Stormforged

Stormforged is our slot of the month for April – a Norse-themed game featuring stacked wilds, up to x200 multipliers, treasure-chest prizes worth up to 2500x your stake, sticky wilds, roaming wilds and full-reel multipliers.

Oh and there are no less than four bonus features. Suffice to say that there’s plenty going on with this glossy, high-profile release from Hacksaw Gaming.

Theme/Visuals

There are a couple of reasons why Norse mythology is a very, very, very, very, very, very, well-trodden path in terms of the slot game theming.

It allows developers to embellish their games with all kinds of reel animations, visuals and read-made heroes and villains.

And when you’ve got pressures to release slot games every other week, being able to rely on well-established folklore takes the pressure of creative departments big-time.

And so it goes with Stormforged – a polished game steeped in Viking legend. Sumptuously designed, the rune encrusted reels are encased in snow-capped carved wood and set against the icy kingdom of Midgard. It looks beautiful of course with play accompanied by a decent, if unspectacular soundtrack

How to Play Stormforged

Along with low-value rune symbols (that depict playing card symbols, natch), the reels are decorated by a ram (?), an axe, crossed swords, a Viking helmet, a raven and wolf.

To win, you’ll need to land three, four or five symbols across one of 14 pay-lines. Manage this with the wolf in the base game and you’ll win 50x your stake.

Also in play is a paying wild that substitutes other paying symbols to hopefully create winning combinations. It also pays out up to 100x your stake should you land it five times in combination – the same goes for Hand of Surtur Wilds.

Treasure chest symbols are also in play and pay out 4x the stake for five symbol combos

There are five scatters in all:

• Hand of Surtur
• Surtur
• Ice Brand
• Viking
• Hammer of Thor

Portals of Muspelheim

When the Hand of Surtur scatter appears it creates a portal to Muspelheim. Essentially, these portals are stacked wilds. When they tear through an existing wild you’ll receive a multiplier value of anything between x2 and x200.

It can also boost line wins as well as revealing cash prizes of up to 2500x your stake should it tear through a treasure chest symbol. What’s more, if it also tears through a wild, its multiplier gets added to treasure chest prize.

Surturs Vengeance Bonus round

The Hand of Surtur scatter triggers the Surturs Vengeance Bonus round should you land 3, 4 or five. 10, 12 or 14 free spins will then be yours. Any wilds that appeared on the reels when you triggered the round also appear to become sticky. The first wild that appears from a spin also becomes sticky.

Manage to land the Ice Brand scatter during the round and you’ll gain access to the Portal to Midgard. A sword then tears through wilds and treasure chests as it moves to the bottom of the reel set, rewarding 2, 4, 6 or 8 additional spins when you unveil 2, 3, 4 or 5 Surtur symbols.

Warriors of the Storm

Landing 3, 4 or 5 Viking scatters unlocks the Warriors of the Storm bonus round and you’ll be rewarded with 10, 12 of 14 free spins. During the round, when the Hammer of Thor scatter appears, it turns the reel upon which it landed into a storm (fully wild) reel that becomes sticky for the duration.

The storm reel reveals one of three Viking warriors or a storm. The warriors each come with a multiplier and any pay-lines that go through them are subject to it. When a win is affected by storm reel multipliers, they get added together.

The three Viking warriors are: Rogue, Shieldmaiden and Berserker, paying out up to 5x, 10x and 200x multiplier respectively. However, if you land a storm reel, it only remains wild for one free spin. It then moves to the left on the following spin, pushing other storm reels to the left as well.

You’ll also receive 2, 4, 6 or 8 free spins when landing 2, 3, 4, or 5 Viking symbols during the round.

Final Thoughts

No prizes for the theme here. It’s been done to death. But Stormforged looks great and is replete with all manner of visuals embellishments that sets it apart from the hordes of Viking-themed games currently occupying the reel-spinning vertical.

The portal feature is a nice addition as is the cash chest. But central to play are the Hand of Surtur scatters and those stacked wild portals. Manage to tear through the aforementioned cash chest and maybe a wild and you’re going to have a very good day.

RTP: 94.28%, Minimum Stake: 0.01

Dale Shelabarger

Freelance Contributor, creating content since 2003

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