Halloween Fortune II Slot

If Halloween Fortune II has been much awaited for its release, then I guess a lot of Playtech fans would have been disappointed. I wasn't eagerly waiting for it, but I was interested to know how a new Playtech games would differ from the old ones. I've already seen a few of the older games got updated, probably with some amendments done too, because these updated versions seem to be more gluttony then the old. Perhaps it's just my imagination and hallucination, but having played Playtech games regularly for well over 15 years, I really doubt that I could be totally wrong.

Halloween Fortune II, a sequel to Halloween Fortune, does not share the same basic design as the old. It follows that of Iron Man 2, with enlarged symbols of 2x1 size, and having a locked Wild symbol in the center of reel 3 for the free spins. This concept was popular with the fans for Iron Man 2, but it certainly wasn't for me. In fact, I quite dislike it, preferring that of Iron Man 3 instead. Now, with Halloween Fortune II taking on Iron Man 2's concept, I have lost my enthusiasm for the game. Perhaps others may love it, but I don't think I ever will.

The Pumpkin is the Wild symbol, paying 3000x the line bet for 5 of them, drastically down from the old 10,000x. It substitutes for other symbols except for the Scatter symbol, but doesn't do anything else. This dumb Wild symbol only appears as a locked Wild symbol in the middle of reel 3 during the free spins, that's all. The logo 'Halloween Fortune II' is the Scatter symbol, 5 of which pays 100x the total bet amount, up from the old 50x. 3 or more of them triggers 10 free spins with an Increasing Multiplier after every 2 free spins, up to 6x maximum. More free spins cannot be retriggered. Sadly enough, this doesn't sound so good to me. The symbols in the game pay from 1000x to 30x the line bet for 5 of each kind, but the 3 Witches symbols have gone drastically down in their values, from the old 1000x, 500x, 400x, to the new 200x, 150x and 100x the line bet for 5 of them. This new paytable is a low one. What the argh!

After knowing the big differences between the old Halloween game and the new, I have serious doubts that this new game can be as popular as the old one. In terms of payouts, big good wins are still possible with the 5x and 6x multipliers, but don't expect it to happen often. Most payouts would be in the mediocre range of up to 50x the total bet amount. My only play on this game was a disaster! The base game was boring, with nothing more than small insignificant wins. The one and only Free Spins game came when my credits were nearly at its end. That game paid just above 50x my bet amount, but it wasn't even enough to put me back on my tracks. Soon after, it was all zero. A very big disappointment for me indeed.

I've been looking forward to this one for a while, as I felt the first game could have been one of my regular go-to slots if it had just had a little extra big win potential. It always felt like a slightly tighter version of Great Blue and it's clones to me, although it was much less brutal at the same time in the sense that whilst Great Blue would often empty your balance in record time without even awarding a single bonus, I at least felt I had a chance when playing Halloween Fortune!

Now I've played the game, my feelings are somewhat mixed. Presentation wise this is a definite step up in quality from many Playtech slots. The sound is particularly good for this developer and the graphics looked fantastic, particularly when I tried the game on the super bright screen of my tablet.

I was eager to see the bonus rounds, but there only turned out to be one feature to play for - it had a lot riding on it! Again, once I'd had it a few times I was left with somewhat mixed feelings. Whilst in the first game you got to choose from a selection of potions to determine how many free spins you would receive, and at what multiplier, this time around you get an ascending multiplier of up to 5x that increases after every two free spins. This is fine, but you get a fixed ten free spins which cannot be retriggered and with only a couple of spins at the top 5x multiple, you really do not to get lucky at just the right time.

The fixed wild in the center of the reels during the feature can help to score some decent wins, but they could have made it a stacked wild surely?!

I guess I was just expecting a lot more from this game, and now I've played it a lot I really think I still prefer the first game overall. I like the double height character symbols and the fact you are guaranteed a few spins with a decent multiplier during the free spins, but there are plenty of games that just award a 5x multiplier for the whole of the ten free spins - after all you are likely to get several blanks during any given bonus round anyway.