Cat Wilde and the Incan Quest

Cat Wilde and the Incan Quest: Slot Overview

For her fifth escapade, the intrepid explorer Cat Wilde has tripped to South America to headline in Play'n GO's adventure slot Cat Wilde and the Incan Quest. Cat has been in this neck of the woods before, having previously starred in the Gonzo-inspired Cat Wilde in the Eclipse of the Sun God. So far, the explorer seems content sticking to Central/South American and Ancient Egyptian spots. Maybe she'll broaden her horizons a bit further at some point in the future. For now, though, we join Ms Wilde as she braves bad weather and wild beasts in an attempt to extract Incan treasure.

Speaking of bad weather, Cat Wilde and the Incan Quest's base game presents a vision of the Peruvian jungle drenched in torrential rain. Rain is about the most original thing to see graphically in Cat Wilde and the Incan Quest. To be fair the graphical quality is quite high, as it often is in Play'n GO slots when it comes to presentation. The reels spin with a hearty sliding stone block noise, too, helping make the audiovisual effect an overall positive one. Located above the reels, three bonus prize rewards are displayed, locked in the base game, providing an incentive to beat on through the rain to see if they can be unlocked later on or, better, won.

Pressing the plus or minus buttons below the grid is how players can pick their preferred wager from 10 c to $/€50 per spin. Sheltering in the background away from the downpour huddles a medium-high volatile math model (rated 7 out of 10), available in several RTP configurations, with a default value of 96.2%, the usual Play'n GO figure. Pressing spin fires the 5-reel, 3-row game grid to life, equipping players with 10 paylines for win evaluations.

Cat Wilde and the Incan Quest is able to land winning combinations of 3 to 5 of a kind, and it has 8 regular pay symbols. These are patterned J to A card ranks, paying out 4 to 5 times the stake for a 5 OAK hit or 50 to 200 times the bet for hitting 5-matching snake, bird, panther, or Cat symbols.

Cat Wilde and the Incan Quest: Slot Features

Wild symbols, or as they are named here, Falling Wild symbols, are one of the game's main features and are joined by Falling Wild Respins, free spins, the bonus charger, and a bonus game.

Falling Wild and Falling Wild Respins

Falling Wilds may land on reels 2, 3, and 4, substituting for any regular pay symbols. Landing a Falling Wild symbol triggers respins, where Falling Wild symbols fall one position down on each respin. During respins, more Falling Wilds may land. When a new Falling Wild lands behind an existing Falling Wild symbol it expands to cover the whole reel. Respins end after the last Falling Wild falls off the bottom of the reels. The bonus game can be won during Falling Wild Respins.

Free Spins

While in the base game, landing 3, 4, or 5 scatters awards 6, 7, or 9 free spins, respectively. During free spins, all landed Falling Wilds expand to cover their reel when they land on the grid. Bonus symbols and scatter symbols cannot land during free spins, so free spins rounds cannot be retriggered.

Bonus Game

Bonus symbols may land in the base game, including during Falling Wild Respins. The bonus charger is fully charged when it gathers 3 bonus symbols, thereby triggering the bonus game. However, it resets each time a new spin starts. When the bonus game triggers, the collected bonus symbols are placed in random positions on the grid. This feature starts with 3 free spins, where landing a new bonus symbol resets the spin count. Bonus symbols have values of 1x, 2x, 5x, or 10x the bet, awarded when the bonus game ends. In addition, filling rows with bonus symbols unlocks these bonus rewards:

• One row full of bonus symbols awards the 50x Minor reward.
• Two rows full of bonus symbols awards the 500x Major reward.
• Three rows full of bonus symbols awards the 10,000x Mega reward.

More rows filled with symbols award only the highest unlocked bonus reward.

Cat Wilde and the Incan Quest: Slot Verdict

The impression formed after playing Cat Wilde and the Incan Quest was of an ok game but by no means a great one, which is something that could be said about the series as a whole. Cat Wilde games can be depended on to deliver solid, if at times tough-going, entertainment with sturdy features, but which, by and large, feel like they are covering familiar ground rather than striking out into truly brave, truly wild new territory. It's as if Cat hasn't worked up the courage to sever the umbilical cord to step completely out of her dad Rich's shadow despite possessing the potential to do so.

So it went in Cat Wilde and the Incan Quest, where the base game benefits from the occasional Falling Wild or respin occurrence and where free spins can be substantially lengthened by the repeat landing of Falling Wild symbols when you get them. One thing that seemed a little off was that the game's 10,000x the bet advertised top payout felt somewhat impossible outside of getting a Mega symbol in the bonus game - bordering on it just ain't gonna happen, is it?

Anyway, while not saying it is impossible, the low number of paylines (though some of the symbol values are admittedly quite attractive) and lack of something like a multiplier boost at any time made achieving the max win without the Mega symbol appear a tall enough order to dent enthusiasm. Not dented fully, though, as Cat Wilde and the Incan Quest has enough good qualities to entertain players looking for another way to try their luck in the Southern parts of the American continent. Maybe not stunning qualities, but okay.