The mysterious Morgana and the mystic Merlin have been put together on the reels of a new online slot by Play'n GO. The duo's ominous presence on the reels is there to help, as you can win cash prizes of up to 20,000x your bet when they unleash their magic to boost your winnings.
The long-winded title of the game has nothing on the simplicity of the gameplay. The developers at the Swedish slot-making outfit have decided to go with the classic "Book of" mechanic but have thrown in expanding Wilds with win multipliers and a gamble game.
There is plenty to say about the game, especially since the name Merlin has always inspired excellent games, like those previously released by the same company.
Find out more details from our Merlin and the Ice Queen Morgana slot review before claiming a welcome bonus.
The reel set is the basic three rows and five reels, as it has always been the usual choice for the score of Ancient Egypt-themed slots that start with "Book of...". Those among our readers who have played this genre of slots many times should not skip to the next slot review because this game does stand out.
The reason for that is its inclination to land wild stacks and therefore win multipliers. This does help the possibility of landing a big win amidst the sheer number of potential no-win outcomes made under the pressure of the highly volatile engine.
To land a win you need three or more symbols of the same kind. Merlin and the Ice Queen Morgana slot has ten paylines and that means you can land winning combinations across the entire grid. The latter is especially possible in the free spins bonus.
That said, let's check out some gameplay functions and how to start spinning - for those slot players who are new to this thing.
Play'n GO has kept its good old arrangement of buttons and game controls. You can find the Spin button in the bottom-right corner, next to the button for Autoplay. The latter lets you select automatic spins from a range of presets, as well as add a spending limit and a prompt when Merlin and the Ice Queen Morgana have reached a specific amount from a single spin.
Strangely enough, the game doesn't have a fixed number of paylines. You can play the game on as little as one payline, which impacts the amount of your bet. Play'n GO has provided players with the option to choose from a range of amounts for their payline stake: between a single penny and £2.00. The maximum that you can bet is £100.00 per spin.
To configure your bet, use the minus and plus buttons that surround the Coin Value, Coins and Lines settings and the game will display your total bet on the strip below. If you are playing Merlin and the Ice Queen Morgana on mobile, the displays will be shown in different parts of your screen.
Play'n GO didn't go full graphics jacket on the game design. They've kept things neat and without too many outbursts of visual effects. This isn't to say that the graphics are bad. On the contrary, the symbols and the concept of the premise are top-level. It's just that the visual effects are reserved for the special symbols (Wilds and Scatters) and when you land a winning outcome.
The game does provide an experience that can be immersive. You can easily get into the visual aspects of it, especially during the bonus game where all of the special stacking symbols are glowing alight and the winning paylines are shot through them. This is one of the most anticipated events in the game, which is why Play'n Go has saved all of its silver bullets for the bonus spins.
Merlin and the Ice Queen Morgana comes with a decent soundtrack and sound effects so if you decide to play the game you should leave the sound on until you don't.
Those who care to view the full score of the symbol payouts need to press the 'i' button in the bottom-left. The paytable structure starts slow but improves as you go higher on the scale of low-paying card symbols. Three matching symbols can pay 2x and 3x your payline bet, which is admittedly very low. On the other hand, you can win half of your bet's amount for four matching symbols. The full bet is won with four kings and aces.
We appreciate the fact that Play'n GO has decided to build the paytable very much like their older online slots, from three, four and even five years ago. That said, you can win payouts for two symbols of the same kind if they are from the high-paying category. The top payers are five rings, kettles, books and Merlin symbols in the following order: 100x, 100x, 500x and 2500x your payline bet. The latter value also applies to the Wild Scatter symbol.
We are least surprised that Merlin and the Ice Queen Morgana slot is highly volatile. As we said earlier, thanks to this choice the game can trigger huge payouts in the free spins bonus feature and low to moderate wins in the base game.
Morgana acts as a win multiplier when it lands fully stacked on any of the five reels. The win multipliers are 2x, 3x, 5x and 8x your win. In the free spins mode, a stack of Morgana symbols can substitute for one special expanding symbol.
Three Scatter symbols trigger the bonus feature where the game chooses a random symbol that it is going to cast as the special expanding symbol As per the usual regarding many "Book of" slots, the expanded symbols are freed of the payline constraint. In other words, they don't have to land on adjacent reels to form a winning outcome.
The kicker in the game comes when the expanding symbol lands on three reels or more because it can cover the entire reel set.
The game is available at online casinos that offer Play'n GO slots, which is pretty much almost every online casino that has a license from a government authority, like the UKGC or the Malta or Gibraltar associations. You can load this game from any mobile device that runs on iOS or Android and has one of the latter updates installed.
We can say that this game inspired the title at hand in style and gameplay mechanics. Rise of Merlin is a "Book of" slot with expanding symbols and Wilds that are also scattered bonus symbols. There are differences regarding some of the specifications. The RTP is similar, at 94.51% but the maximum win potential is lower, yet still good enough to shake out some exciting combinations - of up to 5,000x your bet. This game was released in 2019 but still rocks heavily at many online casinos.