Introduction
The second game in Thunderkick's wildly popular Crystal Quest series, Crystal Quest: Arcane Tower sees our adventurous heroine Gemma return to the jungle to battle through the Arcane Tower and seek her fortune. This game is tailor-made for those who enjoyed Crystal Quest: Deep Jungle as it is very similar in terms of gameplay, with the look of the game being the biggest thing that differentiates it from its predecessor.
Sticking to Thunderkick's preferred format, Crystal Quest: Arcane Tower provides players with a six-reel, four-row grid, with a massive 4,096 paylines. This should mean that wins are never too far away, even if the high volatility means that there could be a long wait for a big win.
Symbols in the game include crystals of various colours as well as treasure chests and villains you may come across during your quest.
As with most online pokies, Crystal Quest: Arcane Tower has a demo mode available for players to get used to the game play and other features before staking money on a spin of the reels. This demo is available as well as many other free pokies to let gamers select the games that they choose to play responsibly.
Theme, Graphics & Soundtrack
The game focuses on the quest for crystals by our heroine, Gemma. The jungle location is hinted at with the ancient nature of the stone tablets that the reels seem to be made from, although very little of the flora and fauna one would expect to see in the jungle is visible.
The graphics are truly stunning, with vibrant colours as well as smooth animations as symbols appear on the screen and matching combinations are revealed. Unlike most online pokies, this game doesn't feature reels; instead, there is an array of stone tablets that drop onto and out of the screen. As features are triggered, animations make it very clear that something special is happening, with some of the stone tablets prone to exploding. This is all made more real by the fantastic sound effects.
The soundtrack is a generic "epic quest" orchestral piece, with epic strings and dramatic accents all layered up over a bed of synth pads. The music is little more than background noise to the earth-shattering sound effects that are used throughout the game as the game board refreshes or blocks explode, as well as the lightning effects that occur sometimes between spins.
Crystal Quest: Arcane Tower RTP and Variance
Crystal Quest: Arcane Tower has a marginally above-average RTP of 96.17%. Variance is high for this title, which means that big wins are possible, but players must be aware that patience will be needed if looking for these big wins.
How to Play Crystal Quest: Arcane Tower
1. It is always a good idea to start with the paytable when playing a new game. This will detail all manner of information about the game, including how much is won when matching a certain number of symbols as well as showing what is needed to access the bonus features.
2. The bet level can be set by clicking the poker chip icon to the bottom right of the reels. From this menu, players can set their bet to the desired level.
3. For all other game controls, click the menu button in the bottom left corner of the screen. Next to this icon is the mute button.
4. Crystal Quest: Arcane Tower has an autoplay feature, which allows players to spin the reels automatically. Autoplay settings can be accessed by pressing the button to the right of the poker chip at the bottom of the screen.
5. If you are happy with all settings, it is possible to spin the reels manually by pressing the manual start button, which is in the bottom right corner of the screen.
6. It is vital to play Crystal Quest: Arcane Tower responsibly by setting a budget for each session and sticking to it. Please stop playing if playing is no longer any fun.
Bet Sizes & Paytable Wins
The minimum bet is $0.10 and the maximum is $100. This gives players of all budgets the opportunity to enjoy this online pokie.
The sorcerer is the top symbol in the game, paying 20x the initial bet if five of a kind appear on a win line.
His henchman comes up next, paying out slightly less.
The maximum win possible is 15,000 times the bet through various bonus features.
Crystal Quest: Arcane Tower Bonus Features
Crystal Quest: Arcane Tower features no fewer than five bonus features, which makes play rewarding and interesting for gamers.
Avalanches can be triggered at any point in the game, which removes all winning symbols from the screen and replaces them with more symbols, providing the potential for more wins per spin. Every time the avalanche is triggered, the bonus multiplier is increased by one level.
Linked reels allows up to all six of the reels to synchronise, providing potential for some great wins.
The free spin bonus is triggered by revealing three or more scatter symbols on the reels. This initially awards 12 free spins, which can be retriggered by revealing two or more treasure chests on a spin.
Any free spins that do not provide a win trigger a wild explosion, which then sets off the avalanche again.
Crystal Quest: Arcane Tower Review
Crystal Quest: Arcane Tower is an astonishingly pretty game, with five bonus features that will keep the gameplay interesting for quite some time.