Storms of Ice

Overview Storms of Ice

Do you dare to enter the dangerous mythical land of arctic wolves, mighty Gods and powerful warriors? If so, Playtech has the perfect new slot game for you. Storms of Ice will have you travelling to the mysterious and exciting realm of Midgard, a territory where the great Vikings roamed - waging wars, weaving mischief, and interfering in the world of the Gods. This beautifully made slot is one of the better games to have adopted this popular theme. Playtech make each element dazzle from the playing board to the symbols.

The range of bonus content for Storms of Ice isn’t expansive, however, the 2 features that have been employed are well worth triggering. The main feature of this game is the Golden Wild Respins feature. This feature involves gold and silver wilds which come in a stacked format. Landing 3 or more of the golden wilds on any of the central 3 reels is how you trigger this lucrative feature. The second feature for Storms of Ice is the PowerPlay Jackpot feature. This feature gives you a random chance at winning one of the PowerPlay Jackpots, which come in 3 separate sizes.

Theme and Symbols

The theme as we have already touched on in the introduction, is one of Vikings. Indeed, players are taken back to the age of Norse Warriors around 793 – 1066 AD. The game perhaps shows the Vikings in a more realistic and muted light. Instead of axe-wielding maniacs covered in blood as we are so often used to seeing from dramatizations, we see a succession of placid relaxed Norse people set in a gorgeous mountain-side area.

The background as mentioned for this game is a natural setting for any Viking themed game – a Fjord. In this particular setting, we can see the edges of the Fjord’s waters just below the reels. To the right and left of the paying window are the peaks of the mountainsides which make up the Fjord’s boundaries. There is little else to see, as the playing window is rather large.
The board for Storms of Ice is dark blue and has been decorated in the Oseberg style dated to around the 9th century. Its interwoven patterns appear on most Viking religious iconographies. This style usually interweaves animal motifs as well as timber and sail images.

In terms of symbols, Storms of Ice combines a selection of classic royals symbols and themed picture symbols. At the lowest end in terms of the value are the royal cards from A to 10. Next up in terms of value is the owl, which is then followed by the wolf and the three different Viking men and women. The men and women pay 8x your stake for 5 on a payline. The most valuable normal symbol in this game is the bearded chief symbol. He pays out at 20x for 5 on a payline. In addition to these are the gold and silver wilds, as well as the re-spin satellite wild each one is a elaborately inlaid anchor.

Game Play

Storms of Ice is played on a 5-reel, 3-row playing window with 25 active pay lines. To create winners in this game players need to match a minimum of 3 of the same symbols across a pay line from left to right on the reels.

The betting range for Storms of Ice is between 5p and £500 per spin. To change the stake levels, players can click on the bet adjuster tool located just to the left-hand side of the current win total display. The spin and auto spin buttons are located to the bottom-right of the playing window. For the paytable and other information, players should click on the small ‘I’ button located at the very bottom left-hand corner of the screen.

The return to player percentage for Storms of Ice is 96.47% which is better than average. The volatility is rated at the higher end of the spectrum. Because this is a progressive Jackpot slot, 2.99% of your playing wins will be contributed to the PowerPlay Progressive Jackpot. The maximum win that is achievable for this game in the normal game is 2,500 x your total stake per spin. However, winning the Jackpots can mean a much higher maximum win can be attained.

Features

There are only really 2 bonus features for this game. The first feature is called the Golden Win re-spins feature. The gold wilds can land on reels 2,3 and 4, the silver on the other hand can land on all these reels plus reels 5. Both silver and gold wilds can land in stacked formation up to 3 in height.

To trigger the Gold Wilds re-spin feature, you must land a 3-high stacked wild on any of the central reels. The first effect of triggering this feature is that any partial stacked of gold or silver wilds will turn into what the game calls satellite wilds. These wilds, like the gold and silver wilds, substitute for other symbols helping to score wins.
The second effect of this feature is that the Ice King will appear on the right-hand side of the reels. He will blow everything one reel to the left and give you one re-spin with everything in its new position. The res-spins continue until every wild, both stacked and satellite has fallen off the left-hand side of the playing window.

Every re-spin that you are granted also grows an attached multiplier which starts at 1x and grows to 5x. The relevant multiplier is applied to every re-spin’s win. The same happened with the silver wilds but the value of the wilds is reduced.
The PowerPlay Jackpot feature is the other main bonus of this game. As part of the Playtech PowerPlay network Storms of Ice is part of a wide range of games that are contributing to a ramhe of progressive Jackpots. The Jackpots come in 3 sizes: Mini, Peak and Mega. The Mega Jackpot is the only one that is not limited.

Conclusion

With a top theme, a fun couple of features and an easy gaming dynamic, Storms of Ice is a solid slot with a relaxed tempo. The main attraction is the progressive jackpot, however, you can total up some nicer smaller wins thanks to the re-spin feature. This looks like another smart and inviting game from Playtech.