Forest Fortune

Forest Fortune: Slot Overview

While Hacksaw Gaming continues to forge a reputation as the mobile slot design folk, they also go about the business of producing big jackpot games as well. Players get a bit of both of these elements in Forest Fortune, which might not be a Pocketz Series game, but it certainly plays well on mobile. Forest Fortune's main attraction though, is a significant fixed multi-million Euro jackpot, winnable at any bet level.

Players chasing life-changing sums of cash get to do so amidst a very pleasant game world. The action takes place on a 5x5 sized grid, set in the middle of a forest clearing, as sunbeams filter down through trees and wisps of light bubble upwards. Hacksaw has a strong audio department as well, which gets the chance to shine here. What makes the environment so mysterious is a poignant soundtrack that evokes memories tinged with sadness, or even a touch of dread as if something traumatic happened here a long time ago. Some may find it a little gloomy at first, yet this feeling washes away once the piano and percussive sections start to play; then a strangely enjoyable Donnie Darko, Mad World vibe settles in.

Forest Fortune posts some crazy big numbers; unfortunately, RTP is not one of them. It's understandable when you factor in the top prize, however, though a configuration of 94.6% isn't one of the game's strong points. The RTP does rise slightly to 95% when buying free spins, but it’s still not a highlight. Forking out for the feature is tempting as well since that's where the forest's actual fortune can be found, and the highly volatile math model can make the base game a challenge when waiting for scatters to appear organically.

While doing so, regular wins occur when 5 or more identical symbols are connecting horizontally or vertically, thereby forming a cluster. The symbols are all woodland icons, such as acorns, mushrooms, blueberries, blackberries, strawberries, and five bug varieties as the high pay symbols. The highest paying clusters consist of 15 or more symbols and are worth 40 to 150 times the stake when made up of the higher value bugs.

Forest Fortune: Slot Features

The headliner around here is, of course, the fixed jackpot, but there are a couple of other features to enjoy along the way, from a wild wind feature to free spins.

Wild symbols appear in any column to replace pay symbols and to help form a cluster. Whenever a wild symbol lands, it also triggers the wind feature. The wind then blows in a random direction, spreading all wilds in view to the grid's edge. Wins are calculated after the wilds have spread. If perchance the grid ends up completely filled with wild symbols from a particularly helpful gust of wind, 1,000x the bet is yours.

Monarch butterflies are the scatter symbols and 3 or more in view launch free spins mode. This is much like the one in Chaos Crew, which was warmly received. The bonus continues to play until 3 consecutive non-winning spins hit, or the max win is tapped. Each time a winning symbol lands, spins are reset to 3. The following modifiers are available during the round (the rest of the symbols are leaves, which do nothing other than take up space):

• If a blue butterfly symbol lands, it adds +1 to +100 to the number above it on the reel.
• If a green butterfly lands, the number above is multiplied by x2 to x50.
• Tornado symbols collect the value of all winning symbols on that spin and add them to each reel.

The last of the winning symbols are bees. Bees are instrumental in scoring the jackpot. Whenever one lands, it fills 1/3 of the progress bar above it. If all progress bars are filled, meaning 3 bees land on all reels, the €3m jackpot is awarded.

In regions where allowed, players can also access a bonus buy option when playing Forest Fortune. If so, then a payment of 100x the bet triggers free spins.

Forest Fortune: Slot Verdict

Maybe you'll find an actual fortune in this forest, maybe you won't. Either way, it's an enjoyable environment to hunt for one in. Hacksaw is skilled at doing a lot with seemingly little and turning it into a satisfying experience. From the tastefully designed forest visuals, which look like one of those kids books from IKEA, to the Harry Potter-ish soundtrack and bird chirps, everything is arranged just so. Each part contributes to creating a delicately calm, quiet space for spinning reels or doing a bit of private reflection if you're in a meditative mood.

Forest Fortune is a game that can thrill though, so don't get too comfy. It might not have the sassiness of Chaos Crew, but its bonus game is just as potent in every way - more so when you factor in the jackpot. Free spins are pretty much a mirror of Chaos Crew's, yet Forest Fortune's round packs a hefty right hook should those pesky bees land in large quantities. What you want is for three to land on each reel, and presto, you've scored €3 million. Outside the jackpot, wins of up to 10,000x the bet are possible during the bonus game - an amount verifiably hit in Chaos Crew, for the record. Beware though, a fairly large chunk of the RTP appears to be allocated to the jackpot and free spins were for the most part disappointingly low. Buying the free spins ended up in a loss 9 out of 10 times basically. Of course, this could have been a bad run for us, but still, it's something you may want to keep in consideration.

Despite sharing commonalities with previous Hacksaw games, Forest Fortune is quite a unique experience. Its game world is an agreeable one to lose yourself in, and landing fifteen bees in the right place is all it takes for life to flip around. Easy said than done, of course, but the fact €3 mill is there, lurking in the woods like some fabled forest spirit, sweetens the deal, and makes it easier to overlook the feeble RTP value.