Software provider Pragmatic Play has teamed up with associate studio Wild Streak Gaming to produce Mystery of the Orient. The title provides two clues as to what to expect should players decide to fire the game up. The Orient part refers to the game's Asian theme, while the Mystery part alludes to its mystery symbols which are critical for accessing Mystery of the Orient's Grand prize. Otherwise, Mystery of the Orient is pretty unmysterious, really, and is unlikely to deliver much that might trip up a player well-acquainted with these sorts of slots.
The game's graphics make no bones about what sort of genre it's aiming for. Behind the game grid lies some pixelated rocky outcrops, joined by cherry blossom-looking trees, and a female warrioress, sword drawn, red robe waving. It's kind of Sakura Fortune-ish, though, with the sort of land-based feel Wild Streak Gaming's slots sometimes come with. You're either a fan or you're not; no real mystery there.
Mystery of the Orient supplies players with 243 ways to win in its base game, but this number can increase in free spins when reels are expanded. To begin with, the board layout consists of 5 reels holding 3 rows each. Hitting left-to-right combinations of pay symbols starting from the first reel onward triggers a cash reward. With a rating of 4.5 out of 5, Mystery of the Orient is a highly volatile game, though one which triggered its bonus round surprisingly often for the review, pumping out a maximum RTP value of 96%. This figure applies when wagering 25 p/c to $/€125 per spin or buying free spins, where possible.
Pragmatic Play/Wild Streak Gaming's artists appear to have busted out brushes to create Mystery of the Orient's flowing 9-A card royals, while its high pays are an instrument, sword, a box, tiger, and the warrior lady. Landing a winning way of five symbols in length pays 0.8 to 1.6 times the stake for the lows or 2 to 4 times the stake for the highs. Also, landing on reels 2, 3, and 4 are wild coin symbols. Wilds substitute for all paying symbols.
One of Mystery of the Orient's mysteries relates to one of its most important symbols. This is the Mystery symbol, which appears on all cells in the base game and in free spins. When a Mystery symbol hits in the base game, it randomly reveals one of these symbols:
Landing 3, 4, or 5 Free Spins symbols award 15, 20, or 25 free spins, respectively. During free spins, two extra symbols may appear from a Mystery symbol reveal. One is the Reel Size Increase, which increases the size of the reel it's on by one position – up to 6 positions at the most. The other is the Additional Free Spins symbol, awarding additional free spins whether they land naturally or are revealed by Mystery symbols.
If an option in your jurisdiction, players can buy a triggering spin that lands 3, 4, or 5 scatter symbols to gain entrance to the bonus round for the cost of 100x the bet.
There you have it; a large part of solving the enigma of Mystery of the Orient involves landing as many of its mystery symbols as possible to access some of its more interesting parts. Technically, all you really need to happen is for five mystery symbols to reveal five scatters and boom, the game's Grand prize is coming your way (btw, the total max win is 8,035x). However, that is unlikely to happen for the vast majority of players, who will have to contend themselves with the rest of what constitutes the Mystery of the Orient experience.
And what that involves is a fairly romanticised portrayal of Asian culture, not unlike a Kung Fu movie or one of those Asian-speaking series which are filtering over to the west in ever greater numbers. Kinda cool when they don't overdub those shows with a different language, too, but let viewers get the full effect via subtitles instead. Squid Game is one of the bigger hits, but there are plenty of fantasy-based series floating around, too, if you're into that sort of thing. Fortunately, Mystery of the Orient isn't as life or death as Squid Game was, though it has plenty of ups and downs, as well. The funny thing about the big ups is they're accompanied by smiley face emoji things and random messages like 'You're a Rockstar', or 'Oh My, That Win is so Big!' Odd, wacky bits that threaten to spoil the cultural vibe the rest of the game is striving to portray. It might've been kind of cool if the lady slashed those emojis with her sword when they popped up instead of standing there, bobbing around winking, just saying.
Then again, we've come to expect a certain level of cringey-ness in some of these Pragmatic Play/Wild Streak Gaming collabs. These games have a distinctive way of mixing unusual elements together while having a vaguely land-based feel at times in the process. Naturally, Mystery of the Orient won't be for everyone, but this particular method apparently has a way of encouraging fans of their work back for return visits.
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