Hidden Valley

Are you ready for an adventure? While humans have explored most of the world, some places still remain untouched by our hands. Not for a lack of trying, but the logistics simply aren’t there yet and with the advent of planes, ships and satellites, the need for human presence somewhere so we can find out what lies there is simply not needed anymore. We’ve mapped just about every part of the world, but there’s always the dream of uncovering an unmapped area. Whether you would find a long lost species within or the ruins of an unknown civilization thought lost to everyone – the possibilities are many and plenty of would be explorers were driven by the desire to uncover something new. But expeditions are costly, long and remote – so fortunately for us, Quickspin lets us go on such an adventure from the comfort of our homes and are nice enough to potentially turn us a profit while we’re sitting at home, playing their latest release.

We have to credit the artists at Quickspin, they’re really good at what they do. The opening shot of a tall, frost-covered mountain slowly trending downwards to a lush, forested region with only a path upwards to ascend is gorgeous. Sometimes we wish slots gave you the option to hide the reels for a moment just so you could gawk at the backdrop, or give you an option to download it for your own needs and purposes. No such luck yet, sadly. There’s also no over the top animations when a winning combination happens – the symbols are merely highlighted in a light blue glow around their edges.

The game is played on a 5-reel playing field with a 3-4-4-4-3 row structure, as the reels expand in the middle and then shrink down at the first and fifth reel. In grand total, you’re always working with 40 fixed paylines and a wide range of Wild multipliers. Your maximum and minimum wager are affected by your choice of multiplier bet – to gain access to the maximum 10x Wild multiplier, you’ll have to triple your wager, for example, and that’s only a chance it’ll reach a 10x multiplier Wild, with the smallest possible one being a 4x Wild. Keep in mind, you still need the luck to make those Wilds appear, so balance your budget and greed accordingly.

You can wager between $0.40 up to $90 per spin, accounting for both increasing wages and the multiplier bet which determines how high of a multiplier can appear on a Wild. The range it offers is quite wide, though $0.40 per spin might be a bit too much for some low rollers who don’t have a lot of cash to sink into their favourite hobby. But, with a big minimum bet like that, you can also expect some awesome wins, especially if you activate the Wild multipliers and manage to make good use of them.

The symbols are a mix between playing card symbols – 10, J, Q, K and A, and unique icons like a buffalo, a seagull and three mountain climbers that look like the children of American hippies. These symbols also have no unique animations tied to them, simply being highlighted when part of a winning combination. They’re not bad, but they’re far from fantastic either.

Collecting three bonus symbols rewards a 2x prize, and a spin on the bonus wheel. The bonus wheel determines whether or not players will have access to extra Wild and how many free spins you can win. If you manage to succeed in gaining extra Wild, one of the three mountain climbers will transform into Wild for the duration of free spins.