A Dark Matter slot by Slingshot Studios launched 22 October 2019

The Victorian-themed slot A Dark Matter is the latest new release for Microgaming from Slingshot Studios and it is certainly one of the more atmospheric and unusual slot games that has been released in recent times.

Set in the village of Stonehurst, where all kinds of odd and mysterious things have been occurring, this Victorian-themed slot takes you back in time to a darker period and its clever use of sound and graphics make the slot genuinely a little eerie and unsettling without needing to get into all kinds of horror and scary effects.

This is a higher volatility slot though, very high tell the truth, as it has just five pay lines in play. However, you can win both ways across the reels, which is a positive. There's also a sizeable jackpot of 120,000 to be won too if you are lucky enough, as well as a number of different Wild bonuses to trigger in the base game and Free Spins.

So how does A Dark Matter play? We donned our deerstalker and headed out into the mist to find out.

Overview

• Game: A Dark Matter
• Developer: Slingshot Studios (for Microgaming)
• Reels: 5x3
• Pay Lines: 5 (non-selectable)
• Minimum Bet: 0.05
• Maximum Bet: 50.00
• Jackpot: 120.000
• Free Spins Bonus: Yes
• Other Bonuses: Yes
• Progressive: No
• Volatility: High

Presentation

The presentation of the A Dark Matter slot is very nicely done with the spooky, mysterious theme of the slot ratcheted up a notch or two by some very simple graphics of a dark foreboding wood at twilight as the backdrop, set on the outskirts of Stonehurst. The reels are super-imposed over this and are also transparent.

The reels are the standard 5x3 set up but with this slot you can win both ways across the reels, which is good because there are just five pay lines in play and all this means that this is a high volatility slot, especially when compared to some of Microgaming's more recent releases.

The soundtrack which plays along when playing the game is nicely done, but stop playing and you get a gentle call of crickets in the background and little else and for some reason, this is genuinely a little creepy, perhaps more so than any of the soundtracks on the 'scary' slots that are popularly played at this time of the year.

What is on the reels?

There are essentially 10 standard symbols on the reels, plus two other symbols which are linked to the main bonuses that you can land in the game.

The lower value symbols are the five playing card symbols from the 10 through to the Ace. Wins on these lines range from around 60% of your total bet up to 16x your total bet, which is quite high, but it is worth remembering that with just five pay lines, even winning both ways across them, you don't tend to hit wins anywhere near as often as you do on slots with more pay lines.

There are five higher value symbols on the reels too and these are the characters from Stonehurst. There are three men and two women and they are all dressed up in their Victorian-garb. Wins on these symbols range from 1.6x your bet, up to a massive 600x your bet, with the five-symbol wins paying the really big money.

Wild features

The A Dark Matter logo is the in game standard Wild and this can appear on the middle three reels of the slot. It acts only as a substitute for other symbols and, annoyingly, there is no multiplier attached to any of the wins that the Wild is a part of. What is notable is that the Wild doesn't play as big a part in this game as it does other slots, simply because of the paucity of wins compared to other games.

However, there are some other bonuses that the Wild can trigger. First off, you can land Stacked Wilds on the second and fourth reels of the slot in the base game (and these become super-stacked in the Free Spins bonus). This is probably the most important feature of the slot as it is the one that is most likely to trigger and the one that offers you a great chance of a bigger value win.

Furthermore, if you land a full stack of Wilds on reel 2 or 4, then the stack will invade another reel and turn that reel Wild too. If you manage to land a stack on both reels 2 and 4, then reel three will turn completely Wild and in Free Spins, this will also see you land a 2x multiplier on that win too.

Free Spins features

The doorknocker is the Scatter symbol in the game and it appears only on the middle three reels of the slot. If you land three or more scatters then you will win a prize of 3x your total bet and they pay regardless of which position they land on the middle three reels.

If you hit three Scatters then you also trigger 12 Free Spins and in this bonus game, you can have Super-Stacked Wilds on the second and fourth reels and the chance to turn the third reel wild and pick up a 2x multiplier if you can turn both second and fourth reels Wild on a single Free Spin.

Furthermore, every time you land a Scatter symbol during your Free Spins bonus round, you will also receive one more additional free spin, which can prolong the life of the bonus quite considerably.

Best feature of the A Dark Matter slot

While the Free Spins tend to be the part of the slot that will attract those who want to chase the sizeable jackpot in the A Dark Matter slot, for me the best feature of the game is those Stacked Wild symbols in the base game. In what is a tough game to like because you don't win very often, hitting one of these wins is a welcome boost as it can turn a small or non-winning spin, into a spin that sees you land a much larger amount of money. Given that this is arguably the easiest feature on the slot to trigger, I also feel it is the most player-friendly too.

Conclusion

The A Dark Matter slot is very nicely done by Slingshot Studios. It is a high volatility slot though and as such, it does play a little differently to most Microgaming slots. Wins are few and far between (but, it has to be said, tend to be worth a lot more in general) and with only 5 pay lines, even with Win Both Ways in play, you can spin for a long time before you hit a win of any size. However, with a sizeable jackpot of 120,000 available to be won and some neat bonus features, if you have deep enough pockets and the required patience, this is a slot you can get a lot from.

The the new A Dark Matter slot slot at any of the Mega Moolah casinos.