Empire Shields Slot Machine: Review & Demo
Gong Gaming Technologies is coming up with a new slot machine, called Empire Shields. It’s one of those joint releases that they’ve designed for Microgaming casinos. There are elements borrowed from battles of the Middle Ages, though it looks like there is a healthy amount taken from the fantasy genre as well.
The slot has excellent potential, being capable of paying 12,150x the stake ($243,000 cash), all while using 5x3 reels and their 243 ways to win. A lot of its action comes from its five modifiers, the so-called Toppers, which you can also get during the free spins. Long-term, it’s a game with a RTP of 96.19%, but in the short-run you might feel the pain of its high volatility.
Empire Shields Slot Betting and Prizes
The wagers that you can place in Empire Shields, will start from $0.20, and can go up to $20.
In exchange, this slot machine can pay up to $243,000 cash, which would mean a 12,150x the stake payout. To make that kind of reward possible, the game was designed to be highly volatile, but not unfair (96.19% RTP looks fine).
Features
Before we get to the unique aspects, let’s see what’s common. I’d include the wild symbol there, a substitute that’s standard for most slot machines. In this case, the wild can also be used to form combinations with other symbols of its type, and they pay as well as the top symbol (15x the round’s stake).
The game’s interesting bits rely on Toppers, which are meters shown at the top of the reels. They are charged with 4 to 7 energies, at random. When you get a meter to full, its modifier will trigger. It can be one of the following options:
- Expanding Wilds, which will give you the reel fully wild.
- Wild, adding a regular wild to the reel below.
- Multiplier, which boosts all wins by 2x to 10x, if they’re formed through that reel. Add them up, for even better rewards, if several are charged at the same time.
- Double Reel, to increase the size of the reel below, from 3 to 6 symbols (with all reels doubled, you could have 7,776 ways active).
Anywhere from 3 to 5 scatter symbols that land at the same time, will take you to a free spins feature. You get 10 free spins there, along with a picking feature that decides which five toppers will charge up. In the case that you can’t charge them up on your own, they will be activated for the final round. This is a feature that can be retriggered.
Theme & Design
The action takes place in front of an ancient fortress, as shown in the background image. Five of the warriors involved in that battle are going to be shown among the premium symbols, while the lesser positions are getting the usual 9 to A Royals. You will also find a W wild and a Lion logo as the scatter. Overall, a fine design, but not something that’s out of the ordinary these days.
Conclusion
Empire Shields does a couple of things right, especially by adding those Toppers and the modifiers they can trigger. It’s also a slot with high volatility though, so not everyone will enjoy it.
