Crown Gems by Barcrest Review
With Crown Gems, Barcrest doesn’t exactly have an impressive game for us to play, but this release of theirs does have its advantages and it should give you enough to at least make you curious. Things like the wins that pay adjacent, or the 5,000x top jackpot, are excellent reasons to try it out, even as the gem themed design doesn’t do much to attract you.
As for the game area, it involves 10 lines over 5 reels most of the time, but with Big Bet Spins allowing for up to 50 lines to be used. The All Wins Pay Adjacent mechanic is important, and the best winning combinations formed can pay $250,000 in a single spin.
Betting
The regular way to play this game is with 10 active lines, and with the stake per line being the only one that the player decides on. You can have it at $0.01 when it’s set to its lowest, or to as much as $50 when it’s at the maximum level. For that kind of stake per line, you get a betting range of $0.10 to $500.
Big Bet Spins: these are options that allow you to pay a fixed amount, in exchange for a fixed number of spins with a bigger number of active lines. It’s the way I’d recommend you play this game, since the RTP goes up a bit as well when you use this mode. The options are for using bets of $20, $30, $40 or $50. What you get in exchange is 5 Big Bet Spins, with the number of active lines at 20, 30, 40 or 50, respectively. It’s a much more exciting way to play this game, since wins come more often.
Crown Gems Jackpot
As you will discover in the paytable area yourself, the game has a top paying combination which offers you 5,000 coins. Given the type of line stake that is possible, of up to $50, you could win up to $250,000 in a single round. This is actually the maximum amount that the slot will pay, so getting two wins of that value in a single round will not do anything for you.
The game’s minimum RTP is at 95.05%, which is not that great, but typical for a Barcrest release. It gets better if you play in the Big Bet Spins mode, as the RTP is expected to be 96.08% for those rounds. As such, I’d recommend sticking with the Big Bet option, if you plan on spending a longer amount of time playing Crown Gems.
Special Features
The presence of the Big Bet Spins might suggest additional features, but this option is not used here as it is in other slot machines that rely on it. Feature wise, you’re not going to get much from Crown Gems, it’s actually a very simple slot machine for the most part.
All Wins Pay Adjacent: this is one of the elements of note in the game, which is basically telling us that winning combinations will form with 3 or more symbols, but without being required to start from the leftmost position on a line. You can get a win from 3+ symbols appearing in the middle of the line, or touching the right side. It gives you a lot more wins in the long run, obviously.
Design
It’s a simple theme, revolving around a king’s crown and various gemstones, while the low paying symbols will get colorful Royals. It’s on the simple side, and not that attractive for an online slot machine, but it’s in line with the simple nature of the rest of the game. If you need something pretty to look at while you’re playing a slot machine for longer periods of time, then I definitely wouldn’t recommend Crown Gems to you.
Summary
Crown Gems will present you with a very simple game, but thanks to the Big Bet option you’re getting a decent RTP out of it. Fans of less complex slot machines should find something they like in it.
