Eastern Emeralds

One of the largest pet peeves we’ve had in recent years has been with Chinese slots. As the floodgates opened and a new market of Chinese gamblers were exposed to brand new slots, a lot of developers fell head over heels trying to rush to seize on lots of new customers. We’re not against this by itself, but the fact remained that these titles were effective clones of one another in design, throwing red and gold all over with the same repeated symbols over and over, something that continues even now, several years later. So when we see something like Eastern Emeralds, which offers an interesting take on things that doesn’t look like a stereotype, we’re all too happy to pull out our wallets and give it some thorough testing. The title offers a 5×3 playing field with 20 fixed paylines, and its main draw are Wilds with multipliers attached to them. On top of these, you can also find Scatters, which allow gamblers to activate free spins with different varieties of multiplier Wilds, allowing players to choose how much risk versus reward they’re hungry for.

We quite like the visual style of this game. It’s proof that you don’t have to blow your budget on fancy animations or visually demanding effects to make something that looks gorgeous. Eastern Emeralds has a backdrop that’s mostly made out of green, powerful trees, with mountains and Chinese temples visible in the distance. The only part of the backdrop that moves at all are the lanterns, which flutter very gently in the wind, and have their lights turn slightly brighter from time to time. It’s a small detail, but it does so much to build atmosphere that we can’t help but love it.

When it comes to gameplay, the Quickspin’s release boils down to its Wild multipliers. They can be rather rare to come by, however, and for good reason. Not only do they multiply your winnings, but they can also multiple each other, so if a 2x and a 3x Wild multiplier are part of the same winning combination, you get a net 6x multiplier for that score in total. The title has a low to medium volatility, which means you won’t see too many of these bonuses – although when plenty of them start to appear, odds are you’re in for a big score.

You can play Eastern Emeralds for as little as $0.20 up to $100 per spin, which is standard for all Quickspin titles and offers both casual gamblers and high rollers to wager as much or as little as they like, while still being able to play the game they want. As we mentioned above, the title does have a low to medium volatility, but you can alter how risky and profitable your wins can be by selecting which of the four free spins bonuses you pick. You can choose higher multipliers or more free spins – either way, you can expect your RTP to sit at 96.58%, slightly above average for video slots.

Symbols are a bit of a mixed bag in our opinion. You have playing card symbols like 10, J, Q, K and A, which are still as generic as ever, but you also have coins, turtles, fish and dragons, all coated in gold to really show off the wealth. Hands down our favourite symbol, however, is Scatter depicted as a large phoenix bird sitting in front of the Sun.

Collecting three of these on the second, third and fourth reel activates the free spins. You can choose between 6 free spins with a 1,680x multiplier, 9 free spins with a 840x multiplier, 12 free spins with a 360x multiplier and 15 free spins with a 120x multiplier. Our personal recommendation would be to go with the 9 free spins, as it seems like the best balance of risk and safety, but the choice is yours at the end.