Here is a game developed by less known gaming studio – Rabcat. Don’t get us wrong though, more often than not, it’s the smaller studios that end up making the most imaginative slots. Unlike the bigger guys, they are not bound by strict guidelines. These guys have nothing to lose, and to take on the likes of NetEnt or Microgaming, their games has to be ‘out of the world’ good. Gnome Wood is a beautiful game developed for that reason. The gameplay is flawless throughout, and somehow, Rabcat has re-imagined how Wild symbols can work differently in a game. Will this game mark the rise of Rabcat?
Game Basics
Powered by Rabcat, the Gnome Wood slot is a five reel games that is paired with 20 paylines. As you enter the magical forest in this game, you will be greeted by a variety of enchanted trees, statues and toadstools. On your reels, you will come across symbols made after magical books, runes and even some cauldrons. The symbol that you should be looking out for is the gnome animal which will pay you ten times your spin wager when you get five of it in a winning payline.
This slot accepts wagers starting from 25p all the way up to £50 per spin. That said, we believe that this range is wide enough to accommodate both casual players and slots aficionados. You will be glad to know that payout frequencies and sizes are consistent throughout the game, exhibiting a medium variance payout pattern. The Return to Player (RTP) rate also stands at a healthy 96.2%, ensuring that you will not be breaking the bank to play this slot.
Bonus Features
Rabcat Gaming has designed Gnome Wood with three bonus features. For starters, there are the Wilds. Best part is, the Wilds in this game are not normal ones either; they are called Walking Wilds. These magical Wilds come in the form of the blue rune symbol, and will replace all other symbols on your reels to complete winning paylines.
Whenever they land on your reels, they will walk one reel left, and while they do so, you will be rewarded a free re-spin. Hopefully, all the Wilds you get land on your fifth reel as you will be getting five free re-spins as they walk left until they leave your reels. If you are really lucky, you may be get more than one Wild on your reels and as a result get additional free re-spins to play with. To top it off, some Wilds may come with a 2x win multiplier to help boost your winnings.
The second bonus feature in this game are the extra spins. To trigger this feature, you will need a minimum of three scatter symbols in the form of the golden coin with a Gnome face. Having done that, you will be awarded 10 extra spins and transported to a different landscape to play your extra spins. Thankfully, the Walking Wilds come by more often during the extra spin rounds significantly improving your wins from this feature. It is also possible to get additional extra spins if you get more scatters during your extra spin rounds.
Last but not least, comes the Gamble feature. After every win, you will have the chance to choose between the gold and bronze pot. Choose correctly and your wins will be instantly doubled. Else, you lose your winnings. Of course, you can choose for yourself whether or not to participate in this feature.
How Does The Game Perform?
As far as stunning games go, Gnome Wood is definitely up there. In fact, we did dare say that if Rabcat keeps up with the effort, studios like NetEnt or even Yggdrasil who are known for their artistic prowess will have something to worry about. The magical theme has been executed perfectly and the Walking Wilds simply sealed the deal. From our experience playing Gnome Wood, gameplay was smooth all the way without any issues.
The only slight improvement this game may need is a bit more mobile optimisation for a better mobile experience. Otherwise, we loved every bit of Gnome Wood.
The Feature That You Should Look Out For
The Walking Wilds paired with the free re-spins works wonders with this slot. In a way, Rabcat has opened the possibility of Wilds being used in many different ways in a game. Trust us, all you have to do is get a couple of wilds on your high reels every now and then, and you will realize that all the free re-spins start to add up.
Don’t be surprised if you end up with more free re-spins that actual extra spins.
And Finally…
Rabcat Gaming is a slot developer that everyone should have a look out for in the future. After experiencing Gnome Wood and Castle Builder by them, we have to say that we are impressed on how amazing their games are. We hope to see Rabcat keep on innovating on every aspect of a slot game to push the industry forward and offer players stunning games. For now, we are just going to enjoy the generous amounts of Walking Wilds and win multipliers thrown our way in Gnome Wood.
