10000 BC 2 DoubleMax

10,000 BC 2 DoubleMax: Slot Overview

It's no surprise to see Yggdrasil Gaming's partners use the studio's mechanics, such as DoubleMax, the doubling up win multiplier, and Gigablox, the big symbol/merged reels feature. Loads of developers have gotten in on the act, yet dropping both of these heavy-weight mechanics together in one spot is something you don't see often. It has been done before, though. Provider 4ThePlayer pulled them both together for 10,000 BC DoubleMax, in what it calls its 'most mammoth slot', and what do you know, the studio has repeated the feat for the sequel, 10,000 BC 2 DoubleMax.

The original release was held in a pleasant prehistoric environment of meadows, mountains, and trees. A virgin setting, ripe for cultivation, exploitation, and all the other things humans have carved out of the planet since then. 10,000 BC 2 DoubleMax, by contrast, looks both a lot hotter and a lot colder at the same time. Patches of snow sit side by side a river of lava, and an angry volcano. In this instance, the volcano is able to help players since it is linked to some of the new features.

One of the least exciting differences between 10,000 BC 2 DoubleMax and the original is the RTP reduction. This game reflects 4ThePlayer's shift into the 94% RTP range, a move driven by recent increases in regulation. Volatility is high, and the setup remains the same - symbols spin on a 50 paylines, 5x5 game board where players are able to wager 20 c to $/€100 per paid game round. Switch on the Golden Bet, and the stake increases by 25% to double the chances of hitting free spins.

What looks like gems in the form of 10-A card royals entrapped in stone are 10,000 BC 2 DoubleMax's lower paying symbols, worth 0.3x to 0.35x for a 5 OAK winning combination. Up from them are bears, wolves, woolly rhinos, saber-tooth tigers, and woolly mammoths, paying 0.4x to 1.25x for 5 OAK. Wilds substitute for all symbols bar scatters. Wilds appear on any reel but only as part of the Fireball Wilds feature. If a win is made up of only wilds, no payout occurs.

10,000 BC 2 DoubleMax: Slot Features

Along with all the snow and lava, 10,000 BC 2 DoubleMax has Gigablox, DoubleMax, In-Reel Features, free spins, and two feature buys.

Gigablox & DoubleMax

Gigablox are larger than normal symbols that function as individual symbols in a 2x2 or 3x3 formation. Wilds symbols can be Gigablox as part of the Fireball Wilds feature. After each win, all winning symbols are removed and replaced by dropping symbols. If all or part of a GigaBlox is part of a win, the entire Gigablox is removed. Each win doubles the win multiplier, which only resets in the base game after a losing dropdown. The maximum win multiplier value is x2,048.

In-Reel Features

Five In-Reel modifiers may appear in 10,000 BC 2 DoubleMax; they are:

• Fireball Wilds - the volcano may launch 1 to 3 wild symbols onto the reels during a spin or drop.
• Multiplier Inferno - a fireball from the volcano may hit the win multiplier to double it.
• Lava Flow - on any spin or dropdown, lava may cover a reel and change all symbols on it into copies of the same symbol. This will not create wilds or scatters.
• Mammoth Explode - on any losing spin, the Mammoth may hit the reels to destroy symbols, causing a dropdown and a guaranteed win. The win multiplier increases when this happens. During this feature, the Fireball Wilds will also activate.
• Mammoth Shuffle - on any non-winning spin, the Lava Flow feature may trigger on a reel. The Mammoth then hits the reels, pushing the Lava Flow reel all the way to the left. On following drops, this reel moves 1 position at a time back to the right until it reaches the rightmost reel or does not create a win.

Free Spins

Scatters can land on any reel or as part of a Gigablox. Hitting 3, 4, or 5 scatter symbols awards 10, 15, or 20 free spins, respectively. In the free spins round, the win multiplier does not reset until the feature is complete. Lava Flow, Fireball Wild, and Multiplier Inferno can trigger during free spins, but Mammoth Explode and Mammoth Shuffle cannot. Free spins cannot be retriggered, either.

Feature Buy

In 10,000 BC 2 DoubleMax, players are able to access 2 feature buys. For 125x the bet, players may buy a single spin that starts the win multiplier at a random higher value than a normal spin. Or, for 100x the bet, players can buy the free spins round.

10,000 BC 2 DoubleMax: Slot Verdict

After going back to compare the original game with the sequel, 10,000 BC 2 DoubleMax, a lot of the same components have been returned, which is no bad thing. The artwork, for one, is as eye-catching as ever while also presenting hotter parts of the prehistoric epoch. Optics don't get much brighter and bolder than 10,000 BC DoubleMax, and the same can be said for the sequel, drenched as it is in 4ThePlayer's bold graphical style.

Moving on from looks to personality, 10,000 BC 2 DoubleMax combines DoubleMax with Gigablox just as well as was done in the past. The more important effect has got to be DoubleMax over Gigablox by quite a wide margin. With values reaching up to x2,048, the multiplier, surely, is going to have a bigger impact on results, hence it getting a mention in the title. Gigablox are fine; they've got a visual impact, but their effect is limited since they're basically just blocks of 2x2 or 3x3 of the same symbol. By comparison, games where a single Gigablox can cover most of the screen pack a bigger punch. Still, clusters of matching symbols are no bad thing to have on the reels. Less exciting is the way winning potential has stayed the same at 10,000x the bet, despite the addition of a few new features, and the RTP drop leaves a somewhat sour taste in the mouth.

Gamblers who want to cut straight to the chase can now do so with the new multiplier spin feature, as well as buying free spins. Have to say, it proved to be difficult to squeeze a positive result out of bought multiplier spins, though. All in all, 10,000 BC 2 DoubleMax comes with the same ups and downs these sorts of slots are prone to. Excellent when the multiplier is cruising through ever higher values (Peter & Sons' Barbarossa Revenge is good when this happens, for example), less smile-inducing when the game is doing its darndest to rebalance the flow through low-level, null-level spins. Another colourful DoubleMax/Gigablox slot, but when factoring in all the news and olds, 10,000 BC 2 DoubleMax didn't come across as superior to the original slot.