Magician’s Secrets

Magician’s Secrets Slot Review

NOTE: Screenshots on this page were taken whilst we played this game for real money at Casumo Casino

Game Scorecard

How We Review Slot Games

We test and rate all slot games across 5 criteria, assigning a score out of 10 for each and an overall score that is an average of the 5. To build an accurate assessment of each game we gather information from the supplier and play in real play or demo mode. Find out more.

Overall Score

7.0

A slick piece of slots design with a powerful theme, look and feel but with fewer features than we would have liked!

Game Information

  • Name: Magician’s Secrets
  • Game Suppplier: Pragmatic Play
  • Release Date: January 2022
  • RTP: 96.5%
  • Variance: High
  • Maximum Win: 5,000x
  • Progressive Jackpot: No
  • Minimum Stake: £0.10
  • Reels: 6
  • Rows: 4
  • Paylines: 4,096
  • Features: Wilds, Expanding Wilds, Sticky Wilds, Free Spins

About Magician’s Secrets

NOTE: Screenshots on this page are taken whilst we played this game for real money at Temple Nile.

More famous for their high variance American Prairie slots, fishing games like Big Bass Bonanza and more traditional fare like Fruit Party, Pragmatic Play have decided to go off-piste for a while (at least in thematic terms) for this new high-risk game with a magical backdrop. There aren’t that many magic-themed games out there – Magicious by Thunderkick or Quickspin’s Blue Wizard spring to mind – so it’s an interesting one to get your teeth into when its released in January 2022. And of course, Secrets are a big part of the Magician’s craft, required to maintain the integrity of their tricks and illusions. Hopefully the big winnings in this one won’t turn out to be illusions of their own!

Theme and Design

Straight away, Magician’s Secrets has an appealing feel to it – it is a richly designed slot set against the backdrop of a magician’s lair, an old fashioned, atmospheric library with rows of dusty books by the looks of things, with a deep night sky visible through the glass-domed ceiling. Load up the reels and you’ll find bold symbols and smooth, if simplistic gameplay to back the powerfully-rendered theme.

Our magician appears to be a grumpy wizard with a white beard who nonetheless welcomes you to the game. A globe spins in the foreground, while the reels are packed with colourful, ornately decorated symbols. The magical atmosphere is enhanced by theatrical music with chimes, dramatic chords and whooshing noises. In short, the whole scene is attractive, stylish and highly atmospheric.

What We Liked

  • Dramatic and stylish theme
  • Expanding Wilds and Sticky Wilds
  • Free Spins With Re-Triggers
  • Multipliers up to 10x in base game

What We Didn't like

  • Limited bonus features
  • Low max payout

About The Developer

  • Name: Pragmatic Play
  • Established: 2015
  • UK License: Remote 046683-R-325951-014
  • Total Games: 500 +
  • Known For: Wide range of themes and styles, live casino including gameshow formats, and bingo
  • Popular Slots: Fruit Party, Dog House Megaways, Big Bass Bonanza, Release the Kraken

RTP and Variance 7/10

What is RTP?

RTP (Return to Player) refers to the amount a game will pay out in cash prizes expressed as a percentage of all the money wagered on that game. For example, a 96% RTP means a game will pay out £96 for every £100 wagered. This is an average number and will vary from one session to the next.  Read more here.

What is Variance?

Variance refers to how far a game will deviate from its RTP over time. High variance games deviate a lot and produce uneven win distributions and unexpected windfalls. Low variance games provide a more stable and even distribution of wins. Read more here.

Magician’s Secrets has a variable RTP but UK slot sites will run the game at 94.49%. We verified that figure in the game info screen whilst playing at Temple Nile. You can see in this screenshot.

Magicians Secrets RTP
Magicians Secrets RTP verified at Temple Nile – 94.49%

This is a high variance slot. Similar games from Pragmatic Play include Wild Booster (94.47% RTP, high variance, 5,000x top payout) and Release the Kraken 2 (93.89% RTP, high variance, 5,000x top win).

You can expect an uneven distribution of wins with bigger payouts saved for the free spins rounds where combinations of expander wilds and multipliers push up the potential. Stakes start at just 10p which makes Magician’s Secret playable even for those with smaller budgets.

Paytable 7/10

The symbols in Magician’s Secrets include card suits designed as gemstones in bright colours, gold pendants, daggers, goblets, spell books, orange gemstones in the shape of shields and potion bottles with a skulls and cross bones design. The four low value card suits pay between 0.8x and 4x whilst the premium symbols have high value – up to 100x for six on a payline.

The Wizard Wild is key to success here – you’ll get used to him and be keeping your fingers crossed he makes a regular appearance during your sessions. He lands, expands and sticks in the bonus round which itself is triggered by three or more of the scatter.

Gameplay & Features 7/10

Pragmatic Play’s magic slot combines three base elements of slots play – wilds, free spins and multipliers. The journey to big wins always comes via the free spins round. Here is how you get there.

  • Expanding Wilds – the Wizard Wild lands anywhere and always expands to cover the full reel. This increases your chances of completing a payline. Not only that, a random multiplier of up to 10x is added at the same time.
  • Crystal Ball Scatters – keep an eye out for these because they set up your free spins journey. They land pretty regularly in ones and twos, but you need three at once to trigger the bonus.
  • Free Spins – there are TWO options to choose from here.
  • Expanding Wilds Free Spins – version one of free spins gives you 10 plays but with one twist – land expanding wilds on reels 3 and 4 and you’ll get a re-spin with a 1x multiplier.
  • Sticky Wilds Free Spins – here you get 8 free spins, with one symbol chosen at random to be a the Sticky Wild – when it lands it transforms to a wild and stays for the remainder of the round. Here you can also score 3 more spins by filling an entire reel with Wilds.

Our Verdict 7.0/10

Magician’s Secret is a great-looking slot with a rich design, bright colors and a fun theme that is less well-worn than others. This provides an engaging backdrop to the action. Aside from that the strength of this game is its simplicity – if you are a high variance fan but you don’t enjoy the current wave of feature-heavy slots provided by the likes of No Limit City which are often fun but can be confusing, then Magician’s Secret may be a better choice for you.

The choice of free spins rounds, presumably with variable volatility, makes for an interesting feature. Our preference is for the expander wilds which come with an added multiplier and re-spins. They can combine well with high paying symbols to produce some decent wins, though in our play we never came close to the 5,000x jackpot.

Before we finish, a note on the paylines too – this is a 4,096 payline game, a format originally used in high risk games like Raging Rhino and Pink Elephants. If you’re looking for the same harem scarem levels of craziness found in those titles, you might be left a little disappointed. Whilst the risk level is high, we never saw any hint of the kind of big win sequences you might experience there.

So, in conclusion, Magician’s Secret is a fun slot with a fairly original theme and whilst it may lack some of the brutal high risk gameplay of other slots its still worth a few spins.