Golden Realms Slot Game Details
Software Provider : NetEnt
RTP : 96.05
Volatility : High
Type of Casino Game : Slots
Reels : 5
Paylines : 36
Minimum Bet : 0.20
maximum bet : 200
maximum payout : 2,241x
wild : YES
scatter : YES
Bonus Game : YES
Free Spins : YES
Multiplier : YES
INTRODUCTION
There are quite a few themes in online slots we would consider played to death, and Greek mythology is definitely one of them. Inspired by multiple successful brands and series which use the gods of Olympus as their mascots, it seems pretty much every software provider makes a few titles with this flavour in their lifetime. While we understand the logic, it does mean that most such slot games end up feeling a bit generic. Even mechanically innovative examples sort of blend into the mass of Greek-themed fruit machines that seem to swarm every casino lobby in existence.
Be that as it may, our Golden Realms slot review won’t just judge this book by its cover. After all, playing the best slots online is what we really love. While themes and artworks can bring a lot to this experience, it eventually all comes down to the game’s mechanics, features, math model, and so on. In that regard, Golden Realms is definitely more interesting and unique. Featuring a non-standard reel layout and a few explosive extra features, there’s certainly more than meets the eye here.
Check out the rest of this review to see how NetEnt Golden Realms works and how the Casino Bloke team enjoyed our time with it.
HOW TO PLAY GOLDEN REALMS SLOTS
Golden Realms by NetEnt is a fantasy slot with 5 reels. Interestingly, the reels aren’t the same size, and each one has a different number of positions. This makes the game board shaped like a diamond with a 3-4-5-4-3 layout. Also, the game uses classic fixed paylines, and there are 36 of them in total. It’s an unusual number of ways to win thanks to the unusual number of reel positions.
Unique reel layout or not, you win Golden Realms slots the same way you do any other one-armed bandit. You need to hit matching symbols along the active paylines, going from left to right. As usual, you generally need at least 3 matching symbols for a win. The payout for said win, however, depends on the number and value of the winning symbols.
In terms of special features and added mechanics, NetEnt chose to keep things relatively simple. There are enough of them to keep things interesting, but this game isn’t bursting at the seams with special rounds as bonuses as many modern slots tend to.
For starters, Wild symbols appear in this game and work as they usually do. They’re also connected to a feature called Random Wilds, which does exactly what you think it does. Between 5 and 9 Wilds can randomly appear on the board on any given base game spin.
Meteor Splash & Fire Multiplier
For the Meteor Splash, a random symbol on the grid is picked to expand and cover all adjacent symbols. Up to six additional symbols can be altered this way, hopefully resulting in a big combo win.
Additionally, any altered symbols can then spread the transformation to symbols they’re connected to. A maximum of 12 symbols in total can be affected this way. This means that the closer this Meteor Splash symbol is to the centre of the grid, the better the results tend to be.
Lastly, Fire Multipliers add Multipliers to 5-13 random icons on the grid. The multipliers range between 1x and 5x, with smaller values being more common. When this feature activates, a random symbol sends a blast in 1 of 4 directions, increasing multipliers by x1 to all symbols in its way. The multiplier grows by x1 as the positions go further from the blast. Once all of this ends, any winning paylines are calculated as usual. However, the multipliers increase the value of any symbol they’re attached to, resulting in bigger payouts.
Golden Realms Free Spins and Feature Buy
Hitting 3, 4, or 5 Scatter symbols anywhere on the board awards the player 10, 15, or 20 free spins, respectively. According to NetEnt, all three of the random features described above are more likely during free spins. However, we’re not sure how much more likely they are.
If you don’t want to sit around and hope for Scatters to win free spins in Golden Realms Slots, there’s always the Feature Buy option. Clicking this button allows you to instantly trigger free spins at any moment for a fixed one-time payment of 100x the stake.
Casino Bloke Best tips for Golden Realms Slot
- 1Most of the features in Golden Realms by NetEnt don’t really require any player involvment. This makes the gameplay experience quite smooth and relaxing.
- 2Buying free spins increases the game’s overall RTP by 0.02%. It’s hardly an impactful difference, but at least you know that buying free spins is a viable option.
PAYOUTS & RTP
Quite stereotypically, the symbols are a combination of card royals and deities. Namely, the lower set includes J, Q, K, and Aces that pay from 0.35x to 0.50x for 5 symbols on a payline. Besides them, you will also notice four gods and goddesses paying 1.25x to 5x for 5 matching icons on a payline. Lastly, the game’s Wild symbol enoys its own payouts, worth 5x for 5 symbols. It’s tied for the game’s highest-paying symbol, which is pretty nifty due to the Random Wilds feature.
While those base payouts are quite tiny, the game’s volatility is actually middle-of-the-road. The 2,241x maximum payout of Golden Realms slots is solid, but nothing to write home about.
Lastly, we’ll note that the RTP of Golden Realms by NetEnt is 96.05%. Purchasing free spins bumps this number up to 96.07%. All in all, it’s a mediocre return-to-player rate compared to other online slot machines.
what we like
- Interesting and impactful base game features
- Awards a lot of free spins for Scatters
- Feature Buy option
what we don’t like
- Low base payouts
- Light on features and original ideas
GOLDEN REALMS BY NETENT – CASINO BLOKE’S VERDICT
Golden Reams is overall a solid online slot, though it’s also far from NetEnt’s best work. On the one hand, we really don’t have any major complaints. It works well and achieves what it set out to do, which is keep things simple despite a unique reel layout and several random main game features.
On the other hand, there’s really not much to praise either. None of these features are anything we’ve never seen before, and they don’t have any real depth or interactions. Pretty much every special feature boils down to a chance to win more, sometimes. Although one could argue that that’s what most slot features are, the ones in Golden Realms lack any real excitement or gravitas.
All in all, it’s about average while still being a top-quality game. We can offer a safe recommendations, but there are probably more interesting titles you could be playing instead.
Golden Realms Slot total score:
61%
Game developed by:
Release year:2024
Available on:Desktop, Mobile