Hello everyone, after a break of around from ten months from 3Dice I've recently returned to the fold, and they have some new slots on their books. The bad news is that if you're hoping for a return to the glory days of actual 3D games with flying pigs (Medieval Moolah) and suchlike, you'll be disappointed. The good news, however, is that all three games seem to be pretty decent. I'll review them all in due course but the one I've played by far the most (around 10,000 spins so far) is Cleopatra's Conquest - so we'll do that first.
Technically speaking it's fine, it runs lovely and smoothly, there's a nice enough animated background, and some minor animations on the symbols themselves. The transitions in and out of the bonus rounds are well done, pleasing big win animations that scale into different phases with the size of the win and so on. The soundscape is less impressive, with some generic Egyptian style music warbling along in the background (you might want to mute that), accompanied by a functional but unspectacular sound effects package.
Also, all the symbols are pleasingly distinctive, so the reels are very easy to 'read' and you can clearly see what's going on at all times.
Obviously you get 3Dice's standard (highly configurable) autoplayer with game specific adjustments, so you can tune it to the level of interaction you prefer.
Key stats are 95.1% RTP, feature frequency I'd peg at around 1/165 or so, which is generally the ballpark 3Dice land in. They put it in their 'GOLD' category which is the top tier volatility category above three chillies, these are the games that come with the special warning you have to click through when playing them for the first time.
Game wise it's a 20-liner with a familiar sort of ruleset and symbol pay progression. Cleopatra is your wild symbol and she's also a multiplying wild, with the multiplier increasing based on how many of her are contributing to the winline. Five of her pays 2500x, and this is a win that's available in the basegame. These multipliers can also deliver some decently solid midrange sort of hits in the basegame too once the premium symbols get involved, so it's not just a case of watching your balance inevitably diminish between features.
The top paying premium symbol is 1600x with four Cleopatras, with the ones down from that paying 640x, 320x, and then down the paytable from there.
However the real meat of any online slot is the feature, and this is where this one gets interesting, although I still haven't entirely decided if that's in a good way or a bad way.
Three, four or five scatters triggers a feature, but you really, REALLY want the four or five scatters due to a fundamental change in the behaviour of the reels on four or five.
Starting with the three scatters it's an OK sort of bonus round, it has the locking respin mechanic we've seen many times before all over the place. You know the deal, if a winline (or winlines) are formed it locks them into place and the remaining symbols left on the reels are spun off, if any more contributing symbols are added they lock and the reels spin again, when no new symbols are added the win is evaluated, paid, and then the next spin starts afresh.
The problem is the paucity of the premium symbols on the reels, so if you do get a lock involving those, there's a very low chance of getting any more on the next spin. Your decent pays from three scatters, in the main, are going to come from the lower tier symbols, but managing to get plenty of 4OAKs/5OAKs with some Cleopatras in there. It can pay OK-ish, with 100x-200x not being that rare, 25-50x-ish being a common sort of pay, but many of lower than that as well of course.
Of special note is that there's a minimum pay guarantee of 5x, which sounds miserly but it can be a proper lifesaver. So if you get to end of the 10 initial free spins and your win is 5x or lower, it'll retrigger for another 5 spins, and it'll keep doing this (most I've managed is 35 spins!) until you hit 5x. Like I say, it sounds crap but often times you only need (and indeed get) one decent locking respin per feature and that's where most of your pay will come from, so what the feature guarantees is that you'll get a shot at that. Many a time what would have been a zero or sub-5x pay retriggers along until I get a half decent locking respin and sometimes I'll get maybe 40-50x from it, it helps to remove a lot of the annoyance of getting a really shit run on features.
Overall I'm a big fan of this mechanic, don't get too fixated on the 5x minimum guarantee and assume every feature is going to be 6x or 7x instead, the way the locking respins work means you only need one decent one to turn a feature into something acceptable.
(Note that four and five scatters features guarantee 50x and 500x respectively, but as per the section below, I think the guarantee won't be required at all and you'll break through that with ease on those features.)
Where things get really interesting is the four and five scatters triggers. OK, so far I haven't actually managed five scatters but I'm determined I'll plug away at this thing until I get it. However I have had four scatters twice, and both times it's managed a decent pay, 523x and 183x. Looking at the rules, and from what happened on the four scatters features, the five scatters should be worth camping out. (He said, confidently.....)
Even just the one extra Cleopatra wild from four scatters is significant, as it massively increases the chances of getting a locking respin on the go, especially as it always lands on reels 1-3 where it can get a win going. (The three extra Cleopatras on reels 1-3 for five scatters is basically going to make every spin a dead cert for getting a locking respin going.)
The higher paying of my four scatters rounds offered up the following win which was 426x all by itself. You can see that the Cleopatras doing the most work (remember those multipliers!) are on 3-4-5, but it's the guaranteed extra Cleopatra on 1-3 that gets things going.
I'd be very interested to know what the max win the game hit in testing is, as that five scatters round could really pop off. If I ask Anna she'll probably tell me as 3Dice are usually pretty open about this stuff, moreover they've got the Zeitgeist page where you can see a load of aggregated stats from the whole casino.
Last 30 days it's only managed 2977x but of course in testing it will have had millions upon millions of spins through it. (I do wish they'd take the progressives off this chart, since we're looking at it.)
So there you have it, I think that covers everything. The hook on this of wanting to land the five scatters and see that round do its thing has managed to grab me so I'll make it a long term goal (same as the five scatters on Berrini, which to date I haven't managed.....).
Even without hitting a four or five scatters you can still have a decent session on it, and there's always the chance of a premium 5OAK in the basegame with a decent Cleopatra multiplier, or the five Cleopatras which is a straight pay of 2500x.
That said it does have its tighter periods when the feature is scarce, and when it does land it pays poorly (the 5x guarantee won't always save you), plus the basegame decides to go on holiday as well. In those cases your balance can deteriorate pretty quickly so usual 3Dice rules apply, match your stake to your bankroll unless you're prepared for a bit of a death or glory experience.
Overall though, decent game IMO, and having the goal of that big five scatters round is something to aim for. The rules even explicitly say it'll be worth the wait....
I am still slightly undecided if it's skewed a bit much towards needing those rarer four scatters, and very rare five scatters triggers, for what are going to be the best pays. I'll probably commit to an opinion once I've actually landed five scatters and seen what it pays
Technically speaking it's fine, it runs lovely and smoothly, there's a nice enough animated background, and some minor animations on the symbols themselves. The transitions in and out of the bonus rounds are well done, pleasing big win animations that scale into different phases with the size of the win and so on. The soundscape is less impressive, with some generic Egyptian style music warbling along in the background (you might want to mute that), accompanied by a functional but unspectacular sound effects package.
Also, all the symbols are pleasingly distinctive, so the reels are very easy to 'read' and you can clearly see what's going on at all times.
Obviously you get 3Dice's standard (highly configurable) autoplayer with game specific adjustments, so you can tune it to the level of interaction you prefer.
Key stats are 95.1% RTP, feature frequency I'd peg at around 1/165 or so, which is generally the ballpark 3Dice land in. They put it in their 'GOLD' category which is the top tier volatility category above three chillies, these are the games that come with the special warning you have to click through when playing them for the first time.
Game wise it's a 20-liner with a familiar sort of ruleset and symbol pay progression. Cleopatra is your wild symbol and she's also a multiplying wild, with the multiplier increasing based on how many of her are contributing to the winline. Five of her pays 2500x, and this is a win that's available in the basegame. These multipliers can also deliver some decently solid midrange sort of hits in the basegame too once the premium symbols get involved, so it's not just a case of watching your balance inevitably diminish between features.
The top paying premium symbol is 1600x with four Cleopatras, with the ones down from that paying 640x, 320x, and then down the paytable from there.
However the real meat of any online slot is the feature, and this is where this one gets interesting, although I still haven't entirely decided if that's in a good way or a bad way.
Three, four or five scatters triggers a feature, but you really, REALLY want the four or five scatters due to a fundamental change in the behaviour of the reels on four or five.
Starting with the three scatters it's an OK sort of bonus round, it has the locking respin mechanic we've seen many times before all over the place. You know the deal, if a winline (or winlines) are formed it locks them into place and the remaining symbols left on the reels are spun off, if any more contributing symbols are added they lock and the reels spin again, when no new symbols are added the win is evaluated, paid, and then the next spin starts afresh.
The problem is the paucity of the premium symbols on the reels, so if you do get a lock involving those, there's a very low chance of getting any more on the next spin. Your decent pays from three scatters, in the main, are going to come from the lower tier symbols, but managing to get plenty of 4OAKs/5OAKs with some Cleopatras in there. It can pay OK-ish, with 100x-200x not being that rare, 25-50x-ish being a common sort of pay, but many of lower than that as well of course.
Of special note is that there's a minimum pay guarantee of 5x, which sounds miserly but it can be a proper lifesaver. So if you get to end of the 10 initial free spins and your win is 5x or lower, it'll retrigger for another 5 spins, and it'll keep doing this (most I've managed is 35 spins!) until you hit 5x. Like I say, it sounds crap but often times you only need (and indeed get) one decent locking respin per feature and that's where most of your pay will come from, so what the feature guarantees is that you'll get a shot at that. Many a time what would have been a zero or sub-5x pay retriggers along until I get a half decent locking respin and sometimes I'll get maybe 40-50x from it, it helps to remove a lot of the annoyance of getting a really shit run on features.
Overall I'm a big fan of this mechanic, don't get too fixated on the 5x minimum guarantee and assume every feature is going to be 6x or 7x instead, the way the locking respins work means you only need one decent one to turn a feature into something acceptable.
(Note that four and five scatters features guarantee 50x and 500x respectively, but as per the section below, I think the guarantee won't be required at all and you'll break through that with ease on those features.)
Where things get really interesting is the four and five scatters triggers. OK, so far I haven't actually managed five scatters but I'm determined I'll plug away at this thing until I get it. However I have had four scatters twice, and both times it's managed a decent pay, 523x and 183x. Looking at the rules, and from what happened on the four scatters features, the five scatters should be worth camping out. (He said, confidently.....)
Even just the one extra Cleopatra wild from four scatters is significant, as it massively increases the chances of getting a locking respin on the go, especially as it always lands on reels 1-3 where it can get a win going. (The three extra Cleopatras on reels 1-3 for five scatters is basically going to make every spin a dead cert for getting a locking respin going.)
The higher paying of my four scatters rounds offered up the following win which was 426x all by itself. You can see that the Cleopatras doing the most work (remember those multipliers!) are on 3-4-5, but it's the guaranteed extra Cleopatra on 1-3 that gets things going.
I'd be very interested to know what the max win the game hit in testing is, as that five scatters round could really pop off. If I ask Anna she'll probably tell me as 3Dice are usually pretty open about this stuff, moreover they've got the Zeitgeist page where you can see a load of aggregated stats from the whole casino.
Last 30 days it's only managed 2977x but of course in testing it will have had millions upon millions of spins through it. (I do wish they'd take the progressives off this chart, since we're looking at it.)
So there you have it, I think that covers everything. The hook on this of wanting to land the five scatters and see that round do its thing has managed to grab me so I'll make it a long term goal (same as the five scatters on Berrini, which to date I haven't managed.....).
Even without hitting a four or five scatters you can still have a decent session on it, and there's always the chance of a premium 5OAK in the basegame with a decent Cleopatra multiplier, or the five Cleopatras which is a straight pay of 2500x.
That said it does have its tighter periods when the feature is scarce, and when it does land it pays poorly (the 5x guarantee won't always save you), plus the basegame decides to go on holiday as well. In those cases your balance can deteriorate pretty quickly so usual 3Dice rules apply, match your stake to your bankroll unless you're prepared for a bit of a death or glory experience.
Overall though, decent game IMO, and having the goal of that big five scatters round is something to aim for. The rules even explicitly say it'll be worth the wait....
I am still slightly undecided if it's skewed a bit much towards needing those rarer four scatters, and very rare five scatters triggers, for what are going to be the best pays. I'll probably commit to an opinion once I've actually landed five scatters and seen what it pays
