Dark Vortex

Get ready for some spooky goings on when you boot up the spine-chilling Dark Vortex slot from Yggdrasil. As with all Yggdrasil games there’s some excellent in-game artwork going on with a memorable and unique range of lovingly created grotesques making up the higher level game symbols. And even for the lower value ones, the design team have ditched the standard (and boring) playing card numbers and letters in favour of some deliciously monstrous magical spell tomes.

The whole 5 x 3 reel set is housed within an ornate stone monument with intricate gargoyle carvings that almost look alive, moving with the flickering light of the nearby skull-mounted candles. The entire surrounding moon-lit mausoleum is equal parts beautiful and creepy—an effect enhanced by Dark Vortex’s haunting musical score, a simple ghostly piano refrain that fits perfectly with this slot’s theme.

As we just said, Dark Vortex’s main game mode is a 5 x 3 reel grid with 243 ways to win paying both ways, left to right and vice versa. However, once activated, the game’s main feature: Vortex Spins, pumps up each affected game reel up to 5 symbols high, adding hundreds of new ways to win each time. In fact at maximum capacity the full 5 x5 reel grid boasts a jaw-dropping 3,125 ways to win on each spin!

Bets range from £0.10 and the bottom end, up to a surprisingly restrained £50 maximum wager per spin. Top end wins seem to be relatively tight-fisted with 5 red hell demons on a line only returning 60 times your stake. The flip side of that is that with so many lines active you’re likely to be hitting a far more wins than usual. Expected RTP (return to player) is set at a pretty average 96.5%.

Feature Symbols

Dark Vortex keeps thing simple—during standard gameplay the only special symbol you need to look out for is the golden pocketwatch-like Vortex symbol. Two or more of these symbols in any adjacent reels will award Vortex Spins with all affected reels expanded to 5 symbols adding hundreds more winning combinations to the reels. Revealing extra Vortex symbols will add extra spins to this sequence as well as further expanding the reels. If all 5 reels join the vortex of symbols you’ll be awarded a further 9 Free Spins but now with all 3,125 on the game’s winning lines open and the added feature of stacks of wilds added to reels 2 to 4!

During the Free Spins mode you’ll likely encounter blue and pink orbs. These symbols will release a cackling skull that, depending on its colour, will wither add one free spin to your stack or an extra strip of wilds to the available centre reel symbols.

Bonuses and Jackpots

Though Dark Vortex slot doesn’t include any other traditional bonus or jackpot rounds, it does give you the option to buy your way into the Vortex Spins feature round.

For the sum of 80 times your current line stake you can skip straight to the “Free Spins” feature with a number vortex spins to play and all 3,125 ways to win open. You’ll need to select from two sets of cards deciding your beginning level of wilds in play and how many spins you start the game with.

On the face of it this is a great way to guaranteed some high level spins but because you have to essentially win a number of Free Spins this can turn this whole process into a bit of into an all-or-nothing gamble. Especially since the relatively low level win amounts make it difficult to even win back your money unless you hit a sustained sequence of decent winning combos.

Play Dark Vortex at PartyCasino

Halloween might only come once a year but we can all do with a good scare every now and then—if the ghoulish delights of Dark Vortex sound like they’re up your dark creepy alley then you should drop by PartyCasino today and take it for a test spin. Select to use play-money and you can even play it for free if you want.