Mystery of the Orient Review
Although it sounds as though there’s some kind of mystery to be solved, the game’s title is actually referring to Mystery Symbols which spin up onto the reels.
But does Mystery of the Orient have the potential to rise above the average, or is it likely to come trailing behind in the popularity stakes? Let’s dig a little deeper to explore exactly what’s on offer.
Design
Most slots with an Oriental theme tend to be based around warriors or good luck symbols, including ‘sakura’ or cherry blossom. Mystery of the Orient manages to combine both with a game based around a dark-haired swordswoman wearing cherry blossoms in her hair. So far, so whimsical, but it takes more than colourful graphics and an animated warrior woman in red silk robes to keep players coming back for more.
The developers at Pragmatic Play put together an elegant little Oriental-style riff, then chose to play it on a continuous loop, which quickly becomes irritating. The tempo changes during the free spins round, but we’d have loved a bit more effort with the main game soundtrack.
Gameplay
As is so often the case with Pragmatic Play slot games, Mystery of the Orient is easy to play. Set your budget, adjust the cost of the spin accordingly and set the reels spinning. The 243 Ways to Win mechanic means that matching symbols only need to appear on adjacent symbols from left to right to award a prize.
The Scatter symbols award cash payouts but don’t trigger any extra features. To access free spins you’ll need to land 3, 4 or 5 yin yang icons, which awards 15, 20 or 25 free spins respectively:
Mystery Symbols during the base game can reveal:
- 2x – 5x Multiplier Wilds.
- Scatters.
- Yin-yang bonus symbols.
During the free spins bonus feature, two additional symbols are added:
- Open up an extra row above the reel.
- Add up to 5 extra free spins.
Win Potential
You’ll need to land at least five-of-a-kind Jacks to see your stake returned, so it’s the game’s themed symbols that you’ll be hoping to match up across adjacent reels. At the other extreme, the sword-wielding Asian warrior returns up to 4x your bet, so she’s the one you’ll be hoping to see more of.
The yin-yang bonus symbols don’t just trigger free spins – they also pay out up to 50x the wager. Wild symbols don’t come with any awards on their own, as they only appear on the three central reels. But Wilds revealed by the Mystery Symbol come with a multiplier worth between 2x – 25x, so some big wins are possible.
Scatters don’t trigger any bonus rounds, but they do feature on the paytable. Landing 3 or 4 Scatters triggers a payout of 10x and 40x respectively. But if you manage to land five Scatters at once you’ll receive the Grand prize, worth 8,000x your stake. This is a highly volatile slot though, so set out clear bankroll limits before you start playing.
Some jurisdictions outside the UK allow players to Buy the Bonus. This doesn’t guarantee that you’ll win back your stake, so explore this feature in demo play first, if available.
Our Verdict
If you love this type of game, which has a bit of a land-based slot machine feel to it, then Mystery of the Orient is going to be right up your street. The bonus symbols keep things interesting, and who wouldn’t want the chance to land a win worth over 8,000x the stake?
We would have liked to have seen maybe one more bonus feature, but our main issue is with the soundtrack. What started out as repetitive soon became annoying, so unless you can trigger the free spins round we recommend you play this one with the sound turned down!
Marianne's interest in slots was sparked by a win on a one-arm bandit at an old-fashioned seaside arcade. These days she's turned her back on classic games, and has made it her mission to track down the most exciting slots offering innovative bonus features - and a great soundtrack!
Learn more about Marianne here
