Treasure Reef Slot Machine
Dive into a world of colourful sea life and sunken riches in Treasure Reef, a 5 reel, 20 payline slot from the team at GameART that boasts multiplier wilds and a “pick your feature” free spins game.
One of the more dated games in the GameART catalogue, Treasure Reef doesn’t boast the same beautifully rendered graphics as many of the software provider’s other titles such as the Thai Dragon slot, but it is nevertheless a bright and colourful slot that is easy for beginners to pick up and play with its simple user interface.
The free spins feature also adds an extra strategic element to gameplay as it enables players to choose the number of bonus turns they get as well as their prize multiplier for greater flexibility.
Having a Bubble
As with a lot of slots by GameART, the 20 paylines in Treasure Reef are fixed, meaning players only need to worry about their bet per line amount each spin. Starting at just $0.01, this wager can be increased up to a maximum of $0.50, making the total cost per spin range from $0.20 to $10.
For this investment, players will be taking their shot at a maximum 9,000x jackpot for hitting five golden dolphins, but can earn smaller payouts for any combination of three – or in some cases, even two – matching symbols anywhere on a valid payline. Somewhat strangely, these two-of-a-kind payouts are awarded for both the game’s second-highest value symbols and the lowest value icon.
General non-jackpot combination range from 2x your line bet to 750x times your stake, with treasure chest scatter symbols also awarding payouts of up to 2,000x and the aforementioned golden dolphin – which is also the game’s wild – awarding a 2x multiplier when it features in a win.
Plumbing the Depths
As alluded to in the intro of this review, graphically-speaking Treasure Reef is no pearl of the deep and there are many underwater slots out there. Though bright enough to look at with its rich palette of underwater blues and rainbow-coloured fish and sea life, the icons featured on the reels don’t have the same detail you’d expect from the studio.
Again, the standard ace-through-nine playing card symbols are present – which detracts from the theme’s consistency – and there is also little in the way of animations, with only the golden dolphin symbol “coming to life” when it features in a winning payline. The free spins do, at least, cause the reels to change colour, meaning players get to experience something different during the bonus.
Like all GameART slots, Treasure Reef is also lacking in any truly unique audio, with no music and only standard slot machine sound effects featuring in the base game. One custom background track does feature during the bonus, but generally it is a quiet slot with very little in the way of sound.
Dead Man’s Chest
With little in the way of graphical or audio stimulus, players will instead have to rely on Treasure Reef’s bonus feature to ramp up the excitement in the game. Triggered by finding three or more treasure chest symbols, players will be transported to a new screen where they pick their bonus.
The bonuses on offer include a variety of free spin and multiplier options, with the players having to decide whether they want more bonus games or a bigger multiplier. These options vary from 20 free spins with a 3x multiplier to 6 free spins with a 10x multiplier, with two other options in between.
Unlike in GameART titles featuring similar bonus rounds – where the choice is largely player-dependent – in Treasure Reef we’d recommend prioritising the bigger multipliers over the free spins, as with payouts awarded for several two-of-a-kind combinations, you’re very likely to hit at least once during the bonus round. All winnings can then be gambled in a red-or-black picking game.
Sink or Swim?
Though Treasure Reef is not by any means a bad game, compared to other slots in the GameART catalogue like the awesome Tesla slot it is lacking in a certain sense of wonder. The graphics look a little dated and the bonus feature – though rewarding in its own right – is probably better executed in games like Power Dragon. The high value/low value two-of-a-kind payout system is also a bit of an odd addition, but the 9,000x regular jackpot is at least rewarding enough to keep players invested in the game.
