Into The Storm

Into the Storm: Slot Overview

Board a Viking Longship and find fortune on the seas (hopefully) in a feature fest of a game titled Into the Storm from developer SG Digital. Even landlubbers are well aware of the need to avoid storms when traipsing about the ocean, especially so in a boat built in the days of yore. Not to worry, if lightning and bad weather strike in Into the Storm, it generally hails the approach of features such as respins with walking wilds and streak respins with a clever Kraken Hot Zone element.

However the rest of the session might turn out, SG Digital has picked a stellar day to set sail. The sky is mostly blue, a hale wind fills the sails, and the sea is slight, making it an ideal day for some virtual pillaging. Set aboard a sturdy wooden ship sits a 5-reel, 3-row game panel armed with 20 fixed paylines. Sonically, there isn't a whole lot going on, but the occasional effects do enhance the action when they fire, so all in all, a pleasant beginning, a touch plain, though with just a hint of the potential cyclogenesis to come.

Matching both the weather and the Viking temperament, Into the Storm is a highly volatile game that can switch moods in a moment. The game comes in three RTP settings, maxing out at 96% before dropping to 94% or even 90%, depending on the jurisdiction. It offers a range of stakes, starting at 20 p/c, going as high as $/€20 per spin, and there is a suspicion the max bet has been kept fairly modest to account for the solid potential on tap for lucky raiders.

The looting begins when at least three matching symbols land in view, starting from the grid's left most side. A collection of five runes have been used for the low pays, firing off wins of 1-2x the bet when a line of five of them is formed. Next up, high pays consist of three Viking characters and a random helmet, paying 4-20x the bet for a five of a kind win line. Wilds perform a variety of functions, as covered in the features section, but their core duty is to substitute for all of the normal pay tiles and only appear in the base game or during respins.

Into the Storm: Slot Features

SG Digital has packed plenty of features for this voyage, so settle in as we cover Walking Wild Respins, Krakens, and the Into the Storm Bonus.

Wild Respins

The respins feature triggers at random on any base game spin. When activated, 2, 3, or 4 Walking Wilds appear on the reels and move one position to the left or right (they stick to the same direction) on each respin. If a Walking Wild lands over a regular wild symbol, a +1 multiplier is added for the rest of the feature. When no more Walking Wilds are in view, respins end.

Into the Storm Bonus

Kraken Bonus symbols land on regular base game spins, and 3, 4, or 5 of them in view triggers the bonus game with 1, 2, or 3 Kraken Hot Zones, respectively. The Into the Storm Bonus is played on a 9x5 sized grid with 3 starting spins. Each position spins to reveal blank spaces, multipliers of x1-x3, or modifier symbols, and if any of the latter two hits, the spin counter resets to 3. Multiplier or modifier symbols lock in place and reset the spins count. Three of the modifiers act like so:

• Hammer – lightning doubles a random number of multipliers.
• Treasure Chest – collects the values of all current gold multipliers.
• Viking Coin – increases the number of lives to 4.

The fourth modifier is the Kraken Hot Zone. Kraken symbols either land or are awarded at the start of the feature, depending on the number of triggering scatters. Each Kraken creates a Hot Zone by placing multipliers of x2-x5 in all of the adjacent spaces. These are not multiplier symbols, by the way. If Hot Zones overlap, their multipliers are multiplied together. When an actual multiplier symbol lands in a Hot Zone position, it is multiplied by the current multiplier value it lands on. When spins run out, the total of all multiplier symbols is awarded, or, if the grid is filled, players win 10,000x their stake.

Buy Pass

The Buy Pass feature allows players to buy direct access to the bonus round. It is possible to buy 3+, 4+, or 5 scatters for the cost of 105x, 145x, or 185x the bet.

Into the Storm: Slot Verdict

So are we dealing with the Viking Money Train 2 here? Well, not quite, but Into the Storm is a sturdy streak respin game with one or two intriguing innovations. It kind of feels like it was designed by the division of SG Digital that came up with Rise of the Mountain King or made in the same spirit, which is highly positive. It might remind you a bit of Relax Gaming's Sails of Fortune at first glance, yet Into the Storm has more than enough going to stand on its own two feet and thrill players keen on the streak respin format.

It's not all calm sailing in the base game, either, thanks to the walking wilds respin feature. A sideshow to the main event, to be sure, but an appreciated one, regardless. The storm doesn't reach full force till the three (or more) required Krakens hit, thereby triggering the central bonus game. There's some good stuff going on here; the Kraken Hot Zone idea, for one. Hot Zone's ability to increase standard multiplier symbols is critical to scoring decent returns for the simple reason that without them, multiplier symbols are only worth 1-3x the bet. Still, Kraken Hot Zone multipliers aren't massive either, and the best case, really, is two x5s overlapping to create an x25. This led to some furious calculator tapping and the realisation that one of Into the Storm's weaker points is that outside of full-grid wins, runners up are highly unlikely to get anywhere near 10,000x. Once clocked, a slight feeling of limited constriction did settle in - there certainly isn't the same anything-goes feeling of a Money Train 2 bonus round when a special symbol can drop from nowhere and blast the game into orbit.

With the right frame of mind though, Into the Storm offers some nice hold & win gaming with a Viking twist. It might help to tone down expectations of scoring runaway bonus rounds, aside from full grid hits, that is. Into the Storm might not be vying for the top spot, but there is plenty here for streak respinners to attempt plundering.