Royal Jewels slot review

Royal Jewels is a 2015 slot created and released by Zeus Play that combines the classic slot experience with a collection of beautiful jewels. The game features a Pays Both Ways mechanic and Free Spins to keep players engaged.

People that are aware of this company will know that they tend to create slots with a 5-reel, 3-row playing field that sticks close to the normal video slot gameplay. That means you won’t be shown any amazing graphics and the features won’t come as a surprise either. Of course, it’s important to keep in mind that the real things that count are the way it plays and if it’s good for your funds!

The game has a simple, rather outdated look. The graphics are alright for its age although they are very simple. The different gems look unique enough to tell them apart and when they’re part of one of the 10 bet lines they light up and spin on their axis for a bit. There’s, unfortunately, nothing in the background except a royal purple colour which changes to deep red when the Free Spins mode is activated.

When it comes to sound design, Zeus Play has a poor track record. It’s unfortunately no different here, having the exact same sounds and associated problems as their Le Mystere du Prince slot. The sounds are jarring and very loud, not to mention having terrible quality. On top of that, the music fades in and out with every spin creating a disorienting effect.

Symbols

A game called Royal Jewels is fairly obvious in its theme and the symbols are no different. They are a collection of different types of jewels as well as items associated with them, like stacks of dollar bills and gold bars. It’s nothing unique or creative even though I feel like there should have been some room for that.

The symbols are:

• Euro (Scatter): Get 3 or more Scatter Symbols on the screen to activate the Free Spins mode. Max. 50x your bet with five-of-a-kind on the screen.
• Crown: Max. 500x your bet with five-of-a-kind on a winning payline.
• Gold Bars: Max. 50x your bet with five-of-a-kind on a winning payline.
• Dollar Bills: Max. 50x your bet with five-of-a-kind on a winning payline.
• Red Gem: Max. 20x your bet with five-of-a-kind on a winning payline.
• Blue Gem: Max. 20x your bet with five-of-a-kind on a winning payline.
• Green Gem: Max. 15x your bet with five-of-a-kind on a winning payline.
• Pink Gem: Max. 15x your bet with five-of-a-kind on a winning payline.

The slot has only a small number of different features but due to the lack of any special features except during the free spins mode, it has High Volatility. This also fits my experience playing the game as the wins were in short supply. Players can pick a bet between £0.10 and £30 to adjust their risk somewhat.

Features

As far as features go, Royal Jewels doesn’t have a lot to talk about. There are only 2 real features that alter the gameplay somewhat:

• Pays Both Ways: Paylines are counted from left to right and the other way around.
• Free Spins: With 3 or more Scatter symbols on the screen the Free Spins mode is activated. It’s possible to receive additional free spins during this mode.

The Pays Both Ways feature is always active, both during the base game as well as during the free spins mode. There are a few times when they help in getting a win but the volatility still stays high as there are no Wilds or other features that can help in creating wins.

The Free Spins mode activated quite often for me, but not often enough to feel like a major part of the game either. When it did activate it would often result in a sizeable increase in my funds. Over time, I found my average funds to be slightly above what I started with without having to set my bets too high.

The Free Spins mode unfortunately also doesn’t have any special features that are activated at this part of the slot. The only thing that helps make the Free Spins a little more helpful is that it’s possible to get additional free spins, which happened quite often for me. There were times I had extra free spins two or three times on the same turn.

That’s really all I can say about the features for Royal Jewels. The game is very basic and stays close to the normal gameplay with only the free spins and the Pays Both Ways to vary it up somewhat. Players that are looking for a simple slot will probably enjoy this a lot.

In Conclusion

Royal Jewels is a game that fits in the Zeus Play library quite well. The game doesn’t offer a lot of special surprises. The graphics and sound are the same poor quality, meaning the game has to rely on its features but it doesn’t have a lot of these either. The main advantage here is that the two features it does have work alright.

The max. win of 4,650x your bet is nice but it never really felt like a plausible outcome. The wins that you get during the Free Spins mode can get pretty big depending on the spins, but I also had times where the Free Spins would barely make back a single bet. It all depends on getting them to activate a lot.

If you want to play something quick and easy with no annoying features and very little to look at or listen to, Royal Jewels will do this job well enough!