Shimmering Woods

Enter an enchanted forest hiding some impressive gems, crystals sticking up from the ground, and a stunning prize of 25000x the stake!

Play'n Go software developers have decided to take their punters on a mystical adventure to nature in another online release from their Payways series!

Enjoy its Cascading Wins, Expanding Multipliers, Splitting Symbols, and a Free Spins round and experience all the charms of the Shimmering Woods!

Theme and Symbols

This jewel-themed online game is set in a captivating forest opening with a mystical landscape in the blurred background behind the reels, showing several trees, mushrooms, and shiny crystals in different colors sticking up from the ground!

The reels are wooden, with a couple of purple crystals sticking up from them, while across them, you will find some beautifully-designed icons, including playing card symbols from 10 to A and four gemstones in red, blue, green, and white, while...

...the blue gem with the 'W' on it is the Wild, and a big pink/purple gem represents the Scatter.

The spinning action is accompanied by a nice soundtrack and lots of sound effects complementing the overall atmosphere.

The game has been fully optimized for play on all types of devices, each capturing its innovative design and gameplay perfectly!

Betting Options and Other Functions

To enter this mystical forest, you do not need to set your bets, as you have all of the disposable options below the reels, so you can choose to bet from 0.2 to 100 credits, which comes as a nice option for high-risk punters!

This medium/high-volatile game is played across 5 reels and 3 rows while offering from 243 to 7776 ways to win.

The RTP changes depending on the market, going up to an average of 96.2%, while the maximum potential prize stands at 25000x the stake!

The playing card symbols are the lowest-rewarding symbols, while the most valuable is the white gem and the Wild symbol, rewarding up to 3x the stake for 5 of them in a combo!

Special Features

The Play'n Go team has decided to combine some popular bonuses you can find in their other online releases and create a pretty decent pack of features for this 5-reeled machine.

First, the Cascade system removes symbols from winning combos and replaces them with new ones, providing more chances of forming new wins!

Besides, with each consecutive cascade, you will also get an increasing multiplier, starting from x1!

But wait, there's more!

You can use the Splitting Symbols feature at the beginning of each spin when one randomly chosen standard symbol becomes the Splitting symbol.

When these symbols appear across the reels, they will spin into 2 and increase the number of ways to lead to 7776 ways to win in total!

Now, land three Scatter symbols on reels 1, 3, and 5, and you will trigger the Shimmer Free Spins feature!

But, before you are awarded the bonus spins, one of all of those Scatter symbols an also split, giving you up to 6 Scatters and depending on their number, you will get 10, 13, 16, or 19 free spins and +1, +2, +3, or +4 splitting symbols, respectively!

Whenever these chosen splitting symbols land, they always split into 2, while the win multiplier remains in use during the feature but still resetting between free spins.

You will also see all symbols displayed in the box since every additional splitting symbol is granted from retriggers, so land another 3 to 6 Scatters, and you will be awarded 3 to 12 extra spins with 1, 2, 3, or 4 extra Splitting Symbols.

Verdict

Shimmering Woods is a pretty decent addition to the Play'n GO slot portfolio, coming with an interesting theme, beautiful visuals, simple gameplay, and a great combination of bonus features they picked up from several of their previous releases!

Although the volatility is high and the RTP ranges could be a problem, the game's maximum potential of 25000x the stake is surely enough to make you try it out!