5 Rings of Darkness

5 Rings of Darkness: Slot Overview

If you've ever wanted to pretend you're breaking down the barriers between the physical world and the non-material planes in order to let demonic forces cause havoc, maybe overthrow the natural order of things while gambling, then this slot here might be for you. Titled 5 Rings of Darkness, it represents developer Octoplay's foray into the forbidden world of the occult with scatter-paying wins, growing multipliers, and free spins.

5 Rings of Darkness does that thing where the gaming grid is angled to make it look like players are grovelling at its base as it towers over them, glistening with menace. The grid is housed in a dark, eerily lit space, scary statues standing to either side, faces hidden in their hoods, while purple flamed candles flicker all around the place. Looks-wise, 5 Rings of Darkness brought the free spins round from Play'n GO's Rich Wilde and the Tome of Insanity to mind due to all the purple and the references to things which should not be. There's something a little commercial about 5 Rings of Darkness' appearance, though, lacking the creeping, insidious fear driven into your senses by a game like Darkness.

Clicking the Stake button lets players scroll up and down to pick a bet from 10 c to $/€150 per spin. Then, once set, when hitting the spin button, symbols fly upwards rather than downwards to fill a 5-reel matrix, holding 6 positions on each reel. A win occurs when 8 or more matching symbols are present anywhere on the board. Rated 2 out of 5, 5 Rings of Darkness is a low-medium volatile game, with a theoretical RTP of 95.76%. Using the Double Chance feature increases the stake by 30% and will double the chance of triggering the feature when activated.

Five actual rings, coloured blue, light blue, green, purple, and gold lead the paytable off, then there are 4 character symbols, cultists, or whatever, rounding the list off. Scatter wins made up of 8 matching symbols are worth 0.2 to 5 times the bet, and the biggest clusters, 12+ in size, pay 2x to 50x. Wild symbols are not part of this ritual, but a cascade mechanic is, removing winning symbols and replacing them with new ones floating up on the grid.

5 Rings of Darkness: Slot Features

The name 5 Rings of Darkness links to its 5 Multiplier of Darkness values found in all stages of play, plus, the free spins round gets an extra, sixth Multiplier of Darkness, where values persist.

Multipliers of Darkness

Underneath the regular symbols lie 5 Multiplier Zones. When the symbols on top of a Multiplier Zone are part of a winning combination, the Multipliers are activated and are applied to the winning combinations that activated them. Possible multiplier values are x1 to x20, and each time a multiplier is activated, it increases to the next level.

Multiplier Activation

On each spin, before symbols land, there is a chance that each of the Multipliers of Darkness grows by up to 3 levels.

Free Spins

Landing 3 scatter symbols awards 10 free spins. If more than 3 scatters trigger the feature, each extra scatter awards +5 additional free spins, up to a maximum of 25. Landing 3 or more scatters in the feature triggers extra free spins, the same way they are initially won. For free spins, a new Multiplier of Darkness appears on the centre reel. The value of this multiplier is made up of the sum of the other 5 Multipliers of Darkness. It activates and applies to winning combinations on top of it. All multiplier values persist until the end of the free spins round.

Buy Free Spins

For 150 times the stake, players can buy their way into the free spins round. When doing so, the RTP is 95.81%.

5 Rings of Darkness: Slot Verdict

Scatter-paying slots continue their drive into the online slot scene, and Octoplay is no stranger to the mechanic. The device works well in 5 Rings of Darkness because, like Sugar Rush, for example, winning symbols interact with multiplier values beneath them - multiplier values that grow when consecutive cascading wins take place on top of them. It's a nifty combo which is able to get a roll on in either phase of play; better free spins, though, because of the centrally located Multiplier of Darkness, soaking up the values of the other 5 multipliers. You can see how this system might be good for reaching the game's 6,666x full potential.

And yet, there was something about 5 Rings of Darkness that felt just a little bit off, and no, not because of the forbidden theme. This might be nitpicking, but something was lacking. Maybe another feature might have bulked the action out, or a more in-depth treatment of the theme, perhaps more hair-raising elements would have provided extra bite. Given the title and the subject matter, it was hard not to constantly compare 5 Rings of Darkness to Print Studios' slot Darkness. 5 Rings of Darkness has a lighter atmosphere, and its gameplay is more circular in nature, with less of a defined endpoint. Darkness, by contrast, was a masterpiece of horror, which felt like an actual ritual with the goal of locking in Dirge Wilds in order to summon Lucifer to the board.

5 Rings of Darkness doesn't trundle down such a dark path, for better or for worse. Better in that it might be closer suited to skittish players with a taste for the dark side or casual gamblers due to the math model characteristics. It is a slot which only goes so far, mechanically and thematically, like a cultist who loses their nerve at the last minute and steps out of the circle to prevent primal chaos from erupting through a portal to tear the three-dimensional world to pieces.