Bally’s own luxury themed slot machine, Shadow Diamond certainly has the look and the design down, and in many ways it’s going to be an improvement over other games that this developer has released.
Getting back to what’s being offered, Shadow Diamond will have 40 active lines that will be usable over 5 reels. Rewards of up to $10,000 can be obtained from each high paying combination that is formed, with other features included being the Super Stacks, free games, scatters and wild symbols.
Betting
A wager placed in Shadow Diamond will involve all the lines that the game has, but the player can change the line bet as he pleases, and that’s the way to take the wager from the minimum of $0.40, to a maximum of $400. There will be a line bet of $0.01 to $10 to go with that betting range.
Shadow Diamond Jackpot
While individual winning combinations might not pay all that much, offering 1,000x each one, or up to $10,000, there is always the possibility of getting several at a time, especially since the game includes a Super Stacks option that can help with that. The highest paying potential of the game is $400,000 for a single spin.
RTP wise, it’s as average as the majority of the Bally slot machines I’ve seen so far, and while I know that there are several that are at 96%, the majority will be like this one, at a 94% payout percentage.
Special Features
I wasn’t very impressed with the features of Shadow Diamond, at least with the regular ones, which we know so well from other slots. The Super Stacks do make a difference though, and should help turn this slot into something interesting.
Wild Symbols
You’re going to encounter the Shadow Diamond logo inside, and whenever you do, there is a good chance that you’re going to get paid in some way. While it’s not guaranteed, if this symbol happens to land next to a couple of matching symbols, it takes their role and substitutes for the missing symbol that would’ve been needed on that line. It’s even better if you manage to get up to five wilds form a combo on their own, as the 1,000x top payout of the game comes as a result of that.
Super Stacks
This is a feature that involves mystery symbols, and they obviously arrive stacked. Whenever they appear, they are replaced with a random symbol, before the spin is initiated. You could get wilds, scatters or regular symbols to come in super stacked. In fact, the Super Stacks are the only ones that can give you Diamond scatters, and only on the middle reels. These Super Stacks play a big role and give you a better chance to fill up the reels with matching symbols.
Free Games
To get to this stage of the game, you need a full stack of Diamond icons appearing on one of the middle three reels. When it happens, 7 free spins will be triggered. At the start, you choose a Diamond icon, to reveal one of the high paying symbols. That symbol will appear in the place of the mystery positions, for the entire duration of the free spins. You no longer get scatters once you get inside, so there is no way for you to re-trigger the free games.
Design
Part of Shadow Diamond’s appeal is going to come from its diamond/gemstone inspired symbols, but there is also a luxury inspired side to it as well. You can see it in the images of the two nicely dressed people that are present as symbols, in the diamond necklaces, diamond rings or diamond watches that also show up. The other six symbols range from diamond scatters, to regular low paying icons with rubies, sapphires, emeralds and so on.
Summary
With a better than average design for Bally, Shadow Diamond also uses Super Stacks to make its action interesting to players, but it keeps the same below average RTP as most of the other slots coming from this developer.
