Nock an arrow, folks, and if you're keen, feel free to come for a bound through the forest with developer Pragmatic Play in an online slot production going by the name of Fire Archer. There is a good chance when viewing Fire Archer that characters like Robin Hood or William Tell instantly spring to mind. However, instead of styling its game after a famous character from history or literature, Pragmatic Play has made its own home brand hero. Maybe that's a good thing, as it gives players a chance to pretend they're the star of this story as they spin reels alongside a Super Wild spreading added wilds feature and a free spins round where a Super Wild is present on each spin.
Maybe this isn't an 'official' Robin Hood production, but it's tough not to identify the chap drawing an arrow beside the game grid as him, while representations of a dank Nottingham Forest and a turreted Nottingham make up much of the remaining background. It's tough to fault the audio-visuals, as Pragmatic Play has crafted about as pleasantly a mediaeval scene as it's possible to find in an online slot. As such, it's not hard to visualise slipping into outlaw garb, loosening wealthy travellers through the forest of their money bags and distributing the proceeds amongst the less monetarily fortunate.
While doing so, participants also pick a sake of 25 p/c to $/€125 to get the gambling side of Fire Archer rolling. This you can do on most modern devices, and though Fire Archer does not come with an Ante Bet function which has been a popular addition to Pragmatic Play slots recently, it does offer players in applicable jurisdictions the chance to buy free spins for 100x the bet. When gambling regularly, Fire Archer produces a return value of 96.07%, rising to 96.1% when buying the bonus round, and users should be prepared to find a highly volatile math model.
Fire Archer is played on a 5-reel, 5-row game panel, which comes with 50 paylines for winning combinations to land on. This occurs when three or more matching symbols hit on a line, from the first reel onwards over consecutive reels. When a five-of-a-kind winning line lands, players collect a win worth 1.6 to 6 times the bet for the low pay 10-A card icon adorned flags, or 8 to 20 times the stake for the premium beer mug, feather cap, bag o' coins, and the Robin Hood look-a-like character. The target Super Wild symbol appears on all reels, substituting for any symbol except the scatter.
That's not all the Super Wild does, though. When Super Wilds appear, they show 8 directions on the outer part of the target. When one of these symbols hits, 1 to 8 directions will randomly be highlighted, and wild symbols will be added to the reels in the direction highlighted - all the way to the edge of the grid. Added wilds substitute for all pay symbols and are worth 30x the bet for a line of five.
Quiver scatter symbols are present on reels 1, 3, and 5. Landing all 3 scatters in a single spin gains access to the bonus round, awarding 5 free spins. During free spins, one Super Wild is guaranteed to be on the screen until the feature ends. After each spin, the Super Wild moves to a random position, and other Super Wilds cannot land. Now, when free spins begin, the walking Super Wild is given a random level of 1 to 8. This number corresponds to how many directions will be highlighted on each spin for the adding wild function as described above. If 2 scatters land, the Super Wild's level increases by 1 (up to 8), and 1, 2, or 3 free spins are added to the remaining amount. When the Super Wild reaches level 8, it cannot be levelled up, and no more extra free spins can be won.
The bow and arrow theme is a persistent one within online slots, as witnessed by several similar games being reviewed around the time Fire Archer was. Specifically, for anyone enthusiasts wondering, these were Chests of Gold Power Combo from All41 Studios and William Tell & The Wild Arrows. The positive news, if variety really is the spice of life, is that all three games are very different in practice, despite sharing a similar interest in bows, arrows, and heroic figures. From a gameplay perspective, Fire Archer might be the simplest of the lot, but its simplicity by no means makes it the lesser game. On the contrary, the spreading Super Wild feature is a pretty neat one and made for some exciting moments in the review.
It probably goes without saying that the biggest adrenal bumps occurred in free spins. Before then, the base game serves as an intriguing taster as to what might be possible when the Super Wild is really allowed to flex in the bonus round. The Super Wild didn't go completely ballistic for us, but even with a fairly low level of highlighted directions, it's possible to carve out a good number of added wilds to the reels, helping link wins. Cranking the Super Wild up to its optimal levels, say, with 7 or 8 highlights on each spin, is quite a thought, and for lucky users could be quite thrilling, too, keeping in mind a win cap of 4,000x the bet has been set in place.
That figure is far from being the biggest one out there, but it feels about right with everything else Fre Archer has going on. The game is a tad limited in what it can do since the Super Wild is basically all there is. So, when the spreading wild action has been witnessed a few times, one may wonder how long the novelty will take to wear off. Especially since there are no complimentary features to mix things around. However, until any weariness potentially sets in, Fire Archer's uncomplicated gameplay, finely executed theme, and interesting Super Wild feature are worth traipsing through a virtual forest slinging off arrows to sample.
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