Tomb Raider: Secret of the Sword Slot

Intro

She’s back and she’s better than ever! Lara Croft is Tomb Raider: Secret of the Sword. Microgaming has surely taken the next step into creating the most complete amalgamation of a slot with a video game…thought that sentence would grab your attention! A top regular slots award of a 7,500 times line multiplier is extremely enhanced by the possibility of placing up to ten coins per payline where coin values individually range from 0.01 to 0.20. However as you can guess, this isn’t any regular slot machine, with numerous bonus games, free spins, multipliers, wilds, scatters and the possibility that any of these can happen after a spin by combinations or at random, Tomb Raider: Secret of the Sword is the pinnacle of slots gaming at Easter 2008.

Review

Once again Microgaming has taken arguably the world’s most famous, modern-day, fantastical, fictional, heroine and brought her back to the world of slots gaming. This video-slot, which is by far the most advanced of its type has all the usual devices that you want from a slot, as you can see from the overview table. However if you’ve chosen this game to take up your casino time, it isn’t only going to be about the prizes, or the game-play…it’s about the experience.

Introduced via a gripping introductory animation complete with a stunning soundtrack that any Hollywood Composer would be proud of, you really gain a sense of what’s to come. Just like Rival Gaming Software’s i-Slots that follow a type of storyboard, Tomb Raider: Secret of the Sword seems to follow a similar path, albeit not as periodically time-structured.

Unfortunately though the reel-spins haven’t been improved upon (from the original instalment, Tomb Raider), the resultant animations from winning combinations greatly differs with new cut sequences for wild and scatter wins. The true visual and audible joy however comes in the form of the bonus games and free-spins.

From the regular game the main icons to look for are the different variations of Lara on the reels with her portrait being the most rewarding icon (as well as being the wild icon too). Other than the passport and regular scatter symbol, the other icons are based on the high card suit values as seen in Tomb Raider’s previous outing.

Sound and visuals however are wonderfully gripping and the game-play although a bit jagged (due to the slow action of the reels) is actually still intense due to all the little characteristics of this slot coming together nicely. Whether you are a prize-hunter, or a slots enthusiast who prefers the essential aspects of this genre of gaming, we are sure that a variety of people will find this game a perfect foil to enhance their gaming skills, especially the guys! ;)

Wild Symbol

The wild symbol is Lara’s portrait. It can substitute for all other icons except the scatters of the passport and the special jewelled sword-part icon. Show 2, 3, 4 or 5 across an active payline to drop line multipliers of 5, 75, 750, or 7,500 times respectively.

Scatter Symbol

There are two main scatter icons available from your spins. They are the passport and the jewelled sword-part icon. The passport doesn’t grant you any coin/cash prizes but can take you to the main Global Adventure Bonus round. The green jewelled icon however can trigger you free spins as well as a prize. Show 2, 3, 4 or 5 across the reels in any positions to trigger a prize of your total staked bet multiplied by 2, 3, 20 or 100 times respectively! That’s pretty good if you’re max betting with high coin values!

Free Spins

There are two ways to gain free spins from this video slot. Spin three or more of the scatter icon across the reels to win at least ten free-spins with the exclusive Rolling Reels™ feature. How the Rolling Reels™ feature works is that from a free spin, any symbols that contribute to a winning combination, dissolve away and allow the remaining symbols to replace fall down on their positions. Using this method, new symbols are brought onto the reels and your prizes are recalculated. Each time the Rolling Reels™ effect happens, your prizes gain an increased multiplier, up to five times! Listen out for the cool, funky, beat-ridden mix of Gregorian chants to really ‘chillax’ you whilst the free-spins make money!

Super Mode is randomly triggered after a spin where you can gain five free spins with an exclusive multiple-wild-position feature. During Super Mode, multiple symbols are held as wild icons for the duration of the feature to help produce you even more winning combinations.

Bonus Round

Ok be prepared for one of the best bonus games you will come across. The main icon to trigger access to this round is the passport symbol. Unfortunately you have to spin the icon onto the CENTER of all five reels BUT it doesn’t matter whether this is all in one spin, over the course of three spins or even over the course of three-thousand spins!

Every time a passport falls onto a reel, you will hear some dialogue between Lara and an associate (oh yes you can hear the amazingly sexy British accent in full, clear surround sound!). The reel will then be outlined in a neon blue awaiting the possibility of you dropping another passport from your spins. Eventually you are bound to make all reels light up which will take you through to the Global Adventure Bonus. Please note that if you used different bets to drop each passport icon, all prizes from this bonus game are calculated from the weighted average of these five bets.

Once all five passports have been shown you will gain access to the Global Adventure Bonus. From the blue map of the world you can choose a place to look for mystical artefacts (and in turn prizes). The wonderful, hidden but ancient sites are located in Bolivia, London, Ghana, Nepal and Tokyo…don’t ask us why they named some of the countries and others as cities!

You will be taken to the site where you will have a choice of six items to choose from. Avoid the traps and capture the coins behind these items to leave this bonus game as a winner! Look for the hidden bonuses and possible triggers to further bonus games including taking control of Lara and having her shoot some targets! –Talk about bridging the gap between slots and video games.

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