Black River Gold Slot Review
Released in May 2020, this game can be played at online casinos such as LeoVegas, Rizk or Casumo.
Theme and general information
Kane the adventurer is back for more. Instead of heading into some ominous jungle, however, Kane seems to have matured, looking quite dapper as he finds himself somewhere in the Rocky Mountains, we presume. There is a Wild West thing going on, though we’re not on the dusty plains in the middle of Arizona or something.
We could easily assume that Kane is trying to make his fortune looking for gold that is washed out of the mountains through the river. He probably already hit it big judging by his getup.
The scenery is nicely done and a breath of fresh air after the sticky jungles he found himself in previously.
The reels are framed by a metal construction, the mountains are visible in the background and on the reels we get low value J to A symbols, a sheriff’s badge, a choker, a whiskey glass and pistol as mid value symbols, and high values with an emerald, a gold nugget and diamond and Kane himself as the highest value symbol that pays 3x our stake for 6 of his kind.
Needless to say, that symbol values are overall quite low, which is the norm in slots that have no paylines as such but pay adjacent symbols from left to right no matter where they land on consecutive reels. Also, we get avalanche wins, meaning winning symbols are removed from the reels for new symbols to fall in from above to provide an opportunity for a cascade of wins. Additionally, with every win the reels expand by one row, resetting only when no further wins occur.
You can play this game from 0.20 to 100.00 per spin.
Wild compasses, mega symbols and the Revolver feature in the base game
There are several features that keep things lively in the base game, starting with the Wild compass. When the Wild compass lands, its needle will point at two symbols on either side. If those two symbols happen to match, they will become wild. If the compass lands in the bottom row, it will become wild as well.
We also get the mega symbols in this game that we’ve seen in previous Gold slots as well. They can range in size from 2×2 to 3×3 to 4×4 symbols.
A new feature is the Revolver feature, which is triggered if a mega symbol lands atop other symbols and leaves and empty space below. Then the revolver barrel appears in that spot, loading its bullet spaces with the reel symbols that are beneath it. The revolver will then turn into a big version of the symbol it has loaded, unless all bullet spaces are filled, in which case the revolver barrel simply turns into a big wild symbol.
Free Drops with expanded reels
We need at least three scatters (which has Bonus written on it and looks like the door of a safe) to trigger the Free Drops. We get 10 drops for 3 scatters, 15 drops for 4 scatters, 20 drops for 5 scatters and 25 drops for 6 scatters.
Now the expanding reels on cascading wins get safety levels. When we manage to reach such a level, the reels won’t collapse down to just four rows again. With each expanding row we also get more paylines, which looks like this:
- 5 rows – 15,625 ways to win
- 6 rows – 46,656 ways to win
- 7 rows – 117,649 ways to win
- 8 rows – 262,144 ways to win
The base game features are still in place, adding to the potential here. Also, wilds that drop to the bottom row remain sticky there. It is possible to retrigger the Free Drops by collecting at least three further scatters.
Verdict: Another solid offering in the Gold series with good potential as well
The theoretical RTP (Return to Player) of Black River Gold is 96.1%, which is the same as in the previous Gold slots. The potential of about 5,000x our stake is also the same and the game remains highly volatile, though the hit rate is a solid 24%.
The features make for entertaining gameplay and keep things lively, even if you have to wait 300 spins to hit the Free Drops. When we played Black River Gold, we were lucky to hit the bonus game far sooner than that, but don’t count on it.
On the whole, Black River Gold may not reinvent the wheel or differ too much from the other games in the Gold series, but it is a solid addition and makes for a decent slot you can definitely try, especially if you enjoyed Kane’s previous adventures.