3Oaks are basically the undisputed masters of the Hold and Win genre, with only Playson running them close in that niche. With Rio Gems, we’re getting yet another Hold and Win slot added to our Hold and Win catalog, and the action takes place on a rather standard playing field with5 reels, 3 rows and 25 winlines.
Visually, the Rio Gems slot mixes the classic gems theme with some carnival motifs, and it works fairly well as a whole. Some of the symbols are even animated, which is a nice touch, and the graphics aremore colorfulthan what we usually get to see. It’s pleasant, no doubt, but perhaps a bit unexciting.
The math model of Rio Gems ishighly volatile, but the top Royal jackpot is worth as much as10,000xyour bet. The least that you can play for is then£0.25, while the slot’s max bet stands at£25per round. Unfortunately, the theoretical RTP of Rio Gems is a bit on the lower side, clocking in at just95.69%.
There are 8 pay symbols in Rio Gems, split evenly into 4 low pays and 4 high pays. For low pays, there are your basic card ranks from Jacks to Aces, and they all pay 2x your bet for a five-of-a-kind combination. For high pays, on the other hand, there are gorgeous carnival dancers, the top-paying of which pays out10xyour bet for a full set.
You can also look forward to 3 types of special symbols -Wilds, Scatters and Diamond symbols. Wilds can substitute for any of the pay symbols in combinations, and they also pay 12x your bet in a full set. Scatters, meanwhile, are there to trigger the Free Spins feature, while Diamond symbols can get you to the Hold and Win feature.
Landing 3 Scatters on the playing field triggersthe Free Spins featurewith a set of 8 free spins. You can then land 3 Scatters during a free spin to add 8 more free spins to the tally, but the even more important bit is that there areno low pays on the reels during the Free Spins feature.
To get tothe Hold and Win feature, you have to find at least 6 Diamond symbols in view. You’ll get 3 respins to work with at the start, and it all works as you’d expect. Each new Diamond symbol that lands resets the respins tally back to 3, and your goal is to fill the entire board with Diamond symbols before running out of respins.
To spice things up, you can land Super Diamond symbols and get tothe Super Hold and Win mode, which comes with more valuable Diamond symbols. These symbols can appear only on reel 5 during the base game and during free spins, but they can land anywhere on the board during Hold and Win respins.
Mystery Diamond symbolscan also appear at random and transform into Diamond Jackpot symbols or Super Diamond symbols. Diamond Jackpot symbols can also land naturally, though, and there are four of them in total. The jackpots are called Mini, Minor, Major, and Grand, and they are worth20x, 50x, 150x, and 2,000xyour bet, respectively.
To winthe Royal jackpot, which is worth 10,000x your bet, you have to fill the entire board with symbols before your respins tally drops to 0.
To sum things up, Rio Gems isa fancy Hold and Win slotfrom 3Oaks that adds some nice bits to the basic Hold and Win formula. There are quite a few jackpots, for one, and you can also get free spins without low pays on the reels. It’s a shame, then, that its theoretical RTP is below average.
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