Mysterious is the latest spooky slot to grace reels from the team at Pragmatic Play. Of course, spooky is a subjective term, and in the slot world they're never really all that scary, are they? Devil's Number probably pushed the envelope as far as developers are willing to go in that direction for fear of scaring away punters. No, Mysterious is more like its namesake. A slightly peculiar Victorian thriller filled with ghosts, and spectres, thunder and lighting, and haunted houses. It's also stacked with features including the choice of two different bonus rounds.
Booting up the slot, it gives a promising first impression. If playing on a mobile device, make sure you're on landscape mode and you'll be treated to a crystal clear set up using a default configuration of 4 reels, 4 rows and 256 paylines in the base game – this expands during free spins keep in mind. In the background, mist creeps through a sleepy village, with a menacing manor on the hill beneath stormy skies. Sure, it's a bit clichéd, but it nicely brings to mind Bram Stoker's tortured village of Whitby or the Castlevania franchise and draws you in. Contributing to the immersion are three modes and intriguing characters next to the reels which we'll get to shortly. First comes the business of setting bets, which are available from 10 p/c up to $/€100 per spin, before heading out to solve the mystery.
Turning to the paytable, the symbols are super crisp and oddly fitting. The low pays are your four card suits, while the premiums are a stylish mix of ritualistic looking animals. In ascending value order is a bull, ram, owl, and lion. The logo is the top paying symbol at 25 times the stake for 6 of a kind. There are a few wilds on hand, and this is where the three characters come into play. Pragmatic Play are pretty consistent when it comes to highly volatile games and Mysterious follows the tradition with a 5/5 rating. The default RTP is also fine and dandy on 96.50%, but it can be lowered by the operator so make sure to check the paytable before hitting the spin button. In the pantheon of Pragmatic slots, Mysterious has quite an entertaining base games with several features attached where the big dosh can spill out.
>As alluded to, the base game comes with 3 different Wild Modifiers that change according to the game mode. The highlighted character on the side of the reels signifies which mode and wild is active. No matter the mode, the wilds are able to substitute for any of the regular pay symbols. We get:
The icing on the cake is the bonus game. The Free Spins symbol is the scatter and landing 3 or 4 of these symbols awards 8 or 12 free spins respectively. The game shifts inside the manner and the game area is expanded to 6 reels and 4 rows with 4,096 win ways. Before kicking off, players can choose one of two free spin options:
After a few mediocre sessions with sub-par to okay slots to review, it was an absolute pleasure to play a game that was so well put together. Pragmatic Play know their stuff that much is clear, but they have taken things to the next level with Mysterious. The talent of their team shines, and that is apparent from the creative to the execution side. It's all a highly professional product. Even little things like the sound of spins landing all contribute to the effect. In turbo mode they sound like heartbeats, or footsteps, or the thudding on the door at midnight. Okay maybe we're getting into the swing of the game too much, but Mysterious can do that. It's evident that a lot of thought went into every element of the game and it shows. The graphics are great, as is the soundtrack, and so is the list of extras. It all draws you into its Victorian world and is all good fun.
Weirdly, the base game can be as much fun as the bonus games. The money-making opportunities are more condensed during free spins sure, but the rotating wild modes, as well as the sheer atmosphere, keep the spinning interesting. The math model deserves a clap as well even if, like any volatile game, it can be quite brutal at times. The algorithm is one of the most satisfying from Pragmatic Play to come up in a while. The bonus game wasn’t as difficult to trigger as they can be with this developer, or so it seemed during our test run at least. With Mysterious is doesn't feel like the purpose of the base game is to dole out a beating in order to earn the right to play the bonus game. That can seem like the case with some of Pragmatic's volatile beasts.
All up, the Mysterious video slot is an excellent game that showcases a new direction for Pragmatic Play that fits it like a glove. And don't be put off by the spectres and doom, the theatrical horror is more camp hi-jinks than scary and makes the perfect gaming accompaniment to a dark and stormy night in.
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