Fear the Dark

Review Fear the Dark

Fearing the dark is one of the more understandable phobias amongst humans and we can’t blame you even if you’re an adult. Human’s night vision is weak in comparison to any predator that could be waiting around. The last place to go is a haunted graveyard, but luckily the cartoonish style in the Fear the Dark pokie is more cute than anything, and the gameplay is what we expect from Hacksaw. You will get a Full Moon symbols multiplier feature on a regular basis, and it ends with an interesting twist each time. The same can be said about the bonus round, where you can expect to trigger the symbols multiplier feature more often. The 5,000x potential is not bad for a medium volatile release, and this nicely looking game is therefore well worth a closer look. Let’s dive into how to play it.

How to Play

Fear the Dark is a rather new online pokie game delivered by Hacksaw Gaming that gives us a grid with 6 reels and 6 rows. This online pokie is available at many online casinos in NZ that work with the games of Hacksaw. Here is how to play Fear the Dark:

• This online pokie is a 6-reel, 6-row, cluster pays pokie that can pay up to 5000x the bet. We advise you to make use of the free demo feature before you play with real money.
• In order to do so you will need to set a total bet. The Fear the Dark pokie game allows bets between $0.10 and $100. The game starts by pressing the Spin button. If you play on a desktop computer or laptop you might need to push the spacebar on your keyboard.
• Autoplay will allow you to play several plays automatically. The autoplay can be adapted to your personal needs and preferences based on different advanced settings. We recommend making moderate use of this option.
• If you opt for the Turbo or Super Turbo modes in the Menu, it will speed up the rounds. The “Info” icon will open the different game rules and prize tables.

Symbol Wins

Hacksaw Gaming always tends to take care of the audio and it didn’t fail to impress with this Fear the Dark pokie. It’s quite mysterious, but for some reason very enjoyable as well. Land the Free Spins feature and the audio intensifies with candles surrounding the grid. All together, the graphics and the audio are outstanding. On the reels of the game, you will encounter black and white stairs, tombstones, cups, cubes and cross symbols. These make up the low value symbols. These are helped by the high values such as ghosts, green heads, pigs, clowns and zombies. The zombie symbol is the most lucrative symbol, paying from 1.5x your bet for 5 up to 120x your bet for 14 or more in a cluster. There’s no wild symbol in the game, but there are a couple of scatters such as the Moon Man and the Candle symbols. Here’s a list of the different symbols you can come across in the game:

Bonus Features

You will come across 4 bonus features in the Fear the Dark pokie game. The Full Moon feature triggers 2 to 5 symbol multipliers, and there’s also a Free Spins feature with Darkness Spins. Players in New Zealand can also buy the bonus features for a certain price.

When the Moon Man scatter lands in the base game or the Free Spins feature of the Fear the Dark pokie game, it triggers between 2-5 symbol multipliers, found above the grid. These multipliers are applied to all winning combinations on their symbol type as long as they’re in play.

Once there are no more new wins after triggering this bonus feature, the leftmost multiplier will get deactivated. All of the symbols of the same type as well as all low values symbols are then removed from the grid. New symbols will fall down to possibly give you a new winner. The next multiplier along is then removed once the grid settles again, and this process will continue until all active multipliers have been removed from the grid.

Alone in the Dark feature

Land 3+ candle scatters to activate the Alone in the Dark bonus feature. If this happens, you will get free spins. The number depends on the amount of scatters: 10 free spins are awarded when 3 scatters land, with 15 being awarded if 4+ land in the base game. In the bonus feature, there is a bigger chance of landing Man Moon scatters. Landing more Candle scatters during the free spins will award 4 extra free spins per scatter. Once your free spins come to an end, the bonus feature moves on to the Darkness Spins feature.

Darkness Spins Feature

In this case you’ll get 2 spins. This happens at the end of the Free Spins feature. Before each Darkness Spin, the play field shrinks in both ways, first to 4×4, then down to 2×2. After 2 spins the bonus feature will end.

If a Moon Man scatter lands during the bonus feature, the grid will return to its standard 6×6 size for the rest of that spin. Once the Full Moon feature comes to an end, you will start the Darkness Spins once again.

Buy Bonus feature

Players in New Zealand will have the chance to buy access to the bonus features. This will give them the following options:

Payout Metrics

The RTP of Fear the Dark is set at 96.25%, which is a good number for any online pokie. It is still very important to note that there are different RTP versions that online casinos can use such as 94.33%, 92.36% and 88.25%. So make sure you’re playing the one you’re about to play. The hit frequency of Fear the Dark comes in at a percentage of 42.48%, which is extremely good. Most pokies tend to be around 25-30% or under, so this is so much better. As for volatility, it’s in the medium range and rated as 3 out of 5 by the provider. The max win is capped at 5,000x your total bet. This is a bit lower than most other Hacksaw Gaming pokies, which are known to sit at the 10,000x mark. The 5000x is still good enough and better than a lot of other games we’ve reviewed.

Summary

If you’re looking for a game that is on the darker side, you will probably need to look elsewhere, as there is also a fun factor in this game. At least, we very much liked what we saw in this production by Hacksaw Gaming. Our point here is that this provider is known to be a bit more evil at same times when it comes to their look & feel which is why some players might have other expectations. The game will still take you on a thrilling journey to multipliers up to 100x, free spins and the Darkness Spins feature.

You can nonetheless tell straight away that this is a Hacksaw online pokie thanks to the design, which is frankly amazing. The stats are pretty awesome as well with special attention for the high hit frequency, medium volatility, and excellent RTP. Our only wish would be that the potential max win would be a bit higher than 5000x the stake. When you add in the fun bonus features it makes for a great online casino game overall.