Secret City Gold

Secret City Gold

7 / 10
⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️

Once again it’s time to head back in time as ancient civilizations are known to house gold and other valuable treasures. In this game it is time to go in search of riches with the Secret City Gold pokie from Pragmatic Play. Presented in a frame of 5 reels and 25 paylines, random shape patterns can land on base game spins. Symbols inside transform to a randomly chosen symbol with wins linked to a multiplier going up to 10x. In the Free Spins feature, this applies but the multipliers are collected. Then the general multiplier will also apply to all shape wins during the feature. With a 96.06% RTP and 10,000x stake top wins, head to the lost city, when you feel ready that is. Our honest advice if you consider joining this adventure? To first read our Secret City Gold review as this will make you feel a lot more comfortable for your trip to this mysterious yet fascinating place.

Secret City Gold Review

It might be a bit hard to imagine to some nowadays that once upon a time, much of the globe remained a mystery to people living in other parts of it. Although some explorers might have heard of the mysteries of the Americas, only a few were brave enough to  literally travel towards the unknown in order to discover the undiscovered. With the knowledge we have to today, game developer Pragmatic Play frequently comes back to this theme, releasing games that make you wonder how the world once looked like in a time when online pokies and online casinos didn’t even exist. They once again fuel the mental exercise with the launch of Secret City Gold, an online pokie that lets players go to a mysterious part of the world and uncover all the secrets they have waiting for you.

Nice to know

Launched 16 January 2023
RTP 96.06%, 95.00%, 94.06%
Volatility High
Software Pragmatic Play
Features Additional Free Spins, Buy Feature, Expanding Symbols, Free Spins, FreeSpins Multiplier, Multiplier, Scatter symbols, Symbol Swap
Theme Ancient civilizations
Paylines 25
Grid Layout 5-4
Min. bet/line $0.25
Max win x10.000
Jackpot N/A

Positive points

  • ✅ Adequate Base RTP
  • ✅ Win Up To 10.000x the Bet
  • ✅ Multipliers Available
  • ✅ Not Many Bonus Features
  • ✅ Bonus Buy Feature Available

Negative points

  • ❌ Ranging RTP
  • ❌ Highly Volatile (5/5)

Review

When it comes to online pokie’s design, some software providers put a lot of time and effort into finding the right angles and hitting the right spots. Pragmatic Play is an example of a modern game studio that shows how it’s done. They’re known for making sure the standard of their games is fairly high, or at least above average, but the approach in recent months hasn’t exactly led to a whole lot of new stuff that we consider memorable. Flashy visuals, flowing graphics, and 1 or 2 interesting features, keep the new games going without doing anything extraordinary in the process. It has done so again with Secret City Gold which is one of the first online pokies Pragmatic Play released in 2023.

Secret City Gold

As the name suggests, Secret City Gold is a city made of gold hidden in the jungle waiting for curious visitors which in this case means both explorers and online pokie enthusiasts. We found the Secret City Gold pokie to be quite an intriguing casino game that has been inspired by Central civilizations which we don’t expect the last time for them. This game by Pragmatic Play features a layout with 5 reels and comes with 25 fixed paylines. Graphically, it’s a beautiful production with deep green reels and golden frames adding some extra class to the grid. One of the best things probably on the graphical side of the game is probably the list of colourful icons with amazing details and the mysterious city in the backdrop. The mysterious audio makes the game just a bit more exciting.

How to Play

So this is one of the many Pragmatic Play pokie games that you reckon interesting to make your wager on, so here is a quick overview of what to expect when it comes to the game play. Here is how to play Secret City Gold by Pragmatic Play.

  • Once you feel ready to play the Secret City Gold online casino game, press the two encircled white pointers. Doing this will activate the 5 reels with 4 rows.
  • Some of you might have already guessed that the (+) plus and minus (-) signs next to the play icon are used to adjust your bet.
  • You can also choose a bet level between 1 and 10 and a coin value of $ 0.01 to $ 0.5. In addition, you’ll find the total stake section here as well that lets you choose your bets from $ 0.25 to $ 125.
  • You can trigger up to 1000 automated spins thanks to the autoplay sign. If you go to the left side, you will see the info button will reveal the symbols and payouts. Use the speaker to turn the volume up or down or fully turn off the sounds.
  • Finally, there is also a sign with three lines. Clicking this will open the general settings of the game and will give you access to the general game rules.

Symbol Wins

With an ancient civilization game theme, the Secret City Gold online pokie takes you on an unforgettable adventure into the unknown in search of gold. Somewhere set in a green forest, it seems to be about El Dorado (otherwise translated to the lost city of gold). As soon as you launch this game on your desktop or mobile phone, you notice the rhythmic audio which has a tribal feel to it. On the reels of the pokie, you will see Aztec style A, K, Q, J and 10 playing cards. The high values include animals like the frog, jaguar, snake and lion animal statues as well as a gold coin. The gold coin symbol is the most valuable symbol, awarding 1.2, 2.4 or 4x the stake for combinations of 3, 4 or 5. Make sure to look out for the Jade Cicada Mask Wild symbol that replaces all paying symbols we just mentioned. Conveniently, 3, 4 or 5 wilds will also pay 2, 3.2 or 8x the bet respectively. The other symbol of importance is the Gold Monkey Scatter which can land on all 5 reels.

Symbol Payout for 3 Payout for 4 Payout for 5
10 0.12 0.2 0.4
J 0.12 0.24 0.48
Q 0.16 0.32 0.6
K 0.2 0.4 0.8
A 0.32 0.6 1
Frog Statue 0.4 0.8 1.2
Jaguar Statue 0.6 1.2 2
Snake Statue 0.8 1.6 2.4
Lion Statue 1 2 3.2
Gold Coin 1.2 2.4 4
Jade Cicada Mask Wild Substitutes for all paying symbols + pays up to 8x
Gold Monkey Scatter 3+ activates free spins feature

Bonus Features

The number of features in Secret City Gold is rather limited, we have to say, but the free spins feature and shape wins are nice additions. There is also a wild symbol in the game that can replace all regular symbols in a winning combination. As mentioned above, wilds can also form a winning combination on their own. For a combo with 5 wilds you will be paid 8x your bet.

Shape Wins

During every spin made in Secret City Gold, a mysterious shape can just appear across the playing field. This shape indicates a number of positions where the symbols are changed into a certain symbol after paying out a possible combination. Then the symbols within these shapes are combined from left to right and the value of this combination is also multiplied by a multiplier of between x1 and x10.

Secret City Gold Free Spins

The free spins round of Secret City Gold can be reached by spinning at least 3 scatters. In addition to a number of free spins, you immediately earn a nice payout. The number of free spins remains the same, but the payout increases as follows as you spin more scatters:

  • 3 scatters award 8 free spins and a payout of 2x your stake.
  • 4 scatters award 8 free spins and a payout of 10x your stake.
  • 5 scatters award 8 free spins and a payout of 50x your stake.

During the free spins there is also a general multiplier in addition to the shape wins multiplier. This general multiplier increases every time a shape win occurs because the multiplier of the shape win is included. The general multiplier does not reset in this case and can therefore only increase during the free spin. You can also earn extra free spins in the bonus round. For every scatter you will get 1 extra free spin.

Bonus Buy

Secret City Gold has a Bonus Buy feature too. In this case, you can purchase eight free spins. Activating this feature will cost you 85x your current stake. Make use of the bonus buy feature moderately and only do so if your bankroll allows you to.

Payout Metrics

The Secret City Gold RTP is set at a comfortable 96.06% which is just about the 96% online pokies average. At the same time, it’s just below the 96.5% RTP rate as found in many other online pokies launched by Pragmatic Play. Be aware that even the best NZ online casinos may offer the lower RTP versions of 95.00% or even lower at 94.06%. Secret City Gold comes with a Bonus Buy feature that you can buy for 85 the bet. In this case the RTP slightly increases to 96.22%. Highly volatile (5 out of 5), payouts are less often but you have the chance to win massive prizes if you happen to make a win. That said, this new Secret City Gold pokie comes with 10,000x bet top wins. Massive wins are more likely to land from the multiplier during the free spins round.

Summary

Pragmatic Play is known to always deliver pokies of medium quality, mainly due to the fact that their factory spits out new releases a lot more often than most other game studios. Secret City Gold is a very typical instalment in that regard as it’s fun, it’ll be popular, but it’s nothing special really. The Shape Win feature may draw some attention, but in reality it’s basically an adaptation of the more common mystery symbol feature. It nonetheless manages to keep the base game fairly interesting and can even lead to big wins.

For experienced players, the game might not be engaging enough to make you wanna come back for a second session, which is why we consider Secret City Gold more as a shelf filler that will initially top the charts, but will fall into oblivion in a few months from now. We don’t really blame them for this as this happens with many pokies though, and we can’t really say that every launch needs to be a timeless classic. In the bonus round, things are taken to another level though as the multiplier keeps building. Also, we have absolutely no complaints about the 10,000x potential which is relatively high for a Pragmatic Play production. The variance is on the high side though, so this one is hardly for the casual punters amongst or low risk players.