Crown of Valor slot review

Crown of Valor is a game that brings us to the wartorn battlefield where two sides are fighting for glory and valour. The game uses impressive visuals as well as a non-standard playing reel, cascading reels and free spins.

This slot was developed by Quickspin, a studio that has been delivering slots of varying quality for quite a while now. This 2021 slot is definitely intent on showing off their graphic prowess as the game gives us a grand view of a battlefield with a lot of detail. It did surprise me that the game doesn’t offer a lot of animations, with the various soldiers not moving at all. In fact, it’s the 5x5 playing field that moves more.

Using the Cluster Pays mechanic, the game doesn’t have any paylines but activates whenever at least 5 of the same symbol are touching horizontally or vertically. When that happens, the symbols light up before being destroyed in a nice animation. All of the graphics are sharp and they do come across as original, even though the low-paying symbols are simple card letters.

When it comes to the sounds, Crown of Valor also has some impressive effort put into it. The sound is suitably dark and heavy, feeling like it’s part of an action movie set on a medieval battlefield. It also sounds grand with what sounds like an orchestra and a choir. The sound effects that relate to the gameplay are made to fit as well. No happy jingles here but the impacts of axes and swords.

Symbols

Crown of Valor has a normal divide of symbols between those that are higher and lower. The high-paying symbols are different crests, a crown and Wilds. They are easily distinguishable thanks to their colour but they aren’t very big because of the larger playing field and the room given to the background image. The card letters act as low-paying symbols which I felt detracted from the setting and theme.

With a combination of a large playing field but a high number of symbols, low payouts and inconsistent features the game has High Volatility. Players should expect to only occasionally hit a big win, but it does help that this can happen during the base game as well as the free spins mode. Although this mode offers some extra opportunities, it functions basically the same as the base game.

The symbols in Crown of Valor include:

• BNS (Bonus): Get 3 or more Bonus symbols on the screen to activate the free spins mode.
• Wild: Wilds substitute all regular symbols in the game. Wilds will also increase the multiplier by 1.
• Crown: Max. 250x your bet with 12-of-a-kind in a cluster.
• Blue Lion: Max. 50x your bet with 12-of-a-kind in a cluster.
• Green Tiger: Max. 20x your bet with 12-of-a-kind in a cluster.
• Azure Falcon: Max. 15x your bet with 12-of-a-kind in a cluster.
• Ace: Max. 7.5x your bet with 12-of-a-kind in a cluster.
• King: Max. 7.5x your bet with 12-of-a-kind in a cluster.
• Queen: Max. 5x your bet with 12-of-a-kind in a cluster.
• Jack: Max. 5x your bet with 12-of-a-kind in a cluster.

If you want to play this game and have a shot at the max. win of 15,619x your bet, you will want to stretch your funds as much as they can go. The game’s volatility means that wins are rare and might take a while to trigger. As such, changing your bet to fit your funds is a good idea. The game lets you pick one between £0.20 and £100 per spin.

Features

Crown of Valor looks amazing and also has some interesting features but none of these are really special or original. The game will not play like a classic video slot that depends on paylines, but if you are at all familiar with cluster pays and cascading reels, this slot doesn’t innovate that.

The features in the game include:

• Cluster Pays: The game counts any symbol touching horizontally or vertically in groups of 5 or more as a win.
• Cascading Reels: Winning symbols disappear, causing the space to be filled in with new symbols. This continues as long as wins are created.
• Wilds: Wilds substitute all regular symbols in the game. Wilds can only be part of a single cluster.
• Multiplier Wilds: Every Wild on the screen will increase the multiplier by 1 for that win and any other wins that spin. Multipliers stay active during the entire free spins mode.
• Random Wilds: Filling up the Gauge will add 4 random Wilds to the screen.
• Free Spins: Get 3 or more Bonus symbols on the screen to activate the free spins mode.

The base game plays much the same as the free spins mode, with the notable exceptions being the gauge that fills up during the base game, and the multipliers that stay active during the free spins mode. Getting any win with a Wild during the base game will increase the gauge, which will add 4 extra Wilds onto the screen once it’s full.

During the free spins mode, this gauge is not active. Instead, any time a wild appears and increases the multiplier by 1, the multiplier stays on that number. This can theoretically increase indefinitely but the game is very random in how many Wilds appear. I believe this is also one of the reasons the game is so volatile.

In Conclusion

Crown of Valor is a great-looking slot that allows Quickspin to show off their visual prowess. That said, the game doesn’t make a lot of use of animations and I feel like a bit more of a story would have helped the game stand apart even more.

The features are fun and engaging, mostly because they are all mostly active during both the base game and the free spins. This makes it possible that the player sees bigger wins at any time, even though it’s more likely to happen during the free spins mode.

The free spins mode can be triggered manually by playing a flat coin cost but I only used it once. I felt like it activated organically often enough, plus you are not guaranteed to make back the investment at all, making it smarter to wait for the bonus symbols to appear on the screen.