4 Secret Pyramids

4 Secret Pyramids: Slot Overview

One of the neat things about online slots is the number of innovations regularly slung at players. Sure, not all of them are earth-shattering paradigm shifts that have you questioning the very basis of reality, but a tweak here, a tune-up there, is all it takes to deliver something slightly different than what came before. Like flinging mud at a wall, not all of it sticks, and some innovations fade away to the big feature dumpster in the sky, never to be heard from again. One rather elaborate mechanic that felt like it had gone the way of the dodo is the Bonus Up concept from the numerologists at 4ThePlayer. It appeared in the Central American themed slot 3 Secret Cities and is now back, over a year later, in a game called 4 Secret Pyramids.

With a name like 4 Secret Pyramids, players should be mentally geared up for a trip to the sands of Ancient Egypt. Yes, there are pyramids in other parts of the world, including Sudan and even Rome, yet pyramids are synonymous with Ancient Egypt, so here we are. One of 3 Secret Cities' highlights was its high graphical standard, which 4 Secret Pyramids retains. However, since it sometimes seems there are like 14,000 other Egypt slots, the pictorial intrigue is less than it might have been had 4ThePlayer picked a less touristy location. It's hard to fault the imagery, though, so Egyptophiles should be down with all the pyramids, statures, and fauna available to visually feast on in 4 Secret Pyramids.

Part of 4ThePlayer, being, uh, for the player, is the way they stack their games with stats and game options. Dealing with the stats part first, if you click on Game Rules, a table appears displaying 4 Secret Pyramids' 95% RTP, volatility labelled as 'High', a max win of 55,000x, and average best wins after 100 spins. All useful stuff. As are the betting options. Normal stakes range from 20 p/c to $/€15 per spin, or hitting the x2 Bonus button increases the stake by 25% and doubles free spins awards. Also, clicking the Xtra Bonus button doubles the chance of actually triggering free spins, also costing 25% extra.

4 Secret Pyramids is played on a 5-reel, 4-row game grid, with 1,024 ways to win running across it. Players collect a regular win when matching pay symbols land in adjacent reels, starting on the left. Five of a kind produces the highest payouts, which are 1-2x the bet when made up of the 10-A card ranks, or 2.5-5x the bet for five Ankhs, Eyes, Anubis', adventuresses, or Egyptian ladies. Wilds help in this task by substituting all symbols except the free spins scatter symbol.

4 Secret Pyramids: Slot Features

Since the Bonus Up feature has made its return, let's break it down to see how it works. Basically, the game has 4 bonus round locations with increasing max multipliers and winning possibilities. If you look at the box located above the reels, it shows which location you will go to when free spins next trigger. When 2 scatter symbols land on reels 1 and 3, players click one of them to win a cash prize of up to 50x the bet or to move along the trail to the next bonus location. At the lowest level, you can win up to 15 free spins, a maximum win multiplier of x4, and potential of 12,000x the bet. At the highest is up to 55 free spins, a maximum win multiplier of x15, and 55,000x the bet max win.

Free Spins

These are triggered when 3 scatter symbols land on reels 1, 3, and 5. Before they start, a couple of things happen. One, you can gamble to potentially move up the trail if successful or down if unsuccessful to the next bonus tier. Once past that stage, the Pyramid Pick feature plays out. Here, you click blocks to reveal how many free spins you get, what the win multiplier is, and what the stacked symbol is – up to the limit of the current bonus round location. From the fourth pick, it is possible to reveal an 'X' which ends the picking round, and free spins begin. During free spins, landing 3 scatter symbols awards an extra 5-10 free spins.

Buy Feature

Clicking the Buy feature button presents four options; these are:

• 60x the bet for up to 20 free spins, up to x6 multiplier, and 20,000x the base bet max win.
• 120x the bet for up to 20 free spins, up to x11 multiplier, and 35,000x the base bet max win.
• 120x the bet for up to 40 free spins, up to x6 multiplier, and 35,000x the base bet max win.
• 200x the bet for up to 55 free spins, up to x15 multiplier, and 55,000x the base bet max win.

Once bought, players go through the Pyramid Pick feature to determine the precise number of free spins, stacked symbols, and win multipliers they get.

4 Secret Pyramids: Slot Verdict

It was nice to see 4ThePlayer's Bonus Up idea return, though seeing it for the second time means there was less 'ooh what's this?' factor as in the previous 3 Secret Cities game. Perhaps using a more common slot theme accentuated this reaction. Not that Central American slots are rare, but few genres are as well used as the Egyptian one. 4ThePlayer has done a number on the theme, though, painting a bunch of pretty locations to play through, and having several of them to explore helps keep the game fresh.

4 Secret Pyramids has the same adventuring spirit as in the previous game, too, and the further you travel along the trail, the greater the rewards can be. At the end of the trek, the 55,000x the bet is a substantial haul, though getting there may require a bit of grit as it can take time to work your way across the map. In the meantime, the 4 Secret Pyramids' core gaming is actually quite simplistic. When you set aside the map thing, plus all the peripheral bells and whistles, the bulk of the action consists fundamentally of trying to hit way wins, with double scatter cash prizes tossed in from time to time. It is stylishly done, though, and the transparency and theoretically massive potential are big draw cards. The Pyramid Pick can be quite fun, too, and sizable multipliers are possible in free spins; let's not forget.

In some ways, when you strip away the quest, the extra betting options and the bonus buy, 4 Secret Pyramids is in many ways about as complex as a regular 'book of' slot. Admittedly, there is a lot more up for grabs here, although the lowered RTP (compared to its predecessor) is a bit of a disappointment. At the end of the day, this is a game ideal for players who want a relatively straightforward Egypt slot with a big max win figure and plenty of dials to tinker around with.