Freya 1000: Slot Overview
Designed by casino game maker Pragmatic Play, Freya 1000 is an online slot that takes players into the icy world of Norse mythology, using a Scandinavian flavour to colour a mix of classic design and somewhat more modern features. Whilst not as commonly found in slots as Thor or Odin, Freya is a fairly popular mythological deity in iGaming, bringing a formidable feminine strength to a genre more commonly dominated by male figures of Norse mythology. This she does in Freya 1000 with the aid of Money symbols, wheel-spun prizes, and free spins features, all served on a backdrop of icy landscapes, where the cold winds of legend meet the warmer potential of rewards. Sorry, hard not to get poetical when dealing with mythology sometimes.
To celebrate Freya's Norse heritage, Pragmatic Play has set the game in the frigid far north where a scene of icy enchantment glitters beneath a glowing aurora borealis. The game as a whole has a cold, silver-blue look to it, similar to that blue-grey filter used in some Nordic noir crime dramas, as if the cinematographers are trying to make you feel cold before the story even tells you that it's cold. Freya 1000 certainly looks cold, yet a certain warmth is to be found as well, provided by the inviting wooden dwellings and the Freya character herself, who looks like she'd be a firm yet fair goddess. Rounding out the graphical impressions, Freya 1000 also injects a measure of old-school charm, in part brought about by the central grid and symbols, which smack of the days of yesteryear.
Freya 1000 is a highly volatile slot with a classic grid set-up. The play area consists of 5 reels and 10 paylines where regular symbols create wins from left to right. Players are able to stake from $/€0.20 to $/€240 per spin, and the default RTP is 96.5%.
Icy blue-grey 10-A ranks are the low-pay symbols, awarding 1.25x the bet for 5 OAK, whereas drinking horns, necklaces, beers, wolves, and longships are the high pays. A 5 matching high-pay winning combination awards 4x-25x the stake. Freya appears as the wild symbol to substitute anything except Wheel and Money symbols. Wilds land on all reels except the leftmost reel.
Freya 1000: Slot Features
Freya 1000 has Money symbols and Wheel symbols that lead to free spins and super free spins. Three feature buys also come with the game as well.
Money & Wheel Symbols
Money symbols possess values of 0.25x-40x the bet, which is paid whenever a Money symbol hits. If 1 or 2 Money symbols are on a reel, the reel may randomly nudge up or down to reveal 1 or 2 extra Money symbols and fill the reel. When Wheel symbols hit, they trigger a wheel which awards a prize for each in view. Rewards can be a money value of 5x-20x, a multiplier of x5-x1,000 which applies to the win of the current spin, 6 free spins, 6 super free spins, or 12 super free spins.
Free Spins & Super Free Spins
During free spins, when at least one Money symbol lands, the reel always nudges to be full of Money symbols. When the Wheel symbol hits, a wheel opens to award a multiplier of x2-x1,000 for each Wheel symbol in view. Multipliers are added and applied to the win of the current spin when at least one Wheel hits. Money symbols can randomly transform to award +3 free spins after paying their value.
The same mechanics apply to super free spins, except the multipliers won from wheels during the round are added to a total multiplier which remains active till the round ends. The total multiplier is applied to wins when at least one Wheel lands.
Feature Buy
The three buy options are 6 free spins for 50x, 6 super free spins for 75x, or 12 super free spins for 200x the stake.
Freya 1000: Slot Verdict
Pragmatic Play has produced a number of games with 1000 in the title, though they have often been attached to remakes, such as Sweet Bonanza 1000, which take an older release and dial up the juice, injecting a feeling of renewal. You don't get that in Freya 1000, since not only is it not a remake, but it also serves up swathes of old-school thinking in terms of both looks and action. It's not a slot to pick to see what Prag's futuristic new ideas team has been up to, but if you like slots that look backwards as much or even more than they look forwards, then Freya 1000 merits a closer inspection.
While the game exudes a wintry Scandinavian charm, what's here which might heat the blood is its Money and Wheel mechanics. One thing some players may enjoy is that collection symbols are absent from the reels. So whenever Money symbols hit, cha-ching, their bounty is yours. The nudging effect is a nice touch, too, even if unaltered Money symbol values are not astronomically large. Wheels are able to turn the screw tighter by applying a multiplier to the spin, or leading players into free spins and super free spins. The two bonus rounds mostly follow on from the main game, with the added benefit of guaranteed nudges. Free spins failed to turn up anything amazing during the review, but super free spins and their progressive total multiplier were a much more exciting prospect.
On the whole, Freya 1000 wasn't the most pulse-pounding game to review. It's a bit slow, a bit old-fashioned, totally capable of blasting out wins up to a cap of 10,000x, but certain players only really need to apply. Namely, those into retro-leaning games, with a more measured pace and an absence of overly convoluted mechanics. Otherwise, players chasing fast-paced modern innovations might find the journey through this icy domain a little too glacial.
Freya 1000 offers a polished dose of old-school slot action, but its slow pace and conservative mechanics make it a tough sell for players seeking modern thrills.
