Fire Forge

Fire Forge: Slot Overview

The people over at Stormcraft Studios try something a bit out of character in their slot Fire Forge, a 5-reel, 243 win ways heavy-hitter when it comes to factors such as volatility and potential. This independent Microgaming partner typically designs graphic-rich games around vibrant characters such as Jungle Jim, Agent Jane Blonde, or Steampunk adventurers, all of which have mostly catered to casual gamers. In Fire Forge, the South African based studio has stripped back the graphics and characters while significantly upping the winning potential in the process. What's left is a no-nonsense straight forward game, which, if given the chance, can blow up during free spins where huge win multipliers are possible.

The game might have an official theme of 'fire', but it's more personal than that. Stormcraft appears to have built a game inspired by their logo, revolving around dwarves - famous in the fantasy world for their smithing prowess. Dwarves are typically portrayed as a down to earth (or beneath it) race, concerned with mining and crafting weapons. This all-business attitude perfectly sums up Fire Forge, which does away with most of the finery. We said stripped back graphics. Though not by any means ugly, Fire Forge is indeed a rather plain-looking slot. It comes across as a game more focused on the task at hand than looking pretty.

Players can fire up the forge on any device by selecting bets from 25 p/c to $/€5 per spin. Not exactly high roller friendly, but with such a huge win multiplier possible it makes sense for a relatively smaller studio to keep tabs on exposure. High is a word that also applies to most of Fire Forge's other stats as well, starting with an RTP of 96.73%. Volatility is rated high, and hits land often where hit frequency has been measured as 33.26%.

What works in Fire Forge's favour is its 243 win-all-ways set up, helping the game move along. Sticking players with a small number of pay ways alongside such Spartan visuals might've proved too much to battle through. Stormcraft has kindly avoided this scenario. As long as three or more identical symbols land left to right you've got a winner. This then triggers the Rolling Reels mechanic which removes winning symbols. New ones drop down into the gaps, possibly leading to consecutive wins from single spins – another welcome addition to the gameplay.

Symbols are based around the dwarven theme, where four gemstones in purple, blue, green, and orange are used as the low pays. Then come a bunch of essential dwarven items such as a beer stein, lanterns, gauntlets, anvils, and hammers worth 1.8 – 4.8 times your stake for five of a kind. The final symbol in this section is the wild, landing on reels 2, 3, 4, or 5 to replace regular pay symbols. When it appears on reels 3-5, it may also land stacked.

Fire Forge: Slot Features

What primarily fuels Fire Forge's impressive clickbait is its 50,000x potential, a figure displayed on the left-hand side of the screen for motivation. Without the huge amount prominently in view, Fire Forge might not be so instantly eye-catching for big win chasers. It won't be easy to crack, however, since it requires several of the features to fire in unison rather than just strike a jackpot.

Speaking of jackpots, there are 3 of them included here which aren't very impressive on their own. Players get the chance to win them when 5 or more scatters are in view. These are the Dwarven head symbols from Stormcraft's logo, which also look like Kharadron Overlords if you're partial to Warhammer Age of Sigmar. In any case, doing so causes 3 chests to pop up on the screen, prompting players to pick one. Keep in mind, landing 5 scatters may or may not result in winning the Bronze, Silver, or Gold jackpot, each worth 5x, 25x, or 200x the bet respectively.

Should at least 1 scatter be present on each of the 5 reels, free spins are awarded. There are three options, and the fewer the spins, the higher the volatility.

• 12 free spins - x1 starting win multiplier, increasing by +1 on each spin.
• 6 free spins - x3 starting win multiplier, increasing by +3 on each spin.
• 3 free spins - x6 starting win multiplier, increasing by +6 in each spin.

Each option includes infinite free spins retriggers. The win multiplier increases with each consecutive spin up to x200 at the most. Moreover, the multiplier will be applied to any jackpot won during free spins.

Fire Forge: Slot Verdict

Fire Forge is quite different from what Stormcraft has done before. Creatively speaking, it's almost as if the studio got the chance to finally stand on its own two legs instead of just being assigned the task by Microgaming to recycle old characters and brands. Gone are the exotic worlds, the bright, rich graphics, and boisterous characters. In their place is straight forward gaming where the goal is to hit those elusive free spins, jack up the multiplier, and hopefully trigger the Gold jackpot.

Managing to combine all parts of Fire Forge's trinity can lead to wins of up to 50,000 times the bet. Since a quick calculation tells you a 200x jackpot with a 200x multiplier leads to 40,000x, there is plenty of room to pick up side wins along the way. You need to tread carefully though - the game is highly volatile and free spins can take a long time to trigger.

As well as big potential, several other factors work in Fire Forge's favour. Having the choice of three free spins games is appreciated and provides options for players who prefer a bit of caution or those who want a quick stab of high volatility. Hitting retriggers on the +6 multiplier spins version is pretty much the grail of Fire Forge and can lead to intense moments, but so can the other two options when they get a decent roll on. As well as features, figures across the board are great, so it's hard to find many if any faults in Fire Forge.

One possible drawback is that Fire Forge looks a little dated. We could also have lived without the three jackpots which comes across as a bit of a lazy approach. A random base game feature or whatever would have been more interesting. However, the rest of the game, from stats to overall potential to adrenaline-infused free spins, are enough to excuse that shortcoming. For some, there might not be enough to feast their eyes on, plus non-multiplied jackpots are pretty low. However, for others after a no-frills big win chase, Fire Forge would make a fine choice.