Fellow whip crackers, if you've been around the Pragmatic Play block a few times, you have probably bumped into the studio's resident Indiana Jones wannabe, John Hunter. Proving that adventuring runs in the blood, here comes Jane Hunter and the Mask of Montezuma, where the star of the show just happens to be John's sister, Jane. Jane's not one to sit back and let her bro get all the glory; she's headed off to an undisclosed Mesoamerican destination to find fame and fortune, presumably.
If you've been around the slot block in general, you've probably ended up in a similar location once or twice (or many) times before as well. For Jane Hunter and the Mask of Montezuma, we're in a thickly jungled spot dotted with cultural artefacts such as a step pyramid and stone carved objects displayed about the place. There's not a whole lot to say about Jane Hunter and the Mask of Montezuma's look. Jane appears to have started her exploration career in a popular spot, so whether there's treasure left to uncover which hasn't been unearthed in previous digs might be a pertinent question.
To begin the dig, or the temple raiding, or whatever Jane's planning on getting up to requires making a few preliminary decisions. One is the base bet, where options start at 10 p/c and go as high as $/€100 per spin. The next move is deciding whether to stick to single spin, regular betting or make a beeline to the bonus round by buying it for 60 times the bet. Highly volatile, no matter the chosen approach, Jane Hunter and the Mask of Montezuma has a maximum RTP of 96.02%, though lower models may be available.
The game is played on a 5-reel, 3-row gaming panel, supplying 10 fixed paylines to land winning combinations of 3 to 5 of a kind across. Hitting a 5 OAK win made up of the 10 to A card suits pays 10 times the bet, while a premium symbol hit made up of 5 binoculars, digging instruments, satchels, or Janes is worth 50 to 200 times the stake. A golden circular mask object is Jane Hunter and the Mask of Montezuma's wild symbol and is present on all 5 reels. Wilds substitute for any regular pay symbols and are worth up to 500 times the bet for a 5 wild symbol win line.
For Jane's debut, Pragmatic play has equipped her with some fairly regular gaming devices. These are a Pick Bonus Game and free spins with a money symbol collection element.
The Bonus symbol is available only on the rightmost reel in the base game. When the Bonus symbol hits, 5 chests are displayed for players to pick one of. Picked chests reveal an instant prize. This could be a cash prize worth 2x, 3x, 5x, 7x, 10x, 15x, 20x, 25x, 30x, or 40x the bet, or 10, 15, or 20 free spins.
Alternatively, hitting 3, 4, or 5 scatters symbols triggers 10, 15, or 20 free spins, respectively. During free spins, the 4 premium symbols also act as Money symbols - each one assigned a value at the start of the round. Whenever a wild symbol lands during the round at the same time as Money symbols, their values are awarded. Money symbols are also collected by their respective meters when they hit. When reaching set levels in the collection process, Money symbol values increase for the rest of the feature, like so:
Brother John Hunter's been on a few expeditions over the years, taking him to far-flung destinations such as Egypt and South/Central America. With the exception of Bermuda, though, he tends to stick to pretty commonplace online slot world locations. Unlike, say, Kane, from ELK Studios' range of Gold slots, John seems pretty happy frequenting the usual haunts, going over well-trod ground in the hopes of turning up something overlooked by the hordes of previous explorers. So it is with his sister Jane. As far as adventures go, Jane's kept it pretty cautious, but as luck would have it, she has uncovered one or two 'treasures' that might go down well with fans of Pragmatic Play's work.
One of the first things of note is the usual sheen that comes with a Pragmatic Play slot is here in abundance in Jane Hunter and the Mask of Montezuma. It's glitzy, the general build quality is high, and it's got that semi-land-based feel which often accompanies a Pragmatic Play release. The subject matter isn't overly unique, apart from the fact players are adventuring with John's sibling, and you don't need us to tell you how populous the Aztec/Inca/Ancient American slot genre is. Moving on, we get to Jane Hunter and the Mask of Montezuma's gameplay, where another detail which stood out is the relatively low number of paylines that have been paired with a hefty upper pay table. Not quite 'Book of' status, but hefty enough to make 5 OAK wins, should they occur; pretty exciting. Pretty exciting is the bonus round as well, nothing spectacular per se, yet it's not hard to picture players within the game's scope enjoying the way it awards money symbol payouts.
Pragmatic Play made an interesting decision when it decided to focus on the exploits of a female explorer rather than drag the John Hunter range out, but Jane Hunter and the Mask of Montezuma might have been more impactful if the team had been as daring with the theme. Never mind, the final cherry on the top is a respectable, if not exactly outstanding, win cap of 5,000x the bet. In fact, respectable, if not exactly outstanding, is a good way of summing up Jane Hunter and the Mask of Montezuma as a whole.
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