Sands of Eternity

Sands of Eternity: Slot Overview

Up and coming outfit Slotmill has ticked the obligatory Egyptian game off its to-do list by releasing a feature fest called Sands of Eternity. The name's a good one, we'll give them that, and despite the tremendous number of Egyptian themed slots out there, it managed to pique a certain level of interest. Fortunately, the rest of what followed wasn't bad either. Slotmill might have picked about as common a theme as possible, but they've stacked Sands of Eternity with, if not completely innovative features, then an unusual selection all the same.

Slotmill was apparently established by a group of industry veterans (aren't they all?), and we're wondering if some of those vets included old hands from Relax Gaming given the game has a sort of semi-Relax feel to it - partly due to the graphical quality, partly by the way players are tasked with destroying blocker tiles from the grid, aka Cluster Tumble (as well as others). Sands of Eternity is ideal if your vision of Ancient Egypt includes loads of big stone structures and fiery braziers. The little visual touches are quite neat, too, such as the symbol animations and glowing hieroglyphics in the bonus round.

Players who like a lot of betting options should be happy with the extensive shopping list of choices that gives ELK's X-iter menu a run for its money. It's unlikely everyone will have access to all of them, so let's stick to playing in the regular default mode for now, where stakes range from 20 p/c to $/€40 per spin, and RTP comes in at 96.16%. The volatility has been classed as high, and Slotmill has paired it with fairly substantial max win capabilities.

Pressing the play button drops 18 active symbols onto a 6x6 sized game grid - 3 symbols for each of the 6 reels. The remaining 18 positions on the panel are initially taken up by stone block tiles. At the start, players get 729 ways to win, and when a winning way hits, it is removed by the Avalanche feature, which also removes adjacent stone block tiles. Active symbols fall down into the gaps, and the process is repeated until no new win hits. Over the course of repeat Avalanches, it is possible to clear all stone blocks from the grid, creating up to 46,656 ways to win.

Taking a closer look at the active symbols, we come across 9 regular pay symbols, split into three animal shapes, three geometrical shapes, and three deity looking symbols. Landing six of a kind winning ways is worth 0.25x for the first type, 0.5x for the second type, and 1.5-3x the bet for the third type. Golden 'W' symbols round this section off. They are wild and can substitute for any normal paying symbol.

Sands of Eternity: Slot Features

Two things to cover in this section are the general in-game features and the numerous ways of attacking the game. First up are special stone blocks which are located in the four corners of the game grid. When these stone blocks are destroyed, they trigger a respective feature:

• Wild Scarab – when destroyed, it is replaced by a wild symbol.
• Eye of Horus – when destroyed, all low pay symbols in view are removed before the next Avalanche.
• Golden Scarab – adds a 2x2 sized wild symbol in a random position before the next Avalanche.

Random Expansion

On any base game spin, the Random Expansion feature may trigger. It removes all non-special stone block tiles, increasing ways up to 20,736.

Free Spins

When a scatter symbol lands, it explodes, removing adjacent stone blocks and is collected on the bonus symbol collection meter. If 3, 4, 5, or 6 scatter symbols are collected over the course of consecutive Avalanches, players win 9, 12, 15, or 18 free spins, respectively. In free spins, 2-4 extra special stone block tiles are added to the grid on each spin. Now it is possible to destroy 'x1' stone blocks which increase the win multiplier by +1, or '+1' stone blocks which award an extra free spin. The win multiplier does not reset between free spins.

Fast Track

If available, players can click the Fast Track button, where they can then select three different ways of playing Sands of Eternity:

• Free spins can be bought for 90x the bet and have an RTP of 96.43%.
• The Random Expansion feature costs 15x the bet and has an RTP of 96.3%
• A guaranteed winning spin costs 5x the bet and has an RTP of 96.29%.

Burst Mode

When activating Burst Mode, players select a number of game rounds and a bet level, then they can sit back as the math model spits out numbers onto the screen.

Sands of Eternity: Slot Verdict

Sands of Eternity is an interesting game with a number of talking points. On the whole, a reasonable level of satisfaction was reached, brought about by the pleasing visuals, mysterious music, and slinky animation. Each piece of the gameplay slots neatly together to produce captivating moments when Avalanches blast away blocks, increase ways, and shovel out an okay winning total. Add in potential of up to 7,500x the bet, and even though Sands of Eternity is unlikely to be a game players remember in the long term, let alone for eternity, it's got all the bits technically necessary for an interesting night in.

Interestingly, what really stuck with us was Burst Mode – something not every player is likely to come across. We're not knocking anyone who would want to play this way, but would you really want to? If time is absolutely of the essence, or your idea of fun is staring at a purple cloud while random numbers appear on screen, then Burst Mode will make all those dreams come true. Let's be clear, when Burst Mode is active, the grid is removed, so nothing really happens on screen – if free spins are triggered, you can skip through without watching them as well. It was a very cold, emotionless way of playing, where the magic is reduced to empty code and numbers. As an indicator of Burst Mode's velocity, we loaded up 1,000 spins and blasted through them in approximately 10 minutes. For the record, the total return was €879.05 from the 1,000 spins, with €122.90 of it coming from three bonus rounds. Keep in mind we saw nothing but a purple cloud burping out numbers the whole time.

The rest of the game wasn't as controversial, but it was agreeable, all the same. There is a suspicion much of the playability was due to the fact many of Sands of Eternity's core ideas have been used elsewhere. Still, all things considered, Sands of Eternity brings everything together in a fairly unique way, and the production value is high enough to warrant further investigation by players looking for an Egyptian slot that deviates from the norm.