Enriched

Enriched: Slot Overview

It's been said that 'The same fire that warms the house can also burn it down', and this maxim applies a thousandfold to one of humankind's more recent technological breakthroughs. Nuclear fission is able to generate enormous amounts of relatively clean energy - until everything goes pear-shaped and radioactive particles spew forth from a wrecked reactor, causing everything to glow green and sprout extra limbs. The danger of this occurring in a well-maintained facility may be low, but we're not dealing with one of those in the online slot Enriched. Instead, developer Wicked Games has teamed up with the Supreme Leader to launch a nuclear programme 'Built using Cold War surplus technology, second-hand machinery, and first-class confidence'... what could go wrong?

Fiddle with nature's building blocks, and safety has got to be of paramount importance. In the world of Enriched, bah, not so much, where a busted uranium rod lies oozing on the floor, a rat peers in from a flapping part of the wall, and a picture depicts a goat shaking hands with one of the locals. It's not a scene that inspires a whole lot of confidence, but what the Supreme Leader wants, the Supreme Leader gets, even if it means cutting corners that really should not be cut and leaving trails of mutated corpses along the inexorable path of 'progress'. Sensations of dread are further compounded by the way the protagonists of Enriched don't seem to have domestic electricity supply as the primary goal of their nuclear programme, but seem more concerned with the obliteration of their enemies in a terrifying mushroom cloud as they ascribe to the sad doctrine of Mutually Assured Destruction. What a world.

Built into a faded old 'Tobisha' TV is Enriched's 5x3 gaming grid. A total of 20 paylines have been built into the game, evaluating winning combinations left to right starting from the leftmost reel. Rated 4.5 out of 5, Enriched is a highly volatile slot that produces a default RTP of 96.17%. The possible stake range is vast, ranging from $/€0.20 to $/€400.

On the lower side of the paytable are J-A card ranks, while on the higher side are teddy bears, wind-up rockets, and three characters who look to be up to no good. A line of 5 matching royals pays 1x the bet, increasing to 1.5x to 20x for a line of 5 matching picture symbols. The wild goat symbol appears in the base game and during Showdown. It substitutes for all symbols except Uranium Rods and scatters, and pays 40x when five wilds create a win.

Enriched: Slot Features

Down in this dodgy basement can be found Uranium Rods, a Chain Reaction round, a Reactor Status, the Showtime round, Wicked Boosters and Bonuses.

Uranium Rod & Chain Reaction

The Uranium Rod appears in the base game, Showtime, and Chain Reaction. Hitting 3, 4, or 5 Uranium Rods in any position pays 1x, 2x, or 5x, respectively. Landing 6 or more Uranium Rods anywhere on the grid triggers the Chain Reaction feature - a 3 lives hold & spin round. After the round ends, players then win the corresponding amount on the Reactor Status. However, if 15 Uranium Rods land on the initial spin, the top prize is instantly awarded, no need for Chain Reaction to play out.

Reactor Status

The Reactor Status displays the prize values for landing 3 to 15 Uranium Rods, from 1x to 3,000x the bet. During Showtime, the values on the Reactor Status are multiplied by the Chain Reaction multiplier - up to the max win limit.

Showtime

Landing 3 or more scatters triggers 10 free spins in the Showtime feature. Each scatter landing during Showtime awards +1 free spin. Before free spins begin, Spin the Thingy awards 3-5 wheel spins matching the number of landed scatters. Each wheel spin can enhance the free spins round by awarding +2 free spins, +1 Reactor Status multiplier, +5 free spins, +1 payline multiplier, +3 free spins, or +2 payline multiplier. The Line Multi applies to all line wins. Uranium Rods may land, and they act as they do in the base game.

Wicked Booster and Bonuses

The Fast Track ante bet costs 2x to increase the chance of triggering Showtime by x5. The Showtime feature can be bought for 80x, or Super Showtime for 300x, where only multipliers appear on the wheel during Spin the Thingy, and there are more Uranium Rods. Lastly, it is possible to buy Chain Reaction for 65x the stake.

Enriched: Slot Verdict

Since the early days, as the studio worked to find its feet, Wicked Games has really stepped it up in the presentation department. This includes taking relatively common features and transforming them through the way they are presented to the player. Enriched is a prime example. At its nucleus, this is a slot that belongs to the 9 Masks of Fire tradition, which could have caused it to be DOA. However, the studio has woven recognisable instant prize ladder gameplay into an amusing tale of nuclear ambition done on the cheap, before branching out with several mechanical updates. The result is a game that's much more unique than it could have been, and makes for a more interesting experience than if Wicked Games took the easy route and did buffalo, or Western, or any number of other cliches.

One way liftoff may begin in Enriched is by landing 6 or more Uranium Rods. Till then, it might be easy to get stuck into sessions of dead to low interest spins, sprinkled through with 3-5 Uranium Rod symbol hits. Even then, Chain Reaction rounds rely entirely on how many Rods land, and it's not till you're up in the 10-11+ territory that the prize values start to escalate. Note that the top value on the Reactor Status falls well below Enriched's 10,000x win cap. This means, like a fully functioning nuclear device, several parts need to fire in conjunction with each other to achieve full blast. Namely, triggering free spins, increasing the Reactor Status multiplier from Spin the Thingy, then triggering Chain Reactions during the round and hoping everything pulls together in a neat wee mushroom cloud.

From a cynical perspective, putting the positives to one side, Enriched could be considered at heart a glorified scatter prize ladder type slot, which might not light the reactor with masses of technical originality. Still, it inhabits an amusing game world, the quasi-controversial theme has been excellently chosen and dealt with, and the result provides fans of this style with a unique, entertaining release that breathes life into a fairly crowded and often cliched genre.