The Epic Journey Introduction
One of the more unusual free pokies we have on offer is The Epic Journey from Quickspin. Inspired by Jules Verne's 'Journey to the Centre of the Earth', this online pokie has three sets of five reels, each with four rows, and a total of 100 paylines between them. It also sports multiple bonus features which are triggered through bonus combinations across all the reel sets.
Wild Wild Wild!
There are so many different Wilds in this pokie that it's difficult to know where to begin. There's a regular Wild that will yield 5x, 0.8x and 0.25x your bet for five, four or three of a kind. It substitutes for all symbols except the scatter and all the other Wild symbols you're likely to encounter on your Epic Journey. Then you have the Volcano Wild - this can come up on the middle reel of each set.
Two or three Volcano Wilds on a single spin will cause the volcanoes to throw out fireballs, and if they fall on to any other symbol, they will automatically turn those into Wilds for a big win. There are three more Wilds on the Safari Free Spins Bonus feature, but more on those later!
Bonus Features
The Drill symbol is the Scatter in this pokie, and if you get one of these on the middle reel of each set, they'll activate the Multi Bonus round. You're then transported to a glowing crystalline cave, where you get to select one of four massive rune stones. One of these will be hiding a cash prize, while the others will lead you to one of the pokie's three bonus games.
The first of these is the Mushroom Forest, where you're presented with a cave full of glowing mushrooms - you're invited to pick three. They'll yield cash prizes, extra picks or multipliers. The Fossil Hunt bonus game reveals yet another set of reels and involves collecting as many shovel symbols as you can in the number of free spins you're awarded. Each shovel reveals another part of the fossil dinosaur - reveal it all to get the maximum win.
Finally, the Safari Free Spins is the most lucrative of the three bonus features. Each of the three sets of reels sports its own Wild during this feature. Collect three of each during the ten free spins and they'll turn into multiplier Wilds. The Mammoth Wild will multiply by 2x, the Sea Creature by 3x and the Dinosaur Wild will provide a 5x multiplier.
When combined with the Volcano Wild, these have the potential to produce some amazing combinations. There are ten other symbols on the reels: each of the five adventurers yields medium payouts, and the gem symbols have lower payouts. Check the pay table for more details. The Epic Journey is a stunning game and can truly be described as three pokies in one.
The beautiful artwork and evocative movie-style music really help to immerse you in the world from which it takes its inspiration. It takes a little while to get used to, but it's certainly worth the effort.