Lost Riches of El Dorado

Lost Riches of El Dorado Overview

The legend of El Dorado has sent many adventurers mad, trekking across vast jungles on fruitless quests, finding nothing but more vines and undergrowth. It was believed by Spanish conquistadors that in some hidden recess of the Central American rainforest, there was a city forged from gold and gold alone.

The discoverer, it was said, would be overwhelmed by the gleaming brightness of the city and be made rich by its bounty. This legend is what this latest game by Stakelogic and Hurricane Games is built on. Mechanically, this game is a five-reel, three-row slot with a range of exciting features.

Speaking of the features, these begin with a free spins bonus. Players must land between three and five scatters on the reels to trigger this bonus. Doing so will award players with ten free spins and an initial payout. Before the spins begin, a special symbol is chosen to become the expanding symbol for the game. Another feature included in this game is the Cash Bonus feature, which is only available in the free spins round and triggered by landing two scatters.

One of these reveals a cash amount and the other a pay symbol. The cash amount is added to each special symbol on the board, and the total is then paid out. There is also a gamble and bonus buy feature here. All bonuses will be explained in more detail later on in the review.

Theme and Symbols

The theme for this game is the legend of El Dorado, the lost city of gold. As explained briefly, this legend created around the conquistador's invasion of central America says that there is a hidden city made exclusively of gold in the Central American jungle. For years explorers searched for it, driven by the tales of its halls filled with gold and riches beyond imagination. However, it was not until later that foreigners understood that the legend wasn't about a city of gold at all but an Emperor. He was said to be so rich that he covered himself in gold leaf every morning and washed it off every evening. Thus, it was deduced sadly that the legend was a product of mistranslation.

Appropriately, the background for this game is an artist's depiction of what the great city might have looked like if it were real. However, thanks to the nighttime lighting, the city seems a lot less bright than it might do in the day. The artist has also chosen not to show the buildings themselves being made from gold but to hint at the city's mythical and ethereal nature by using mist and shadows to good effect. To the right of the reels is a huge temple with moonlight shining down on it, giving it a glowing, almost holy aura. To the left is the steps to a more believable dwelling. This juxtaposition between the real and the mysterious is perhaps a hint at the unattainable nature of the city of El Dorado.

The playing board has been constructed from the same material as the temple, giving the screen a nice consistent texture and feel.
The symbols for this game are split into low-paying, high-paying and special symbols. The low-paying symbols are the 10, J, Q, K and A in playing card royals decorated in a range of bright colours. On the other hand, the higher paying symbols are the various treasures of El Dorado. These comprise the coin, the chest, the golden statue and the strong-jawed explorer. The explorer is the most valuable symbol on the board. The special symbol is the golden book, which serves as both the wild and the scatter.

Game Play

Lost Riches of El Dorado is played on a 5-reel, 3-row machine with ten 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 Lost Riches of El Dorado is 10p 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 Lost Riches of El Dorado is 96.01%, which is average. The biggest payout that players can win on one spin is 10,000x your stake.

Features

The first feature in this game is the free spins bonus. This bonus concerns the special golden book icon, which doubles as the wild and scatter icon in this game. To trigger the free spins round, players must land three or more of this symbol on the reel at the same time. This will award players with ten free spins and a payout of 2x, 20x or 200x the stake, depending on the number of scatters you used to trigger the bonus. A symbol will then be randomly selected to be the special symbol for the round. Players are given the option to shuffle this symbol once if they don't like the first one.

When this special symbol becomes part of a win, it will expand to cover the reel on which it sits. These expanded symbols then payout on all lines on that reel. To add more spins to your tally, players must land an additional set of three or more scatters from within the round. The specially selected symbol will also upgrade to the next highest paying on the paytable if you manage this.

The next feature is the cash bonus. You can only access this bonus from within the free spins round. You do so by landing two scatter symbols on the reels. One of these scatters will then display a cash amount, and the other will become a paying symbol. The cash amount is added to all of the special symbols on the board at the time, and the pay symbol will collect all these values and pay them out to you in one lump sum.

This game also has a gamble feature. After any win in either the base or free spins game, players have the option to gamble their winnings by playing a card game with double or nothing odds.
Finally, there is also a bonus buy feature, allowing players to buy their way into the free spins for a multiplication of their current stake.

Conclusion

With any luck, you will be the first explorer to ever find El Dorado and indulge in its bountiful riches. However, if you can't manage that, you could at least win some decent prizes in one of the bonus features available here. Who knows? You may even come away with that exciting 10,000x the stake top win.