One of the ways crystals are created is when solids form by arranging clusters of molecules into organised structures in a process called crystallisation. This can take relatively short periods of time, or it can last much longer. If Crystal Cavern Megaways was an actual crystal, you get the impression Pragmatic Play took the quicker route to produce it. Two things prompt this reaction. One, visually and thematically, Crystal Cavern Megaways is very close to Frozen Gems by Play'n GO. The other is the features used in the game are a bunch of common Megaways stalwarts such as tumbles, expanding wilds, increasing multipliers, free spins, and a feature buy option.
First up, let's lay the scene, and Crystal Cavern Megaways is indeed held inside a subterranean caverns, bursting with blue-lit crystals poking out of the walls in all sorts of directions. It must be exhilarating in real life when cavers discover an underground chamber like this. Stumbling upon a magical spot full of crystals no one has ever seen before. You might also imagine what other wonders could be hidden away underground, waiting for curious explorers to discover.
>
>
Back to Crystal Cavern Megaways, which is played on a game panel made up of 6 main reels holding up to 6 or 7 symbols each, and a 4-position horizontal bonus reel sitting up top. Paylines vary, depending on how many symbols appear on each reel, maxing out at 117,649. As we've come to expect from Pragmatic Play, there are no issues with the stats, provided you're using the version of Crystal Caverns Megaways with the default 96.46% RTP setting. Max win has been raised in comparison to what the studio has done recently, while volatility is high to match.
Identical symbols pay when they land left to right in adjacent reels starting from the leftmost reel. There are nine of them, starting with J-A royals, then comes a cluster of pink, green, purple, blue, and red crystals as the high pays. Should 6 premium symbols land on a payline, the reward is worth 1.5 to 25 times the stake. Landing on reels 2, 3, 4, 5, or 6 is the golden-green wild. The wild can replace any symbol except for the scatter.
Pragmatic Play has kept surprises to a minimum when it comes to features where players get tumbles, expanding wilds, increasing multipliers, free spins, and potentially a bonus buy.
After a winning combination has been paid out, the symbols involved in it are removed from the reels by the tumble feature. New or existing symbols drop down into the gaps and may create new wins. The tumble feature continues to activate until no new win appears.
Whenever a wild symbol hits in the base or bonus game, anywhere on the screen except the top row, it expands to cover the whole reel. The number of wilds on the reel is equal to the number of symbols the reel held before the wild expanded.
This is active in the base and bonus game. Following each tumble, the win multiplier increases by +1. After all of the tumbles have finished in the base game, the multiplier is reset back to x1.
To trigger the bonus game, you will need to land 4, 5, or 6 scatter symbols to win 12, 16, or 20 free spins plus a payout worth 5x, 10x, or 100x the bet, respectively. The main difference in free spins is that the win multiplier does not reset until the round has finished. Expanding wilds remain in play, and 5 additional free spins are awarded when 3 or more scatters are in view.
With a frequency of 1 in 420, free spins may not be a super common occurrence during your session. To get to them quicker, well instantly, players can pay 80x their stake to trigger them immediately.
>
>
Pragmatic Play has ramped up production recently, and whatever their overall strategy for world domination is, it seems saturation plays a key role in it. Not that we are calling them out over being productive, there's no rule saying studios have to take a specific amount of timeout between releases. However, it is kind of disappointing when they do something like Crystal Cavern Megaways, which has nothing new or particularly interesting to offer in regard to theme or gameplay. It doesn't necessarily make it a bad game, but with familiar looks to an ordinary set of features, Crystal Cavern Megaways is a quick and easy pasting together of stuff that's already been done.
The first obvious move was using the same look as Frozen Gems. It's the winter wonderland thing, plus a mix of crystals, gems, drizzles of snow, specific colours, and the delicate patterns framing each symbol. If you put both games side by side and squint, it's pretty hard to tell the two apart. Then there are the features. These are harder to critique since the tumble, progressive multiplier, free spin combo is capable of producing such compelling Megaways gaming. Here it is even better since the game uses a progressive multiplier in the base game too, which isn't quite so common. Factor in the expanding wild, and you have features that work well to be sure but are so common as to feel almost obsolete when combined with such unoriginal theme choice and presentation. As you'd expect, the game can step it up when it gets going, producing wins as high as 10,000x the bet. At least Pragmatic has loosened the 5,000x limit they've shackled other Megaways games they've done recently.
To wrap up, Crystal Cavern Megaways is one of those games that functions fine, looks okay, and comes with typical Pragmatic Play stats you can count on. Pragmatic Play obviously has a talented design team; it's just a bit boo when they squander their time turning out slots as unimaginative as this.
Play for real money
