Contact slot review

Contact shows us the first tentative contact between the player and some hidden tribe deep inside the South-American jungles. The game uses cascading reels and multipliers to reward you for venturing this far.

This beautiful slot was released in 2019 after being developed by Play ‘n GO. The game features a giant 5x7 playing field that uses cascading reels and cluster pays mechanics to generate wins. The entire slot is set deep in the jungle, showing ancient Mayan temples amongst the lush greenery. The playing field itself drops down between two barriers that show multipliers and various different bonuses.

The symbols themselves are mostly made to look like abstract drawings of various jungle animals, as well as different coloured masks that count as high-paying symbols. There aren’t a lot of animations inside the symbols themselves but getting a cluster will cause the symbols to light up and then drop down.

I thought that the music sounded quite nice, but it was especially the sound-effects of the reels dropping down with a rumbling sense that helped the idea of rock tiles falling. The quality of the sound, in general, is quite high with everything sounded clear and suitably mysterious.

Symbols

The symbols in Contact are all original for the slot, even though I have seen the concept of Mayan symbols before. Still, this game has ones that haven’t been used in other slots. The low-paying symbols are made to look like abstract animals that the citizens of this hidden civilisation might be familiar with. Meanwhile, the high-paying symbols are masks in different colours. These are also a little more detailed.

Whenever symbols are part of a winning cluster they will light up as the other tiles in the spin disappear, causing them to drop down to the bottom. This doesn’t happen without too much fanfare to keep the speed high.

From highest to lowest, the symbols are:

• Purple Mask: Each symbol in a cluster is worth 1.5x your bet.
• Teal Mask: Each symbol in a cluster is worth 0.75x your bet.
• Green Mask: Each symbol in a cluster is worth 0.6x your bet.
• Red Mask: Each symbol in a cluster is worth 0.5x your bet.
• Jaguar: Each symbol in a cluster is worth 0.15x your bet.
• Monkey: Each symbol in a cluster is worth 0.1x your bet.
• Bird: Each symbol in a cluster is worth 0.1x your bet.
• Snake: Each symbol in a cluster is worth 0.05x your bet.
• Turtle: Each symbol in a cluster is worth 0.05x your bet.

Since Contact uses a Cluster Pays mechanic, the game doesn’t count paylines as it does with regular slots. Instead, at least 5 matching symbols need to touch horizontally or vertically to count as a win, with every symbol being worth a set amount. This is then added together to calculate the total value of the win. Players can change this by increasing or decreasing the size of their bet between £0.20 and £100 per spin.

Features

This slot doesn’t have a lot of basic gameplay features but there are a lot of special elements that are working together or activate at different times. The main features are:

• Cascading Reels: Whenever there is a win, all tiles that aren’t part of the win drop away. The winning tiles drop down to the bottom before the playing field is filled with new symbols. This continues as long as additional symbols are added to the win.
• Cluster Pays: Wins are counted by the same symbol touching horizontally or vertically. A cluster has to be at least 5 symbols big to win.
• Multipliers: Whenever a full row is filled with winning symbols, starting at the bottom, there can be a multiplier activated. There are multipliers on reel 2, 4 and 6.
• Free Spins: When the player gets a winning tile to reach the top of the playing field, the free spins mode is activated.

The base game didn’t require a lot of interaction from me apart from the regular spins. The game made it very obvious when there was a win, causing the tiles to drop away and making room for the new symbols.

The multiplier tracker on the side was also an obvious element, activating as soon as an entire reel was filled with winning symbols. This didn’t have to be the same symbol as it could happen 2 or more clusters appeared during the game. This wasn’t very common, however.

When I managed to get a cluster that reached all the way to the top row it activated the free spins mode. This didn’t require me to fill the row with the same symbols as the multiplier feature, just a single tile was enough. The game then gives you 3 free spins to play with.

During the free spins mode, there are some slight changes to the gameplay. The multipliers on the left side of the screen are changed, increasing more quickly and removing any empty rows as the multiplier above it is hit. This can cause the entire screen to be filled with multipliers. On the right side of the screen, hidden symbols appear that are activated in the same way.

These hidden features can be:

• Block Destroyer: Destroys a multiplier block on the left side, causing bigger multipliers to drop down.
• Extra Free Spins: The player can receive additional free spins.
• Symbol Upgrade: The game upgrades the symbols in any winning clusters on the screen to the next symbol on the paytable.

Another important element during this mode is that the winning clusters are sticky. They don’t just stay during the re-spin, while new symbols drop down. Even when there’s no win and another free spin is triggered, the winning clusters stick on the screen.

In Conclusion

Play ‘n GO occasionally brings out some very good-looking slots and Contact is one that can be added to this growing list. The game takes a pretty standard concept and gives it their own original twist. I think the decision to change the gameplay from the standard slot to this cluster pays mechanic was a good choice.

The game offers some incentive for players that wouldn’t normally play this type of game. You have the opportunity at winning a max. win of 1,517x your bet. If that’s enough to draw you over the edge is up to you.

I found this game to be a great game for people that want something original without it being completely overwhelming. Players that appreciate a simple, quiet slot probably will do best moving on to another game.