Ice Cave Slot Review

It is odd how things happen in real life. Just last week I was reading about some interesting research conducted by scientists in Antarctica about how they had found new life in ice caves, melted out of the surrounding snow and ice by volcanic vents. Then suddenly, what pops into my inbox to review, the Ice Cave slot by Playtech and available to play right now at the ever popular Bet365 Casino.

However, rather than being at the southernmost tip of the world, these Ice Caves are located in far more northern climes, particularly around the Nordic region as we are once again entering the realms of the Norse Gods and this time, two in particular, Jarl and Valkyrie. The slot is one of the more basic Playtech offerings in quite some time and rather unusually, doesn’t feature a free spins bonus round.

Instead, what you have are a couple of Wild symbols which have their own special powers and which are the keys to unlocking the more exciting and profitable features of the slot. The game is a 5-reel slot with 20 paylines in play and you can play over a massive range from 20p per spin, up to a huge £2,000 per spin, making this a good slot for higher rollers. You can even increase the value of your bet using the Feature Bet button, which adds 50% to your spin costs but does come with a couple of extra benefits.

This is definitely a more medium to higher variance slot and there is a good mix of lower and higher value payouts in the game, but there are times when finding a decent sized win, especially with a relatively low jackpot prize of 250 coins in the base game, does become a little bit of a drag.

Key Features

On the reels you will see a mixture of lower value and higher value symbols and there are five of each. The lower value symbols are the runestones which stand for Power, Victory, Protection, Joy and Wealth and these range in value from 2 coin wins up to 50 coin wins.  The higher value symbols include a Longship, Raven, Fenrir, the fearsome looking wolf, Valkyrie and Jarl. The latter is the highest paying symbol with 250 coins up for grabs for five on a payline.

Alongside these standard symbols are two others, both Wild symbols. The first of these is the Ice Wild symbol which appears on the third and fourth reels only. When this Wild lands however, it remains in place on future spins. You can land more than one Ice Wild on the third and fourth reels to grow the number of Wilds and to increase your chances of landing a win. All Ice Wild wins come with a 3x multiplier as standard.

The only way the Ice Wild symbols will be removed from the reels is if you land a Hammer Wild symbol on the second reel. When this occurs, the Hammer Wild will remove any Ice Wilds on the reels but not before it has triggered any payouts owed from the Ice Wilds being in place. After this payout, all Wilds are removed from the reels and you start again with the standard reel set up. You still receive your 3x multiplier when you land the Hammer Wild.

However, if you elect to activate the Feature Bet button, then you pay a premium of 50% on your total stake (so if you are playing for £0.20 per spin, you will pay £0.30 per spin). For that extra cash you get an additional Ice Wild on the fifth reel and also, any wins that contain an Ice Wild will be subject to a 5x multiplier, rather than a 3x multiplier, which is how wins far greater than 250 coins are possible on the slot.

One handy feature to note is that you can use the Turbo Mode button, or double click on the Spin button, to race through spins much more quickly and this is a great option if you do not have much time to play but want to play through as many spins as possible.  Autoplay is also available.

How to win at the Ice Cave Slot

In truth winning on the Ice Cave slot isn’t about the base game as such, it is about stacking up those Ice Wilds on the third and fourth reels (and the fifth reel if you have the Feature Bet button activated) and then hitting the high value paylines using the higher value symbols on the first two reels to land a win. This can take a good deal of time to achieve, but when you do, you can land some significant wins, with 250 coins possible with a 3x multiplier across multiple paylines.

Bigger wins tend to come when you land the Hammer Wild, but the problem with this is that it destroys the Ice Wilds you have collected, so why you end up with a bigger win, you need to start collecting the Ice Wilds once again to stand a chance of a good value win once again.

The main question you need to address is whether the Feature Bonus button is worth activating. In trialling the game, I found this feature was somewhat hit and miss for me. On occasions, it simply made me lose more money per spin than I would have done had I not activated the feature and the rewards it offered on these spins were marginal. However on some occasions, I have landed some big 5x multiplier wins in the base game including Ice Wilds on the fifth reel and these can be productive sessions when they occur.

However, for me they don’t occur often enough to justify a 50% hike in price per spin and as a guide, I would use this feature judiciously to try and get the most out of it.

The main issue with the Ice Cave slot however is the lack of free spins game. While the Wild bonuses stacking up is exciting, it is somewhat deflating to see them all disappear when a Hammer Wild lands and with no Free Spins bonus to chase, the game soon becomes a little repetitive.