Forge of Gems Slot Review

We believe that we mentioned in a recent slot review that Play’n Go is currently preoccupied with trying to break through in the expanding North American market. It also secured a Gibraltar supplier license and struck a deal with the Dutch lottery to have its catalog of products available to online gamblers from the Netherlands. Despite its business growth and expansion focus, Play’n Go is still releasing slots at a steady pace. Forge of Gems is the fifth installment in the Swedish company’s growing Gem series, hitting online casinos everywhere on April 14th, 2022. The day following its wide release, it instantly charted in the top one hundred rankings, making us take note and look to hurry posting our analysis of this game, informing you if it is a worthy addition to the Gem’s franchise or not.

Theme & Design

The Gem series began in 2015 with Wizard of Gems, a medium variance spinner with a default RTP OF 94.67%, which stood out thanks to its feature that awarded gamblers an x5 multiplier when they managed to pick up five consecutive wins. It got followed up by Perfect, Frozen, and Prism of Gems. Most of these games are not tremendously popular right now, with Frozen Gems being the most-played title from the pack, released in 2020. Still, Forge of Gems is currently riding its initial wave, and we have yet to know if it has any staying power or will it drop off into sub-1,000 territory after a few months of interest.

Naturally, as the name of this game and franchise suggests, the theme here is precious stones. Although, this slot gives off a steam-punk vibe with a metal works motif. That is so because the backdrop is a massive furnace, and metal clangs ring out now and again. Presentation-wise, the reel-spinner is rather basic, as is the case with most Play’n Go releases. The visuals feel a bit flat, with the symbols and other game elements boasting a bevel and emboss style, which looks weird. The reel grid graphic seems crisper and more vector-like compared to the painterly backdrop of Forge of Gems, giving this title a somewhat incohesive look. The soundtrack and effects are also nothing to write home about. So, overall, we have to say that the presentation here feels a bit generic and dull.

The buttons’ interface is the same set-up that Play’n Go always uses. The bet-adjuster selection is in the middle of the panel, with the spin options right of it. The info icon is on its left side, and next to it is your gaming balance information.

Specs & Gameplay

Forge of Gems is a high variance spinner with a sliding RTP setting that can go as low as 84.2% and as high as 96.2%. However, the usual one is 94.2%. It features a max win potential of x20,000 on a maximum wager of $100, and the lowest amount anyone can bet on this game is $0.2. Note that Forge of Gems offers a default 243 ways to win, but this number can increase to 36,288.

Wins in this game form when you land an adjacent symbol combination of at least three matching tokens. It also uses the popular cascading mechanic.

The low-paying symbols of Forge of Gems are the regular A to 10 Card royals, producing wins of x0.3 to x0.4 for five-of-a-kind. The high-paying ones are four different colored gems, yielding rewards of x0.5 to x1 for five identical tokens from this batch dropping onto the grid on the same spin.

The Wild here is a hexagonal blue gem held in a gold frame. It substitutes all the other pay symbols, but not the Scatter (a gold medallion), and produces prizes of x4.5 if it appears five times on the same spin.

Bonus Features

Forge of Gems has a Forge Reel, or technically, an extra row at the top of its grid. When a winning combo forms, the symbols that are a part of it explode, leaving room for new ones to fall in their place from this section. The Forge Reel holds special symbols that do not appear on the regular reel grid. There is the multiplier token that increases your win multiplier by one. Then you have vertical and horizontal Wilds that turn other matching symbols in their reel/row Wild. The vertical/horizontal splitters split matching symbols on their reel/row, boosting the ways to win, and blank tokens get removed during a cascade.

If you hit three to five Scatters, Forge of Gems will award you the Gembox. Depending on how many Scatters you hit, you can win an instant x20 to x40 multiplier and eight to twenty free spins. Scatters can show up in the Forge Reel but only count towards activating the Gembox bonus when dropped onto the reels below. During this mode, the reels will not contain any blank tokens, and any win multiplier attained during the activating spin will get carried over into this feature.

GOSU Verdict

We do feel that Play’n Go should up their presentation standard. That holds true here as well. Still, we had a lot more fun with Forge of Gems than we initially thought we would. The cascading mechanic paired with the Forge Reel and all the modifiers it holds really spices things up here. Plus, a max exposure setting of x20,000 on a max bet of $100 is something that most online gamblers will find alluring, and that is something we fully understand. Overall, Forge of Gems is a worthy addition to the Gems series, and we believe that it may become the most-played game in the franchise so far.

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