Dark Vortex Introduction

It’s hard to know where to begin. When we finally got the chance to try Dark Vortex, we genuinely didn’t know what to expect. We hadn’t read anything about it beforehand, and once the game loaded, our eyes were darting around the screen trying to take in and make sense of everything we were seeing.

Still, it only took a few minutes to notice that Yggdrasil, seemingly taking inspiration from Big Time Gaming’s ‘Feature Drop’, had added a Buy-A-Bonus button. For a price of 80 times the stake, impatient players can jump straight into the free spins round, with the added perk of playing at a 97% RTP instead of the standard 96.5% RTP when the bonus is triggered in the usual way. We’re curious whether this is a one-off experiment or something Yggdrasil plans to roll out in future releases too.

Originally named Dark Portal, this 5-reel, win-all-ways slot comes with no paylines, so any cluster of three or more matching symbols pays – both ways! In the base game it provides 243 ways to win, but thanks to the Vortex Reels mechanic it can grow to 3125 win ways. Built for all devices, Dark Vortex lets you wager anywhere from €0.10 and €50 per spin, making it a fit for both smaller budgets and bigger bettors.

When it comes to visuals, Yggdrasil rarely disappoints, and this one is no exception. Dark Vortex features an eerie soundtrack and a striking reelset guarded by unsettling stone statues. Everything is tied together by a backdrop of rolling mist drifting through a deserted fortress. The atmosphere is spot on. Brilliant work from Yggdrasil.

Dark Vortex Paytable & Features

There are 10 regular symbols, 1 wild symbol, 2 orb symbols and 1 Vortex symbol. The five lower-value symbols are different spellbooks, while the higher-paying icons are monsters and other creatures. The Red Devil woman sits at the top of the paytable, awarding 6 times the stake for five of a kind.

The wild replaces all symbols except the Vortex (Scatter) and Orb symbols, and it only shows up during Vortex and Free Spins on reels 2, 3 and 4. The two Orb symbols are a key part of the gameplay, which we’ll cover below. And if you’re wondering what the Vortex is all about, that leads us neatly into the next part of the review.

Vortex Reels & Free Spins

In the base game, the key symbols to watch for are the Vortex symbols, or Scatter symbols if you prefer. You need 5 of them, one on each reel, to start Free Spins, but that’s not the whole story. Things get interesting even when you land 2 of them next to each other. This triggers 3 Vortex spins – a dark portal pulls the reels inward and expands them from 3 rows to 5, which naturally boosts the number of win ways. Every extra adjacent Vortex symbol grants another Vortex reel plus 2 extra spins. The Vortex reels stay open until all Vortex Spins are completed.

This is also the point where the orbs matter, since they only appear on Vortex reels and are used to power up the Vortex spins. Pink orbs increase the wild stack size and can only land on Vortex reels 1 and 5. Each pink orb collected adds 1 extra wild to the three middle reels. Blue orbs, meanwhile, boost the number of free spins and only appear on Vortex reels 2, 3 and 4. Each blue orb collected awards one additional free spin.

The free spins feature starts when you manage to open all 5 Vortex reels before you run out of Vortex spins. Vortex Free Spins use 5×5 reels and offer 3125 ways to win. The middle three reels contain stacked wilds, and these stacks grow by 1 wild for every Pink orb collected. The upside here is huge, with potential wins exceeding 7000 times the stake.

Dark Vortex Conclusion

This is a slot that could easily end up being Yggdrasil’s best release of the year. The high variance and excellent win potential are big draws for us, and it’s also a fresh, inventive game with top-tier presentation. While this review may make it sound complex, it really isn’t. It’s not the simplest slot out there, but it’s quick, engaging, and the mechanics start to click after a short time on the reels.

The Buy-A-Bonus feature was a major surprise and something we absolutely didn’t expect to see here. We’re not entirely sure how we feel about it from a responsible gaming perspective, but considering how successful it’s been for Big Time Gaming, it’s understandable that Yggdrasil would want to offer something similar.

All in all, Dark Vortex delivers everything we want from an online slot – creative features, gorgeous visuals, fluid gameplay, a strong paytable, and above all, serious potential. Just keep in mind that it’s a high variance game (7 out of 10 on Yggdrasil’s volatility index), so you should expect plenty of long quiet stretches before you hit any meaningful wins. That’s simply how this kind of slot plays.