progress to different rounds. The first background you are greeted with is on a placid pond looking out on which is a fairy house built into the side of a large oak tree. However, the further you progress with the World Bonus, the more your setting changes. One of the final worlds is dominated by a perfect white castle that sits on the horizon, whilst all around you, there is nothing but air and light. Each background has been created to give you a sense of escaping to some fairy tale paradise with its own mystical guardian.

The board is never more complicated than a blue translucent square which gives just enough contrast so that you can distinguish the paying symbols from the background. In this game the background and symbols to the heavy visual lifting.
In terms of symbols, Gemix 2 has 8 very brightly coloured gemstones, each with its own specific playing value. The most valuable of these is the star gemstone which pays an amazing 200x your total stake if you manage to create a cluster of 15 of them. The other symbols to look out for come with their own specific guardian to introduce them to the reels. These include a Princess and her mirror, a Wizard and his book of spells, a Knight and his shield and a Goblin creature and his lantern. Each of these guardian's symbols has its specific abilities.

Game Play

Gemix 2 is played on a 7x7 grid, with a total of 49 symbols. Scoring wins in this game is about landing matching symbols together on the board in clusters of 5 or more. The larger the cluster formed, the bigger the resulting payout.

The betting range for Gemix 2 is 10p to £100 per spin. To change their current bet level, players can simply select a new stake from the ones listed at the bottom of the screen. The spins and auto spins buttons for this game are located on the right-hand side of this stake selection table. For the full menu, including the paytable, players need to click on the ‘I’ symbol located on the bottom left-hand side of the reels. The return to payer percentage for Gemix 2 is 96.26%, a touch above average. The volatility for this slot is rated at around the high level. The top payout for Gemix 2 is 7,500 x your total stake.

Features

The first and most crucial feature for this game is the Cascade feature. When you get a win in this game, the cascade feature is immediately triggered. What this does is destroy the gems that were part of the win and replace them with a set of new ones from above. This gives you more chances to score multiple wins from one spin. The feature ends when a new set of symbols does not generate a win.

The next set of bonuses are based around the Crystal Charge feature. This feature is triggered when you manage to destroy a collection of 25 or more symbols at once. There are 4 of these bonuses, the one you receive will be completely random. These are explained below:

The Nova Blast feature: 1 symbol is selected and is destroyed, in doing so it destroys other symbols around it.
The Crystal Warp feature: 1 symbol is selected with all instances of that symbol changed into another gem.
The Light Beam feature: 1 symbol fires out light rays with all symbols hit transformed to other symbols.
The Chain Lightning feature: 2 corner symbols are connected with a ‘lightning chain’. All symbols hit between these two points transform into 1 of the corner symbols.

The next feature is called the Super Charge Feature. Destroying 50 or more symbols will trigger the Super Charge feature. When this happens all 4 of the Crystal charge features come into play at once, in addition to a 2x multiplier. This feature can be retriggered. Each time it is, the accompanying multiplier is increased. The maximum it can reach is 20x.

Next on the list is the World Bonus feature. For every spin, some symbols are highlighted in a glow of light. If you trigger a win that has one of these positions as part of it, that position will turn yellow. Lighting up all the symbols in yellow twice progresses you through to the next level. There are the Princess, Knight, Wizard and Goblin levels to move through in this game. Each one increases the win bonus progressively.

Every time that you have the opportunity to move worlds, having cleared the symbols, the Goblin character will give you a chance to pick his pockets and progress to the next world. Each world as mentioned has its guardian, however, multiple guardians can turn up in one world and offer you their wild bonus. Each of which is explained below:

The Dashing Knight: Up to 2 Mega Wilds can appear with multipliers.
The Goblin/Miner: Up to 10 wilds can appear on the reels.
The Pink Princess: Wilds can spread from edge to edge.
The Wizard: Up to 5 sticky wilds can appear at random positions.

Conclusion

With heavy use of features, plenty of visual impact and fun characters, Gemix 2 is a good laugh and an improvement on its predecessor. The max win has also been improved from 4,513x your stake to 7,500x your stake. However, the RTP has dropped from 96.83% to 96.26%. Still this isn’t enough to make the jedgement that the game is not worth playing.