Out of the Ice

Wrap up warm and dive into the adventure in the sub-zero temperatures of Print Studios newest release, Out of the Ice. Relatively new to the market, the team is arguably most well known for their December 2021 release, Royal Potato – a carb loaded exploit featuring expanding symbols, multipliers, cash prizes, and wins up to 30,000x bet. This cooler release doesn’t go quite that big, but it’s still more than enough to sink your teeth into, with wins up to 6,000x bet available. With a Default RTP of 96.55% and medium-high volatility levels, let’s swim below the surface and take a closer look.

Out of the Ice Base Game

Visually, it’s about as cold as it gets, with icy landscapes and frosted plants. Graphics are nicely done, with creatures and multipliers crashing through the ice and sinking back into the icy waters, and hue changes to build the anticipation of free spins. Audios are bold, suiting everything nicely, although they aren’t quite the levels we heard in Royal Potato – and we really couldn’t expect them to be with such an iconic song placed in the aforementioned.

Out of the Ice Freezing Re-Spin

Out of the Ice Base Features

Taking place across 5 reels, wins are formed on Out of the Ice by landing matching symbols on adjacent reels, beginning at the leftmost, along a win way. In the base game, reels are 3-3-4-4-5, with 76 ways. As re-spins occur (more on these below), the leftmost reel is dropped off, with an additional 5 high reel added on to the right hand side until the reel set up is 5-5-5-5-5. Alongside this, the amount of ways increases to 90, 154, 164 and 259 ways on re-spins 1, 2, 3 and 4 respectively.

Symbols available begin at the lower end, with a selection of shells – green, purple and gold – which pay between 0.10x and 0.20x bet for 3 of a kind, increasing to values between 0.50x and 0.75x bet for 5 of a kind. Shells are followed by blue crabs, green snails and purple fish, awarding wins between 0.30 and 0.40x bet for 3 of a kind matches, increasing to values between 1.25 and 1.50x bet for 5 of a kind matches. Premiums are blue dragons, green dragons and purple dragons, awarding wins between 0.60 and 1.25x bet for 3 of a kind, increasing to wins between 2.50 and 10x bet for 5 of a kind. Finally, Merfolk Multipliers can land on the reels, but we’ll get to those in a moment.

Out of the Ice Merfolk Multipliers

There are two features which really make Out of the Ice stand out from its competitors on the market. First, it’s the Freezing Re-Spin Feature. Any win triggers the Freezing Re-Spin, in which the leftmost reel is removed, and a new reel – 5 symbols high – is introduced on the rightmost side. All symbols involved in the win will freeze on the reels, and all other symbol positions will re-spin. This feature continues until either no more wins or formed, or until free spins are triggered. During Freezing Re-Spins, when the leftmost reel is removed, if enough symbols remain from the original win to form another win (ie the original win was 4 of a kind, and the 3 of a kind still remain), the original symbols will be counted once more as a win.

Out of the Ice Base Game Win

Next, it’s the Merfolk Multipliers we briefly mentioned above. Each time a win is formed, up to two random multipliers can be applied. The value of the multiplier will depend on which of the two available Merfolk are involved:

• Female: 2x, 3x, 4x or 6x multiplier.
• Male: 8x, 10x, 20x or 40x multiplier.

Multipliers can be applied at every stage of the Freezing Re-Spin process. Multiple Merfolk Multipliers will multiply together before being applied to a win.

Form Wins on Four Consecutive Re-Spins to Trigger Free Spins

Out of the Ice Bonus

Free Spins are triggered when a win occurs on four consecutive re-spins, meaning five wins must occur including the original win to trigger re-spins. What is interesting to remember here is what is mentioned above, in that enough symbols may be involved in the original win to count towards wins for re-spin 1 and 2 – you do not need four individual and unique drops to form wins.

Once free spins have been triggered, players are awarded a choice:

• 10 Free Spins with Merfolk Multipliers.
• 8 Free Spins with Sticky Merfolk Multipliers.
• 4 Free Spins with Sticky Merfolk Multipliers, although any Merfolk Multipliers that stick will award +1 free spins.

Free Spins Selection

Each of the free spin options are played out with the maximum 259 win ways active. During free spins, Freezing Re-Spins continue, although rather than calculating wins between each re-spin, wins are instead frozen into place, all other reel positions will re-spin, and once no more symbols are added to the win, the entire win will be calculated. At this point any Merfolk Multipliers active will be applied to the win.

10 Merfolk Multipliers Free Spins

In the 10 free spin option, Merfolk Multipliers will appear randomly and then disappear at the end of each spin. There is no option to re-trigger this feature.

In the 8 free spin option, Merfolk Multipliers will appear randomly, but will then stick into position at the end of each spin. Only Merfolk Multipliers which have been applied to a win will stick into position, and only Merfolk Multipliers in a winning position will then re-activate. There is no option to re-trigger this feature.

In the 4 free spin option, Merfolk Multipliers will appear randomly, but will then stick into position at the end of each spin. Only Merfolk Multipliers which have been applied to a win will stick into position, and only Merfolk Multipliers in a winning position will then re-activate. If, when a Merfolk Multiplier first appears, it is applied to a win, +1 free spins will be awarded.

More than 2 Merfolk Multipliers can appear per spin during free spins, and multiple active Merfolk Multipliers will multiply together before being applied to a win.

8 Sticky Merfolk Multipliers Free Spins

There is no feature buy option available on Out of the Ice. The maximum win available in a single spin or game round is 6,000x bet. If the win exceeds this, the game round or spin will end, and 6,000x bet will be awarded.

4 Sticky Merfolk Multipliers (Additional Free Spins) Free Spins

First Impression

Out of the Ice builds on some of the themes we’ve seen before in previous releases – not necessarily from the team at Print Studios specifically, but in the sector at large. First, we’ve got the idea of the re-spins adding an extra reel on to the right hand side, which is reminiscent of Infinity Reels, but of course now we’ve got the added excitement of increasing the win ways as these expansions happen. On top of this, we have multipliers that can appear and apply themselves to the wins achieved. What makes this somewhat more exciting is that multiple multipliers multiply together (try saying that three times fast), really amping things up when we consider that multipliers go as high as x40.

There’s no feature buy available, so regardless of where you’re located you’ll have to wait for it to land naturally. When it does, however, things really come together – especially if you opt for the highly volatile 4 spin option. The aim, much like in the base game, is to land multipliers, have them combine and apply to a nice win. When everything comes together, you’ll see some potent combinations – up to 6,000x bet in size.

Volatility sits at medium/high so things won’t be too brutal, but caution is still advised, especially when going for the highly volatile feature option. The base game plays much like you would expect – there’s not much happening other than the Merfolk Multipliers, so it’s all or nothing on seeing some of those. Overall, a good addition to the Print Studios portfolio.

*The screenshots taken of games reviewed on this site are taken from Demo Play, as reviews are often written before games are released for real play.