ALL ABOUT THE SLOT BOOK OF SHADOWS
With a sizzling, high variance release with a dark theme, Nolimit City is enjoying Halloween a bit early this year. This upstart slot studio has always piqued our interest at The Slot Buzz. We’ve lauded titles like Tombstone, Deadwood, and Barbarian Fury, so it’s safe to say we were very pumped to see their take on the now-familiar, but always fascinating, Book of… series of slots. Nolimit City has done things a bit differently this time, eschewing the standard Ancient Historical settings chosen by its competitors and instead giving… Shadows a haunting horror atmosphere. The ominous sounds and creepy artwork create the tone for what is a sophisticated version on one of the finest slots formats in high risk gaming. Nolimit hasn’t tried to be very inventive with the gameplay; it’s quite conventional fare, but with the ability to double your stake and stretch the reels from three to five rows. The free spins round is rich with potential, as one picked symbol grows and locks into place, offering a top payout of almost 30,000 coins. Awesome stuff, and a game that will undoubtedly leave you awake at night with goosebumps! Let’s learn more…
GAME SET-UP, SYMBOLS AND GRAPHICS
The story is set in a spooky woods with dead trees and dark, foreboding sky. There are three rows of symbols on each of the five reels. Nolimit City, on the other hand, has offered players the option of increasing the reel set to 4 or 5 rows deep. If you pick this option, you must increase your wager by 1.5x or 2x, accordingly. This provides you more paylines – 10 for three rows, 15 for four rows, and 20 for five rows.
The low-value symbols are ordinary playing cards, numbered 10 through Ace, printed in a gothic font. The premium symbols include black cats, goat skulls, and eyeballs, the sort of stuff you’d expect to find in a witch’s lair. There’s also a butterfly (?!?) and the highest-paying symbol, which appears to be an un-dead girl with scaggy hair and serves as a sort of protagonist in this story. There’s also a crucial scatter symbol that acts as a Wild and substitutes for all other symbols to help you win. To activate the big-money free spins round, you’ll need three or more scatters.
RTP, VARIANCE, AND PAYOUTS FOR THE BOOK OF SHADOWS SLOT
Depending on how many rows and paylines you play with, Book of Shadows features three different RTP options. The basic level is 96.01 percent, but it increases to 96.07 percent for four paylines and 96.19 percent for five paylines. Remember, this is a high-volatility game with a Nolimit City rating of 10/10. This is usual for Book of… games, which means Shadows will pay out rarely, but in large amounts if the free spins go your way. If you can get a high-value sign to expand as the special symbol. The minimum bet is merely 10c, while the highest payoff is a pretty respectable 30,338x.
FEATURES AND GAMEPLAY
The game, like all other Book of slots, revolves around triggering free spins, during which symbols grow and a complete screen of identical top-paying icons is attainable. The following is how it works:
Feature of Lucky Locks
If you think a spin will pay off, you can lock the reels thereafter. Of course, you’ll have to lay an additional wager to make this happen. If you think what’s on those reels is only one or two symbols away from a decent payout or a chance to land a second and third scatter to trigger free spins, you can lock up to four reels at once.
Feature of Chance
You can bet to double your money after any win at any time during the game. The function is straightforward: wager on whether the next card will be red or black. If you guess correctly, your prize will be doubled. If you guess incorrectly, you will lose everything! Any victory may be gambled five times for a maximum payoff of C$500,000!
Bonus Spinner
In Book of Shadows, there is an extra element that employs a Wheel of Fortune setup to allow you to spin for a chance to enter the free spins round. If the pointer falls on one of the highlighted segments of the wheel, you will be taken immediately to the bonus round.
Bonus Spins
The Book sign serves as both a scatter and a wild symbol. To activate the free spins round, you must land three or more symbols on a single spin. You’ll gain 10 free spins as a result of this. You may choose the amount of rows in play for your free spins, but this will decrease the number of free spins you receive. You’ll receive fewer spins if you increase the amount of rows. If you lower it, you’ll receive more. Remember that the amount of rows in play has an effect on the slot’s RTP.
The majority of you will understand how this works, but for those who are unfamiliar, this is the Book of… mechanic. One symbol is picked at random to be the special one before the free spins round begins. The bigger the value, the better, because it expands to span a whole reel and becomes part of a payline regardless of row location when it lands. This increases the odds of winning lines being completed. Finally, if the scraggy zombie girl is your special symbol and she lands and grows on all five reels, you’ll win 10,000x your bet for that play.
Re-trigger the round by landing three additional Book scatters.
OUR VERDICT
Despite the (deserved) attention that Book of Games receives, the gameplay in these slots is quite easy. But it works, and the possibility of landing a complete screen of identical symbols is a huge lure and incentive to keep playing and unlocking the free spins round if you’re playing one of these games. Nolimit City has done an excellent job of taking the basic game concept and adding a few unique elements as well as a fresh theme to it. The graphics are adequate, albeit not as striking as those seen in some of their other Canadian slot games. But we don’t think it’s a huge problem. What they’ve given us is another high-variance game that will keep us amused and, without a doubt, drive us insane for months. Just keep in mind that this is not a game for the faint of heart. Carefully consider your stake, keep in mind the volatility, and bet sensibly!
