Play’n Go Continues Heavy Metal Theme With HammerFall
HammerFall is the latest online pokie from the publishing giants Play’n Go, which continues the heavy metal rock band theme. The Swedish power metal band lends its HammerFall name to this latest volatile machine, which launches May 6.
You do not need to enjoy headbanging music to find HammerFall interesting. We put the test machine through its paces, and this is what we discovered.
HammerFall Fundamentals
Play’n Go is known for producing pokies that look the business. HammerFall does not disappoint; it looks superb. It sounds epic, too, but only if you like power metal because three HammerFall songs are on rotation.
The game is played on a unique 7×7 layout and utilises cluster pays instead of win lines. We will touch more on that later. This layout masks a very high variance algorithm, so you need a large bankroll and a steel nerve to play for any significant period of time. Speaking of bankrolls, you have a wealth of betting options at your fingertips. Bets start at $0.20 and increase to $100 per spin. Choose carefully.
Double-check which RTP your online casino uses if it offers HammerFall. You want the 96.2% RTP version over the 94.2% edition. The machine is available with an even larger house edge; avoid anything under 94.2%.
The relatively poor RTP and high volatility is worth the battle, however. Why? Because Play’n Go make it possible to win up to 30,000x your bet from a single round. This equates to $6,000 at $0.20 per spin and $3 million at $100 per spin!
HammerFall Symbols to Look Out For
HammerFall uses a mixture of gems and metal-related symbols on its 7×7 board. Blue, green, purple, red, and yellow gems are worth up to 25x for a cluster of 15. Hammers, moons, suns, and the band’s mascot Hector are the higher-value HammerFall symbols. These payout out between 40 and 500x your bet for a cluster of 15.
Wilds are available on this pokie, too. The band’s log is the wild, which substitutes for any paying symbol. Lastly, Lightning Wilds sometimes appear in the latter stages of the game.
What Are The Features and Bonuses?
HammerFall uses a cluster pays system rather than traditional win lines. It is precisely how it sounds: paying out for clusters of matching symbols rather than matching symbols on the same line. Winning clusters disappear, and new symbols cascade in to replace them. These new symbols can and do form their own clusters, leading to some impressive takes.
Four modifiers are randomly triggered on non-winning spins. You rely on these modifiers because the game has no bonus round as such. The four HammerFall modifiers are as follows.
- Bring It: all high-value symbols turn into matching symbols or are destroyed
- Chain of Command: a random chain of symbols changes into matching symbols, or are destroyed
- Never Forgive: a randomly selected symbol pulls the same symbol towards it, destroying other symbols in its path
- One Against the World: the game chooses a random symbol and destroys the symbols adjacent to it
HammerFall revolves around The Hammer Meter, which is charged with each winning cluster. Twenty-five winning symbols are required for a full charge. Charging it with 50 winning symbols in a single spin starts the Hammer High Feature.
A full Hammer Meter starts one of three HammerFall songs based on the world you are currently in. Those songs come with their own special modifier for the duration of the song. The Hammer High plays all three songs concurrently.
- And Yet I Smile: this removes all low-value symbols from the grid
- Second to None: all premiums turn into a randomly selected matching premium. This guarantees at least five premiums
- Twilight Princess: gives you a randomly placed 2×2 mega wild
Conclusion
There is a lot to like about HammerFall and equally as much to loathe. Ironically, the maximum possible win falls into both categories.
Being able to win 30,000x your bet is impressive, but hitting it is nigh on impossible. The probability of this happening is 2.42E-16, which means 1 in 2.42 plus 16 zeroes! It is never going to happen. Those odds are worse than the biggest progressive pokies. We would rather Play’n Go set the max win lower and made it obtainable.
Overall, HammerFall is a solid poker machine that is worth a few spins, especially if you love the music genre. Those of you who are not into power metal are advised to find a different machine.
