Black Ice

One of the things that players take for granted in the online slot industry is that wild symbols are rare. The Black Ice slot, available at Realistic Games casinos, breaks that concept down and shows that it doesn't need to be taken for granted with a somewhat atypical style of gameplay overall. The graphics look solid with a beautiful gem theme that doesn't rely on over-done 3D graphics to get the point across, but the symbols and background still look excellent in spite of that. Overall, the volatility of this game is low while the hit-rate is high.

Slot Format

When you get your first look at this title, it's easy to see that it has the usual five-reel and three-row format. However, it also uses a 10-payline layout with all wins coming from left to right only. This is actually a really important part of the gameplay, as we'll note down below with the bonus feature breakdown. However, you cannot change how many paylines are activated, which is also important for this game. Along these lines, you'll pick from total bet sizes that range from $0.20 to $200 each, which is like having coin sizes of $0.02 to $20 that can be wagered on each payline.

The Wild Diamond Symbol

The wild symbol is always pretty important in virtually all video slots that have one. The reason for this is that it takes advantage of the extra screen real estate that these games have (compared to their three-reel cousins), and it allows players more flexibility on getting wins that they would have missed otherwise. This is the basic premise of the wild, and there is a wild in this slot in the form of the diamond symbol, but it's important for other reasons as well, which you will see down below.

The best, single-payline win available in this game is for five of the wild symbols, and that comes to a prize of 25x. Note that this win is a multiple of your total bet size and not a line bet wager, so it's like getting a payout of 250x on a game with pays described as line bet wins. From there, you'll be able to earn 3.2x for four of a kind, a payout level that will become important down below as well, and three of a kind wins are worth 0.8x.

Free Spins Bonus Round With Accumulating Wilds

Whenever you get three wild symbols anywhere on the game board as a scatter or on a winning combination, you'll activate the free spins feature. This feature is different than any other free spins round you've probably ever seen. You'll start with a given set of free spins, and then you'll play them normally with the exception that wilds have been added so make it more likely to get them.

When you make a winning combination, all of the wins turn into wilds. They then freeze in place to allow all other symbols to spin again. New winning combinations are also turned into wilds, and the process continues until one of two things happen. The spin will end if you don't get any new winning combinations, or it'll stop when you get the entire game board full of wilds. Note that the latter gives you a total payout of 2,500x, which is a pretty solid jackpot amount.

Three Payout Tiers

Aside from the wild symbols, there are three tiers of prizes. The red heart and blue circle gem each get you 3.2x for five, which is the same as four of the wilds. A 2.4x win is available for the purple rectangle and the green rectangle. Finally, you can pick up 1.6x for the orange triangle or yellow rectangle, each for five of a kind on a payline.

Our Thoughts

The wild accumulation feature during the free spins mode is obviously the star of the show for the Black Ice slot by Realistic Games. It's a really neat concept that packs a ton of action in what's otherwise a very smooth game with a low volatility. This is the type of thing that really stands out on the gameplay side of titles in the slots industry, and we think it's a really solid spin on the common free spins feature that gives players something serious to shoot for in what would otherwise be a relaxing experience with no big swings.