Gems of Serengeti

Review Gems of Serengeti

We all know that the national parks in Africa are home to many different animal species, but most people are probably unaware of the fact that you can find valuable gemstones in these parks. With the help of the Gems of Serengeti pokie, you can follow yet another exciting African story that takes you to some of the nicest treasures of this continent.

Pragmatic Play went ahead and came up with a safari game with a standard 5×4 layout and 20 fixed paylines. The visuals will make sure that this experience is even more immersive. This means that you should get ready for dark brown reels filled with different symbols coming in vibrant colours. As you will probably expect, the backdrop image shows a glimpse of one of the national parks in the Serengeti region. We very much enjoyed the tranquil tribal music that is mixed with other modern sound effects.

The name Serengeti derives from the Maasai language which is translated to “endless plains” and corresponds well to this gigantic geographical place of 30,000 km2, located in eastern Africa. There are also said to be precious hidden gems and it’s your mission to find them with some help of the respin and free spin features. It is definitely not the first time that we visit the Serengeti in the pokie’s world, but it’s definitely worth the visit to this eastern African region. Be prepared though as this is a Pragmatic Play game meaning limited max wins. This is something to consider as it’s quite a flight to get to the region.

How to Play

The Gems of Serengeti online pokie is one of the few casino games you’ll find on the internet that works with 16 symbols. Eight of these are basic symbols that can help you make some winning combinations by hitting 3 – 5 matching symbols on one of the 259 connected ways to win. Make sure to get tribal by following the next few steps:

• Set your stake by pressing the + and – buttons found on either side of the start button. This can be adapted before every spin.
• Then have a look at the paytable of this pokie by pressing the ‘i’ symbol which can be found in the bottom left of the screen.
• While you’re on that screen, go ahead and scroll to the right until you can see the pokie game’s 20 paylines.
• If you like to play more quietly, you can adjust the audio settings by pressing the speaker icon in the bottom left of the screen.
• If you prefer to use the autoplay button, press the autoplay button. This button can be found under the start button to reveal your configuration options.
• To spin manually, go for the start button whenever you’re ready for it. Make sure to set a predefined budget and only play with money that you can miss.

Symbol Wins

This Gems of Serengeti online pokie is decorated with an eastern African tribal game theme set on the majestic plains and has been completed with symbols that refer to the different animals found in this part of this world. This is why you’ll find the leopard, the lion, the vulture as well as tribal people on your screen. Accompanying the gameplay is a very calm piece of audio that incorporates animal sounds and tribal drums to help you set the scene. This pokie review notes that a nice amount of graphics is used to bring the reels to life, such as when the leopard roars. In the background of the reels you can also see the Acacia trees among the open grass field surrounded by high mountains. You create a winning combo by landing 3+ of the same symbol on adjacent reels.

The lower value symbols are the J, Q, K and A. Landing 5 of the same symbol type pays between 5x and 7.5x the bet. The higher paying symbols are a vulture, a leopard, a lion, native women and native man. Landing 5 of the same symbol type pays between 10x to 37.5x the bet. The golden mask is the game’s wild symbol, and the drum is the pokie’s scatter symbol. During the spins you can also land gem symbols, whereby 5+ will trigger the respin feature. Let’s take a closer look at what these features do.

Bonus Features

Unfortunately, the impression the game theme and design leave isn’t really extended to the features. There are only 2 features to be found in this game which also limits the amount of excitement in the pokie: a respin feature and a free spins feature. Below, we’ll dive into these features which are fun, but can reward only 4000x the bet.

Respin feature

By spinning at least 5 gem symbols, the respin feature of Gems of Serengeti is activated. During this feature, only blank symbols and gem symbols can land on the screen. All gem symbols are sticky, meaning they stick to their position. You start the feature with 3 respins. Each newly spun gem symbol resets the number of respins to the starting number of 3. The respin feature ends when you have filled the entire screen with gem symbols or if you haven’t spun a new gem symbol within 3 respins. To calculate the prize money, the number of gem symbols present on the playing field is taken into account. The prices are as followed:

• 5 gems: 1x your bet.
• 6 gems: 2x your bet.
• 7 gems: 5x your bet.
• 8 gems: 10x your bet.
• 9 gems: 15x your bet.
• 10 gems: 20x your bet.
• 11 gems: 30x your bet.
• 12 gems: 45x your bet.
• 13 gems: 60x your bet.
• 14 gems: 80x your bet.
• 15 gems: 100x your bet.
• 16 gems: 150x your bet.
• 17 gems: 200x your bet.
• 18 gems: 250x your bet.
• 19 gems: 300x your bet.
• 20 gems: 500x your bet.

Gems of Serengeti Free Spins

To trigger the free spins feature of Gems of Serengeti, you have to spin bonus symbols. Three bonus symbols (1 on reel 1, 1 on reel 3 and 1 on reel 5) are required for this. Gem symbols are collected for you during the free spins feature. If at the end of the free spins feature 5 to 19 gems have been collected, you will get a respin. During this respin, all collected wilds are placed in random positions on the playing field. If you have managed to collect 20 or more gems, you will receive a fixed cash prize that can increase considerably:

• 20 gems: 500x your bet.
• 21 gems: 1,000x your bet.
• 22 gems: 1,500x your bet.
• 23 gems: 2,000x your bet.
• 24 gems: 2,500x your bet.
• 25 gems: 3,000x your bet.
• 26 gems: 3,500x your bet.
• 27 gems: 4,000x your bet.

Payout Metrics

The maximum win is 4000x your total bet. While this isn’t too bad and a lot higher than many other pokies on the market, it’s lower than a lot of pokies from this provider. We commend the fact that the RTP rate here and with many others by this provider always tends to be generous and above average. But the max win of 4000x the bet lets it down, once again. We were hoping for something more in the 10,000x region. This game won’t be winning any awards because of that, but the Gems of Serengeti pokie still has enough going for it to be enjoyed by many. You can land the max win in the base game, but your best chance might just come in the Free Spins feature where a total of 27 Gems will land you the top prize. The Gems of Serengeti RTP is a very convenient 96.4%. In terms of volatility, it’s definitely in the high range (4.5 out of 5).

Summary

Gems of Serengeti is once again a typical Pragmatic Play release and with all their popularity and 5+ releases per month, it’s sort of understandable that they cannot afford to be too innovative every time they come up with a new game. The disadvantage is that it lacks originality in some of their launches whilst the same is true for the limited top win. This might be yet another thirteen in a dozen game, but it still has some sharp moments when things go your way. The base game is indeed a bit barebones to us, but the Respin round does know how to break things up.

This feature can land players from New Zealand very decent prizes, but at the same time we want to warn you not to expect anything massive from regular line wins in any stage of the game, not least since the gem symbols block regular win ways. What you want is to collect as many gems as possible to get the best possible start in the post Free Spins Respin round as this is what it’s all about in this game. Overall, we find this a pleasant launch, and this will probably be reflected in the online pokie’s popularity in NZ, although this might be thanks to Pragmatic Play’s widespread reach rather than because of the quality of the game.