It’s hard to believe that before the advent of contemporary technologies like Google Maps and Street View, so much of the Earth was unknown to people in other regions of the world. Some old maps, for instance, may have omitted some areas because their creators lacked sufficient information to accurately depict the area. It takes courageous individuals to muster the will to take that first step into the unknown and see what was there. This raises the question of whether or not it is better to have the entire world under continual surveillance, or whether the era of romantic mysteries still waiting to be solved was preferable. Toughie. Secret City Gold, a new online slot game from Pragmatic Play, is a great opportunity to get some of that much-needed cerebral workout and explore the unknown.
If you’re missing some visual context for Secret City Gold, the game’s imagery might assist spark your imagination and fill in the gaps. The setting of the game is a dense jungle with dripping trees (from what, exactly? ), fireflies, and a waterfall. The setting is reminiscent of Aztec Blaze or Firebird Spirit, but it stands out thanks to the upbeat music, which is notably prominent during the free spins bonus round.
Secret City Gold is a mobile, desktop, and tablet game with a high degree of volatility. The greatest return of the three accessible RTP models is 96.06% for ordinary betting and 96.22% for purchasing free spins. Regular bets are between 25 p/c and £/€125 every paid spin, while the cost of purchasing free spins is 85x the wager.
The game board consists of 5 reels, 4 rows, and 25 paylines, all of which are located somewhat off center. Wins are awarded when three or more identical symbols appear on a payline, from left to right across adjacent reels. Payouts range from 0.4x to 1x the wager for five standard 10-A card values to 1.2-4x the wager for five of the more exotic premium symbols, crowned by a golden coin with its tongue sticking out. A rather potent wild symbol appearing on all five reels concludes this phase. Five wilds on an active payline will double your stake, and they can also double the payout for any other payline symbol.
Slot Game Functions for “Secret City Gold”
The following two options may prove useful in deciphering Secret City Gold and bringing home some gold. The first is the free spins bonus round, and the second is the game’s primary new feature, Shape Wins.
Success for the Roundabout
Each spin of the reels brings with it the possibility of a new pattern or form being revealed. Several undetermined locations on the grid are indicated by this form. When it does, all of the winning symbols inside the form will be replaced by a single random symbol type. After the metamorphosis, winning combinations within the new shape are paid from left to right across all symbols. In addition, the gain is increased by a number between x1 and x10 chosen at random.
Bonus Turns
When 3, 4, or 5 scatters appear, the player receives 8 free games and either a 2x, 10x, or 50x payout. Similar to the main game, free spins have the Shape Wins feature, but the random multiplier created by the initial Shape is added to a global multiplier. It’s the round’s overall multiplier that’s used for Shape Wins, and it doesn’t reset until the game is over. The multiplier was never indicated, although it seemed to grow by one with each Shape Win pattern. In addition, the number of bonus spins awarded is increased by one for every scatter that appears throughout the bonus round.
Judgment on the Slot Machine, “Secret City Gold”
Some development companies approach game creation like snipers, taking their time to sneak up on their target, select the best vantage point, then conceal themselves behind solid cover before unleashing a devastating blow. On the other hand, there are some that use a more scattershot approach, dispersing their games like rounds from a machine gun. Pragmatic Play is one development firm that seems to have lately taken the second option, as it has been churning out online slots like there’s no tomorrow. To be fair, the studio has a flair for making sure the quality is strong or at least adequate, but the scattershot approach hasn’t exactly resulted to anything that stands out in recent memory. Without delivering anything truly revolutionary, the games keep going thanks to flashy visuals, fluid animations, and a few fascinating features.
And so it was with the gold in Secret City. Yet another respectable receptacle that serves as a near-perfect illustration of the points made in the preceding paragraph. The visuals are pleasing, the art is sharp, the soundtrack has a driving panpipes meets Goa Full Moon Party atmosphere, and there are some neat tricks to find in the gameplay. However, after witnessing Secret City Gold perform, a sense of “okay, done this one now, what’s next?” set in. As is usually the case, there are no big complaints to be found in Secret City Gold. It played well, has solid statistics (such as a 10,000x win ceiling), and is worth a look for slot completists. All in all, a job well done.
But, like many other Pragmatic Play slots, Secret City Gold felt a touch on the shy side. There wasn’t a strong drive to take interested gamers on a weird adventure they’d never imagined embarking on. It’s obvious that Pragmatic Play has a lot of imagination, or else they couldn’t create so many games so quickly. However, sometimes it seems that the company has a committee making sure everything is nice and safe for the masses, and that any radical ideas are stifled. Of course, we may be completely wrong; this is simply the vibe we got from Secret City Gold. It’s a good game, but not one you need to rush to share on social media lest your buddies do it first.