Rich Wilde and the Wandering City

Rich Wilde and the Wandering City: Slot Overview

Before leaping into Play'n GO's online slot, Rich Wilde and the Wandering City, we spent a few moments trawling the interwebs to do a bit of background research. The name 'Wandering City' appears to refer to Ciudad de los Césares, or The City of the Caesars, a mythical place in South America. The City of the Caesars was said to be in the Patagonian valley somewhere between Argentina and Chile. Rumours of its existence floated around for many years, but no one seems to have conclusively proven it exists.

Why would anyone want to find the Wandering City? One story goes that the city was flanked by a mountain of gold on one side and a mountain made of diamond on the other. It sounds like the very definition of 'too good to be true', but still, what if…? This leads us to suave adventurer Rich Wilde who has done what other explorers have failed to pull off and discovered the fabled city. A quick word on Rich, the guy is maturing like a fine wine. Remember his boyish good looks in Pearls of India? The chap is now getting more salt and pepper middle-aged with each new release. At the rate Play'n GO sling these games out, it's not hard to imagine something like Rich Wilde and Retirement Village Gold being released before long.

For now, we've got Rich tramping through the icy Patagonian wilderness for another chance at scoring treasure. The game is played on a 5-reel, 3-row game panel, which uses a surprising 243 ways to win. Surprising because Rich Wilde and the Wandering City is essentially a 'book of' slot but one with a lot more win ways and multipliers thrown into the mix. A highly volatile romp rated 9 out of 10, the multiple RTP configurations are led by a default value of 96.2%. All devices are fine for chasing down the Wandering City on, where bets from 10 p/c to $/€100 may be set.

With the increased number of win ways, there is no way a line of five premium symbols was going to be worth 500x; that would have been outrageous. Instead, five Rich symbols are worth 4x the bet, and he is followed by other premiums such as skulls, statues, and daggers. Beneath them, the remaining pay symbols are made up of 9-A card royals. The only other symbol of note is the diamond symbol which leads to the game's main feature.

Rich Wilde and the Wandering City: Slot Features

This being a 'book of' style slot, don't expect too much action in the base game, though a random multiplier does appear. More focus has been put on the free spins bonus game where the famous expanding pay anywhere symbols do their thing.

Win Multiplier

On any base or bonus game spin, there is a chance to activate an x2 multiplier on reels 2, 3, or 4. Single multipliers are applied to any wins, whereas if there is more than one multiplier in view, the values are added together before being applied.

Free Spins

The diamond symbol is wild, replacing all symbols to complete wins and the scatter. Landing 3, 4, or 5 diamond scatters awards 10 free spins plus a payout of 0.8, 1.6, or 4 times your stake.

Before free spins begin, a high or low pay symbol is randomly selected to the special expanding symbol for the entire free spins round. After any regular prizes have been paid, special symbols expand to cover all three cells on its reel. Special symbols only expand when part of a winning combination. Once expanded, these symbols do not need to be adjacent to each to create winning combinations, paying like a scatter.

Lastly, free spins are retrigged when 3 scatters appear during the bonus round. This awards +10 additional free spins, and the feature can be retriggered up to five times.

Rich Wilde and the Wandering City: Slot Verdict

Play'n GO has dolled their man Rich Wilde up in another 'book of' type game; fortunately, they've done it style. Not only does Rich Wilde and the Wandering City look as good as any 'book' slot they, or most others, have done, it plays in a typically slick Play'n GO manner. The studio could probably design these sorts of slots with one hand tied behind their backs, but regardless, they've made Rich Wilde and the Wandering City in a way that is hard for 'book' fans to say no.

While not wildly innovative, Rich Wilde and the Wandering City does offer a couple of things, not every 'book' slot has. Most obviously, there are extra ways to win, which completely alters the dynamics. This isn't the first to do so. BTG notably went for the 243 ways approach in one of their less well-received titles Book of Gods, but it is not super common at all. It means the mathematicians had to juggle other parts of the game to balance things out. Here, it's symbol values. These have taken a further hit to account for the reel multipliers, so regular wins in Rich Wilde and the Wandering City are nothing to write home about. However, the blend of expanding symbols, ways, and multipliers can come together nicely, providing Rich Wilde and the Wandering City with hefty potential of up to 10,000x the bet. Not exactly upper-tier payouts for a 'book of' game, yet doubling the usual amount is bound to raise an enticed eyebrow or two.

Yes, Rich Wilde and the Wandering City is yet another 'book' slot, but it is a good one that deviates from the regular way of doing things. Rich Wilde and the Wandering City isn't exactly a bucket list game yet it's got everything a good number of Ra fans would be chuffed to find in an expanding symbol-based game.