Volatile Vikings

Relax Gaming are responsible for some of the most popular games for players, including Money Train 2, Iron Bank and, more recently, Wild Chapo. One distinctive characteristic of a vast majority of their releases is the almost cartoonish look – bright, colourful, like a game that doesn’t take itself too seriously. Now, Relax are setting their sights on the Nordic Seas to bring us Volatile Vikings – a highly volatile release with an RTP of 96.23%, and win values up to 20,000x bet on offer.

Volatile Vikings Base Game

Visually, things take place on icy waters, with snow falling in the background, and the reels set upon wooden borders, with some arrows sticking out of the edges. Once things move into free spins, the heat is turned up – literally, as we move into a fiery pit, but for now the ice will do. Audios are upbeat, and kind of what you would expect when you look at the game, but hard to pin down into one genre. Adding to the audios is a number of little sound effects from forming wins, landing chests, and unlocking multipliers.

Volatile Vikings Base Features

Taking place across 6×5 reels, wins are formed in Volatile Vikings by having at least 8 of any symbol in view in any position on the reels. Symbols available include lower paying stones – blue, purple, yellow and red in colour, which pay between 0.4 and 0.5x bet for 8+ in view, whilst landing 12+ of any of these symbols in view is rewarded with payouts between 3 and 6x bet. Premium symbols are totem styled faces, of which the purple and blue pay between 1 and 1.2x bet for 8+, or between 10 and 12x bet for 12+ in view. These are followed by green and yellow faces, paying between 1.5 and 2x bet for 8+, or 15-25x bet for 12+. Finally, landing 8+ red faces awards players with 10x bet, whilst 12 or more in view rewards players with a whopping 50x bet.

Wins are Formed by Matching 8+ Symbols Anywhere on The Reels

Helping to keep things ticking over during the base game is first of all Cascades, wherein any winning symbols are removed from the reels, allowing for new symbols to drop down in their place and form new wins. Cascades continue until no more wins can be formed.

Next up is Multiplier Reveal. Each spin begins with 2 multiplier symbols on the reels – one on reel 3 and one on reel 4. Each multiplier symbol will have upon it both the multiplier value and a counter. For each winning cascade, the counter will decrease by -1, and once it reaches 0 the multiplier will be activated. When the multiplier is activated it will destroy all adjacent symbols to it, up to a maximum of 8, allowing more cascades to happen and new wins to form.

At the end of the spin, all activated multiplier values will be added together, and this value will then be applied to the total win achieved so far.

Multiplier Values available are separated into 3 categories:

• Gold: x100 and x50
• Silver: x7, x10 and x20
• Bronze: x1, x2, x3, x4 and x5

Volatile Vikings Free Spins

Volatile Vikings Bonus

Landing 3 Bonus chest symbols triggers 6 free spins, plus +1 free spins for every additional Bonus symbol in view. During the free spins feature, any additional Bonus symbols that land in view will award +1 free spins.

During free spins, Multiplier Reveal symbols work in the same way as the base game, but rather than total multiplier values resetting after each spin, they instead become persistent multipliers during free spins. Any multiplier values collected will remain in the multiplier area at the right hand side of the reels, and will be applied to any win at the end of every free spin.

Each Bonus Symbol That Lands During Free Spins Awards +1 Free Spins

Players in appropriate regions can fast track the action and go straight into free spins with the Feature Buy option – for a price of 100x bet. The theoretical RTP for the Feature Buy option is 97.00%.

The free spin feature will end either when 0 free spins remain, or when the maximum win has been reached. The maximum win available for any player to win in Volatile Vikings is 20,000x bet. If a player is awarded a win greater in value than 20,000x bet, the feature will end and they will only be awarded the 20,000x bet maximum win value.

Volatile Vikings Free Spins

First Impressions

Volatile Vikings feels, in so many ways, quite similar to features we have seen before from other releases – not the least of which being Sweet Bonanza from Pragmatic Play, in that a certain amount of symbols need only be in view in any position to be considered a win. And yet, it feels new, with even these similar features increasing excitement – particularly the Multiplier Reveal. Having the counter is a great feature addition, so rather than hoping persistently for a multiplier to land, we can instead see the potential multipliers from the first cascade, and know exactly how many wins we need in succession to activate it – just two wins, in the best case scenario.

On the statistical side, Volatile Vikings is solid. Firstly, it’s highly volatile, which we could have expected given the name. However, the RTP is also fair, sitting at 96.23%, and increasing to 97.00% for those who can avail of the feature buy – which, while we’re on the subject is also a fair price at 100x bet. Lastly, wins up to 20,000x bet are on offer, a highly rewarding value at any of the multitude of stakes on offer.

Overall, Volatile Vikings is a great addition to an already stellar portfolio from Relax Gaming, with enough new features to keep us on our toes, and a base game that keeps things ticking over nicely. With the Multiplier Reveal symbols in the base game, a nice trigger value could be waiting on us before we begin free spins, if golden multipliers have been activated – joy to the ears of UK players who cannot buy a feature.

*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.