Caravan of Riches

Caravan of Riches by Fantasma Games takes you on a journey on the Silk Road. That’s the ancient trading route that connected Europe to Asia by way of the Middle east. Not the other Internet based one.

The Silk Road was a vast network of training routes, passing through deserts and over mountains. Intrepid merchants would travel its length and breadth with their wares. These included everything from Chinese silks, herbs and spices and precious metals.

Trading posts were dotted along the way where the caravans could rest, and the merchants conducted their business. Caravan of Riches is set in one of these trading posts.

An unusual but not unique 5-reel game grid in a 3-4-5-4-3 layout is the most striking thing about the interface. The background of white cube-like buildings and striped awnings is what you would expect from a game with this theme.

Despite the odd shape of the grid, there are only 20 fixed paylines. This leaves you with the feeling that the format is being under-utilised. One thing that will raise a few eyebrows is the lack of information on the potential maximum win.

As mentioned, there are 20 paylines. Landing combinations of three to five symbols on adjacent reels, starting from your left, will get you a win.

Low paying symbols are daggers, carpets, potion bottles, and purple jewels. These will award you 0.35 to 0.5 times your bet on a five-of-a-kind win.

There are five character symbols that pay between 0.75 to 5x your stake for a five-of-a-kind win.

Wild symbols in the form of a big golden W can appear in the centre three reels. These stand in for any regular paying symbol to complete a win.

There's also a scatter symbol that will give three spins, and trigger the Silk Road feature once you've collected enough.

The main feature of the Caravan of Riches is the Silk Road. You can also win free spins from scatter symbols.

Silk Road Feature

To trigger this, you need to land a cluster of five adjacent premium symbols across the five reels. Here, you’ll be awarded free spins while having the chance to upgrade the symbols.

All the character symbols from the winning combination on the reels will spin. Either a blank, coin or scatter symbol will land in their place. Blanks will get you zip, coins give cash prizes, and scatters will be collected to award free spins.

Scatters

When three scatters appear simultaneously on the reels in the base game, you’ll be awarded with ten free spins. Scatters will stay on the reels for the duration of these. Every time a scatter lands, it’s collected in a counter to the left of the grid.

For every four scatters collected, an extra three free spins are awarded. The game also goes up one level. As you advance through the levels, lower paying symbols are dropped from the reels, and only character symbols remain. 

An upbeat Arabic/Oriental soundtrack and fast action keep the game moving along at a nice pace. And the snowball effect that the game upgrade gives on wins once you start on the free spins can be quite exciting.

The graphics are good quality. Unfortunately, they're not as imaginative as we'd expect from a studio that brought us the likes of Desert Shark.

Overall, if you're looking for a game that will give you a chance for an upgrade without too much tension and suspense, you'll enjoy Caravan of Riches online slot game. If you were expecting another trippy Desert Shark experience (how else would you explain salivating sharks writhing their way through the desert), you might be disappointed. This is definitely not Fantasma's most imaginative release ever.