Dark Vortex
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1 | Reels | 5 |
2. | Paylines | 243 |
3. | Progressive | No |
4. | Maximum coins | 243 |
5. | Jackpot | 300 |
6. | Maximum jackpot in coins | 60 |
7. | Multiplier | No |
8. | Scatter symbol | No |
9. | Free Spins | Yes |
10. | Betting range | from $0.1 up to $50 |
11. | Coin Bet Range | from $0.01 up to $5 |
12. | Coins per line | 1 |
13. | Bonus Game | No |
14. | Wild symbol | Yes |
15. | Payout percent | 96.5-97 |
One of the things that really helps an online slot to rise above the best is when the theme, graphics and gameplay features all come together to give one cohesive story or theme. The Dark Vortex online slot by Yggdrasil Gaming manages to do that on as high of a level as we have seen without relying on any kind of existing big brand from other types of media, which is impressive in and of itself.
We think it's important for players to know that this game has a very low volatility and a very high hit-rate. While that leads to a style of play that many will enjoy, there are some players who only really like high-volatility titles, and they will probably want to find a different game to play since this one won't really appeal to that style on any level.
Slot Layout and Format
For most video slots, format is largely an afterthought compared to the rest of what the game has to offer because it's generally not something that's all that important. Dark Vortex is a bit different in this regard because the format itself is actually a key part of the gameplay. On the most basic level, there are five reels with three rows and the all-ways approach in play, which means you get 243 ways to win. While this tends to lead to a high hit-rate on its own, it's made even more the case here by a variety of factors, one of which is that the game pays both left to right and right to left.
They've made betting in this game as approachable as we've ever seen in a slot, and they've done this by basing everything on wagers of 10 coins per turn. You can pick coin sizes that go from $0.01 up to the $10 level for total wagers of $0.10 to $100 per turn, and there are a dozen or so options in between these extremes to make it easy to find an option that fits what you're comfortable with betting.
Vortex Spins and Free Spins
The vortex from the title of the game is the focal point of most of the gameplay. There are golden vortex symbols that show up on all five reels, and when you get two of them on adjacent reels at the same time, they turn those into vortex reels. This kicks off a free spins feature with three free spins to start, and getting more adjacent vortex reels adds two extra spins each time.
There are two types of orbs that can appear during this feature on vortex reels. The pink ones increase the stack sizes of the stacked wilds that appear on these reels only. The blue ones give you more spins. These are relevant whenever you get all five vortex reels at once since it activates a free spins mode where all reels are pushed to as large of a size as possible.
While the vortex reels themselves can increase the number of symbols per reel and add other goodies, getting the free spins mode takes this to the max. In this bonus round, you'll get five symbols on each reel, and that will give you an enormous 3,125 ways to win on each spin in each direction for a total of 6,500 ways to get paid on each of those free spins.
Buying the Free Spins Mode
You'll be able to buy your way into the free spins mode at any time if you want, but it's completely optional. There's a button in the bottom-left corner of the screen that allows you to do this, and it'll give you a random wild stack size and a random number of total free spins to give some variety. This will cost you a flat rate of 800 coins for the feature, so it's up to you on whether or not you think that's worth it.
Important Symbols and Payouts
Five monsters start off the pay table, and they're most easily identified by color instead of name. The red demon gets you 60x, and the purple monster pays 40x for five of a kind. You can also get 40x for the green or 30x for either of the blue monsters.
Five magical spell books round out the bottom end of the pay table. You'll get 12x for five of the red, 9x for five of the purple, 9x for five of the green and 7x for either of the blue for five of a kind combinations.
Our Thoughts
Solid is a very good word to describe everything that Dark Vortex brings to the table, and that's because of the high level of cohesion that comes from what the vortex feature does to the gameplay. The ultra high hit-rate is a pretty important part of what's going on here as well since it's really built into the game as a part of the overall structure.