Pacific Gold

Theme and Design

I find the Gold series of games to be some of the best explorer-themed slots out there – they are all steeped in drama and atmosphere and have a more cinematic quality than your average ‘Rich Wilde’ slot. That is partly down to narrative and once again ELK Studios have got creative on that front, telling the story of a Cargo plane bound for Japan in 1953, then mysteriously crashing on a Pacific Island. Snippets from the last radio call out from the pilot on his way down play intermittently as you are spinning whilst the backdrop shows the plane’s wreckage sticking out from the trees and rocks. The scene is completed by a tribal soundtrack that accompanies the regular taps and thuds of symbols dropping into place.

Overall, Pacific Gold looks and sounds great and the studio have done a really good job of creating ominous undertones without explaining the mystery in full – the perfect enigmatic setting for another Kane adventure.

RTP and Variance

The maths model in Pacific Gold is similar stats to others in the Kane adventures. That means an RTP of 95% which is underwhelming for a slot – most run at a minimum of 96% - whilst the variance is very high. That makes Pacific Gold a frustrating game at times and unpredictable in its pattern of payouts. However, it is also a game that can on rare occasions deliver a stunning series of wins when Avalanches and Ghost Boxes come together as I will explain further down this review.

Maximum Win

The maximum payout in Paficic Gold is 10,000x.  This is the same as early games in the Gold series like Katmandu and Zulu Gold, but short of more recent games like Avalon Gold and Dead Man’s Gold, both of which come in at 25,000x.

If you like games with big potential be sure to check out our list of slots with the highest maximum wins too.

Symbols and Paytable

Pacific Gold starts out as a 6 reel and 4 row slot but it can grow to 8 rows high. It is a Win Ways game. That means wins are triggered by landing identical symbols across consecutive reels from left to right, regardless of their row position. It is this mechanic that gives it a massive 4,096 win ways per spin at 6x4 and even bigger 262,144 win ways per spin when the reels are fully expanded.

I wasn’t particularly impressed with the paytable values at first glance – they max out at 5x for 6 top premiums. However, this game is all about features and many win ways so that offsets that concern to some degree.

The high cards award the lower payouts with from 0.1x for 3 up to just 0.3x for 6 of a kind on each of those symbols. There are then 4 mid-range symbols, each with a different color, valued at from 0.15x for 3 blues up to 1x for 6 reds. Finally, the tribal masks and Kane award the best payouts with from 0.5x for 3 blue masks up to 5x for 6 Kanes.

There is also a Wild symbol, which can substitute for all pay symbols to complete winlines, and an aeroplane which is the Bonus symbol, which triggers free spins when 3 or more land at once.

Features and Gameplay

I think the gameplay in the Gold series is brilliantly done and there are some really clever ways to unlock wins here. In particular, Ghost Boxes which store up payouts are a favourite.

Avalanche Wins Trigger Reel Expansions

The action always starts with Avalanche Wins in Gold games where one spin can trigger multiple wins. Winning symbols are removed from the reels and new ones drop in to replace them and one row is added to each reel. If more wins ways are created, the process repeats.

You can grow the reels up to 8 high this way – and create up to 262,144 win ways too.

Watch Out For Mega Symbols During Avalanches

Another fun part of Pacific Gold is the Mega Symbols which are super-sized versions of normal symbols. They can be 2x2, 3x3 or 4x4. The size is important here – a 2×2 counts as FOUR symbols, a 3×3 as NINE symbols, a 4×4 as SIXTEEN symbols. That’s a massive boost to your wins when they land.

They don’t arrive on a normal spin, only during Avalanches. And what is also useful is that symbols appearing under a Mega Symbol are always filled with symbols of the same type as the Mega Symbol.

Power Stacks Also Grow With Each Avalanche

The avalanches just keep on giving when Power Stacks land. These are standard symbols that appear with a number 4 on them. They represent FOUR versions of the same symbol and grows by 2 (to 6, then to 8) with each successive Avalanche.

Pacific Waves Add Horizontal Lines of Identical Symbols

This feature is also superb, bringing a horizontal stack of identical symbols as a 1x2, 1x3 or 1x4 line.  These look great and are powerful because they always fill spaces beneath them with liquid gold that solidifies into a Wild symbol before the next drop! In testing they proved really effective because they ALWAYS add wilds to the reels in this way, which is very useful particularly when they reels are fully expanded.

Ghost Boxes Collect and Re-Distribute Winning Symbols

My favourite, and potentially highly rewarding feature from the game is the Ghost Boxes. These eerie looking icons that look like metal boxes with skulls on them collect all winning symbols after a winning spin, including those from the Mega Symbols (16 from a 4×4 for example). Then, the Ghost Box releases its load when the last Avalanche plays out. At that point, all symbols that were collected in the box are redistributed onto the reels giving you a final win.

In my experience this can be really useful and trigger a mighty payout so look out for those boxes.

Free Drops With Safety Levels In Play

The free spins round, here called free drops, is also innovative, and if you’ve played another Gold game then you will be familiar with the special Safety Level that comes with it.

The round is triggered by landing gold bonus symbols, with drops awarded as follows:

• 3 bonus symbols will earn you 10 free drops
• 4 bonus symbols will earn you 15 free drops
• 5 bonus symbolswill earn you 20 free drops
• 6 bonus symbolswill earn you 25 free drops

In addition to all the same features as the base game is the Safety Level which is a way of keeping the extra rows open after an Avalanche. Effectively, after a free drop that results in a win, then the Safety Level moves up one row. So, after the first win the next spin starts with 5 rows, after the second win, the next spin starts with 6. And so on, up to the full 8 rows high.