It's hard to imagine, in this so-called modern era of Google Maps and Street View, that once upon a time, much of the planet remained a mystery to people living in other parts of it. For example, back in the day, some maps had blank spots on them because the makers simply didn't know what was there. It took brave souls working up the courage to literally walk into the unknown to check it out. Makes you wonder, is it better now having the globe under constant observation, or was it better when there were romantic mysteries, yet to be uncovered? Toughie. Anyway, developer Pragmatic Play fuels the mental exercise with its release of Secret City Gold, an online slot that lets players traipse into a mysterious part of the world to uncover their own secrets.
With a bit of imagination, of course, though, Secret City Gold's artwork helps fill in visual blanks if you have any. The game takes place in a thick, dank, jungly spot full of trees dripping… dunno, something organic, fireflies, and a waterfall. The atmosphere has a definite Central/South American feel going on, a bit Aztec Blaze, a bit Firebird Spirit, but with a heartily stirring soundtrack, especially in free spins, to help it stand out.
A highly volatile game, Secret City Gold may be played on a tablet, mobile, or desktop device. With three RTP models available, the highest return value comes in at 96.06% when betting regularly or 96.22% when buying free spins. The cost of buying free spins is 85x the bet, while regular stakes range from 25 p/c to $/€125 per paid spin.
Just off-centre is the game's grid which is made up of 5-reels, 4-rows, and 25 paylines. Land three to five matching symbols along a payline, starting from the left on adjacent reels, and you've got yourself a win. The amount you'll get varies from 0.4 to 1 times the bet for five of the 10-A playing card ranks or 1.2-4x the bet for five exotic-looking premium symbols, topped by a golden coin with its tongue poking out. Rounding off this section is a pretty intense wild symbol present on all five reels. Wilds both substitute for any pay symbol and pay up to 8x the bet for a winning line of five wilds.
Cracking Secret City Gold's enigma, or winning a few coins at least, may be helped by the next two features. One is Shape Wins, the game's main new bit; the other is a free spins bonus round.
On each spin, there is a chance a random pattern or shape appears on the reels. This shape marks a number of random positions on the grid. When it appears, after any wins are paid, all symbols inside the shape convert into one random symbol type already in it. After the transformation, symbols pay left to right for winning combos within the shape. In addition, the win is multiplied by a random value of x1 to x10.
Htting 3, 4, or 5 scatter symbols awards 2x, 10x, or 50x the bet plus 8 free spins. Free spins have the Shape Wins feature like the base game, but the difference is the random multiplier generated by the first Shape is collected by a general multiplier. It is the general multiplier value which is applied to Shape Wins, and its value does not reset until the round ends. While not specifically stated, the general multiplier appeared to increase by +1 for each following Shape Win pattern. One more rule is that each scatter landing in the bonus adds +1 more free spin to the tally.
When it comes to game design, some studios take a sort of sniper approach, spending time stealthily getting into position, finding the right angles, appropriate cover, and patiently waiting for their target to present itself within their line of sight before dropping the hammer. Others take an opposing strategy, spraying games haphazardly around like bullets from an automatic weapon. One studio which feels like it's chosen the latter route recently is Pragmatic Play, slinging out online slots like there's no tomorrow. Fair dues, the studio has a knack for making sure the standard is fairly high, or at least above average, but the scattergun approach hasn't exactly led to a whole lot that's been particularly memorable of late. Flashy graphics, flowing animations, and one or two interesting features, keep the games going without doing anything extraordinary in the process.
So it was with Secret City Gold. Another solid-enough slot that's essentially a textbook example of what was said in the previous paragraph. It looks nice, the artwork's crisp, the music's got a driving panpipes meets Goa Full Moon Party vibe, and the gameplay has a trick or two to uncover. Once we'd seen Secret City Gold strut its stuff, though, there was a feeling of okay, done this one now, what's next? As is often the case, Secret City Gold doesn't have anything majorly negative to slate. It performed without a hitch, stats are strong (i.e. a 10,000x win cap), and Shape Wins warrant a look for slot completists to tick off their list. All competently done.
And yet, there was something a little timid about Secret City Gold that's not uncommon in a Pragmatic Play slot. A burning ambition to take willing players on a freaky journey they'd never dreamt of going on felt lacking. Pragmatic Play clearly possesses a significant amount of creativity; it would be impossible to be so productive without it, but it also feels like there's a committee at the studio ensuring each release is comfortably mainstream, muzzling any ideas considered to be too outrageous. We could be totally wrong, of course, this is just the impression Secret City Gold gave off. It's a decent game, but not necessarily one you'd want to blast on socials before one of your other friends does and gets all the glory.
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