North Guardians
By Pragmatic Play
Overview
Embark on a thrilling Viking adventure with Pragmatic Play's North Guardians, a high-volatility slot boasting a 5x5 grid and 50 fixed paylines! Journey across a breathtaking snowy landscape, encountering charismatic Viking characters as you spin the reels. The unique Wild Pattern Wheel is the heart of this captivating game, randomly adding wild symbols to the grid for potentially massive wins. This innovative feature, similar to but distinct from Eye of Cleopatra's random wild patterns, adds a layer of unpredictability and excitement to each spin. North Guardians offers a max win of 5,000x your stake, providing the ultimate thrill for high-stakes players. With base bets starting at 50 p/c and reaching a maximum of $/€100, this game caters to a wide range of players, from casual spinners to high-rollers seeking huge rewards. Prepare for an immersive gaming experience with stunning visuals and a thrilling Viking theme! The RTP can vary depending on operator settings, with a maximum value of 96.38%.
Gameplay & Features
TheWild Pattern Wheelis North Guardian's main selling point, so let's start there. In the base game, two halves of what the game calls a 'marking rectangle' appear on the main grid beneath the regular symbols, changing positions on every spin. When both halves land in thesame position, the wheel next to the reels spins. It may land on 'Level Up', in which case it spins again at the next level, or it may land on apattern. The pattern on the wheel translates to a pattern ofwild symbolsadded to the game grid. The higher the level, the better the pattern will be. There arefive levels, and it is possible to fill the reels with wilds.
• Free Spins
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Hitting3, 4, or 5 scatter symbolsawards5 free spinsplus a cash win of 2x, 10x, or 100x the bet, respectively. In the bonus round, the Wild Pattern Wheel isactive on every single spin. The wheel starts on level 1, and following a Level Up result, itdoes not reset. Also, when progressing to Levels 2, 3, or 4, players get+2 additional free spinseach time. When reaching the fifth level,+1 free spinis awarded.
• Buy Free Spins
•
Where this option presents itself, players may instantly trigger the main feature by hitting the bonus buy button. The cost for this is 100 times the total bet, and has mentioned earlier, doing so slightly lowers RTP by 0. 11%
Final Thoughts
Not a lot of time passed since reviewingEye of Cleopatra, and we got the impression both games might have been conceived around the same time as there wasn't a major advancement between the two. As a comparison, the previous game tended to spread the thrills out, whereas North Guardians felt a lot more bonus round focused. There just wasn't much going on in the base game, and it was easy to zone out the regular symbols and fixate on the two halves of the rectangle dancing around the grid. In the first couple of hundred spins, the rectangle came together twice to jump-start the Wild Pattern Reel, which produced little to no result.
Not saying good things can't happen in the base game, but free spins were a heck of a lot more action-packed. Again, they could be quite all or nothing as well. Five initial spins don't leave much room for error, so hopefully, the Wild Pattern Wheel is in a liberal mood with levelling up or pops some solid wild patterns in advantageous positions across the board. It's a bonus round that gets exponentially better, theoretically, the further you can progress until, at its limit in Level 5, full-screen wilds are a possibility. That would be worth 750x, while North Guardians has full potential of5,000x the bet. Hit this payout level in the bonus round, and any free spins remaining are forfeited.
All told, North Guardians is an interesting pattern-based game that might find a warm reception in the right hands. It seems like North Guardians' finer moments have been condensed into a smaller space, which is perhaps harder to reach, but unlocking higher levels with their generous helping of wild symbols has the potential to be quite a ride.
