Ternion

Ternion: Slot Overview

The word 'ternion', as defined by the Merriam-Webster dictionary, means 'a set or group of three', and Ternion, the online slot from Swedish games maker Play'n GO does indeed include a group of three things. In this case, it's three superheroes, apparently homegrown heroes by the looks, not obviously associated with Marvel, DC, or any other comic book creator. With little in the way of background info to work from, it appears we get an Ice Lady, a Blade Lady, and a Fire Man, something along those lines, at least. The gaming side is clearer. There, players can look out for three modifiers, one linked to each hero, plus Doomsday Free Spins where the modifiers are 'more powerful'.

Gotham, Metropolis, New York, the setting for Ternion is as murky as its back story, but it's somewhere urban, peppered with skyscrapers. We've either caught the game world on a bad weather day, as storm clouds build, about to unleash a torrent of water on the townsfolk, or… something more nefarious is brewing on the metaphorical horizon. The funny thing is, even after playing through both phases – base game and bonus round, it's not clear who the baddy is, or even if there is one. Maybe the heroes are eco-warriors? Maybe they're actually villains? So many questions.

To start answering them, players can elect to use a tablet, mobile, or desktop device and pick a stake of 20 p/c to $/€100 per spin. A highly volatile online slot, and one with wild mood swings, be on the lookout for a variety of RTP settings where the top value is in the area of 96.20%. On the mechanical side, a 5-reel, 4-row gaming panel hosts the action, with 20 paylines provided for landing winning combinations across.

For all pay symbol types, awards are made with win lines of three to five-of-a-kind in length. Hitting a full five-symbol win pays 1.5 to 2.5 times the stake when made up of 10-A pays or 5 to 50 times the bet for the crystal, ice lady, blade lady, and fire man symbols. The V/W-looking golden symbol is the wild, appearing on all reels. Wilds substitute for anything except the scatter, and winning wild lines have the same value as the male hero symbol.

Ternion: Slot Features

In some ways vaguely reminiscent of Moon Princess, the three heroes in Ternion have their own modifier, which can randomly trigger in the base game. These and their effects are:

• Ice Shards – ice creeps over random positions on the board, creating 3 to 10 wilds.
• Blade Flurry – removes all low-paying symbols from the reels, and high pays drop in to fill the gaps.
• Pillars of Flame – turns 1 to 4 reels fully wild.

Doomsday Free Spins

Another important symbol is the gold Rolex-looking scatter, present on all five reels. Hitting 3, 4, or 5 scatters in the base game awards 8, 10, or 14 Doomsday Free Spins, respectively. Potentially helping out triggering the bonus, perhaps, the Call For Heroes feature can go out in the base game, landing 2 scatters on the first two reels. While the bonus round is active, landing 3, 4, or 5 scatters tops you up with 4, 5, or 7 additional free spins, respectively. It is possible to win up to 38 free spins in total.

As mentioned before, in free spins, the three hero features are 'more powerful', and if wilds ever land on top of each other, the multiplier increases by +1. In addition, crystal symbols are collected when they land in free spins. For every 5 crystals collected, hero superpowers are awarded. The higher the level achieved, the more heroes are summoned at the same time.

Ternion: Slot Verdict

Ternion proved to be quite an elusive roller coaster of a ride to review. It certainly seemed to be temperamental. At some points, it did little more than act like Kryptonite to the balance; the next, it was firing off features like Cyclops removing his ruby quartz eyewear. There shouldn't be any need for players to don protective eyewear of their own should they decide to take Ternion for a spin, though. It's another good-looking slot from the Play'n GO team, full of attractive artwork, as well as three heroes with daytime tv good looks. The music wasn't always quite so stunning; in fact, during Doomsday Free Spins, the fast-paced yet tinny soundtrack kind of lowered the energy level rather than pump it.

However, there were times when the features stood up to fill in any audio-visual thrill-based shortfalls, though these moments could be few and far between. One of the standouts was hitting four fully wild reels courtesy of the fire guy's Pillars of Flame feature. Since they lit up the first four reels on the game board in this instance, the result wasn't too bad at all. Neither is Ternion's potential overall, actually, hitting the top of the scale at 11,111 times the bet. Why that rather specific number? Hard to say. Let's chalk it up to one of Ternion's mysteries.

By the end, Ternion had delivered a mix of ups and downs, generating a positive experience overall though not one which really hooked in deep. We could probably copy and paste this part, but it came across as one of those Play'n GO releases that was good, looks nice, and has interesting features, yet lacked a killer blow to push it over the top. Play'n GO is clearly good at what it does, but it feels as though the studio is content dropping above-average slots rather than really pushing itself to design something that creates a 'wow, what the fudge is this?' response. Perhaps more focus on quality over quantity would help.