Elements: The Awakening slot review

By NetEnt

Elements: The Awakening Basic info

Game provider NetEnt

Release Date 1/2012

RTP 96.00%

Game Technology HTML5

Popularity Medium

Min bet $0.20

Max bet $100

Max Win bet x 1500

Gamble Feature Cascading reels, Walking wilds, Sticky wilds, Stacked wilds, Freespins

Layout 5x3

Devices Support all devices

Configurable Winlines No

Volatility Low

Progressive Jackpot No

Players who like the esoteric end of things will enjoy the amazing Elements: The Awakening by NetEnt. The game was released in 2012 and raised the bar in terms of the visual quality of online slots.

Players can discover an amazing adventure on five reels and 20 paylines that can post cascading wins and a payout potential of up to 30,000x.

I find the game nothing short of amazing and this isn’t only because of the visuals. Both the base game and the bonus feature are quite in line with the low to medium variance, making Elements a memorable game.

Theme and Graphics

Both the theme and graphic design are unique and mimicked in releases by other companies. The setting is the aether, where the player spins the reels in order to materialize a number of elements and elemental entities that feed on their energy.

The elementals are alive and curious about the world about them and essentially represent water, earth, air and fire. Winning outcomes cause these symbols to vapourize, but they come back around alive and well with the coming cascade.

Extra Features

Elements: The Awakening doesn’t differ substantially from other NetEnt games, in that it has few extra features that fit the gameplay perfectly.

  • Wild

    The game has a wild, as most slots do, however, the space Rubik appears as stacked wild during the free spins bonus. Wilds appear on all reels, except the first and substitute for all symbols in the base game and in the bonus.

  • Free Falls

    The payout mechanism on the Elements slot is cascading wins and the bonus feature is triggered when there have been four consecutive winning outcomes resulting from the same bet. The bonus starts with ten free falls.

    The spin button is flanked by four pyramids which are indicators on the avalanche (cascade) meter. These keep track of the type of a winning symbol in the concurrent cascade win.

    So, for example, if the stronger winning outcome on the first cascade consists of the fire symbol, the meter will show orange. Each of the symbols can be identified by the colours blue, purple, green and orange.

  • Storm Wilds

    This element of the game is part of the Free Falls bonus. Each bonus is primed with a supercharged wild capacity: Water, Wind, Earth and Fire Storm Wild.

    Water Storm Wilds appear on the three middle reels as stacked wilds.

    Air Storm Wilds are added at the start in two random positions on the reel-set and remain sticky for the ten falls. Each fall causes the wilds to move to an adjacent position.

    Earth Storm Wilds appear in the three middle reels. When they do, the wilds remain on the reels until there’s been a winning outcome, or for the duration of three falls.

    Fire Storm Wilds appear on the three middle reels, but they can expand to cover reels one and five also. Each wild that appears on the reel can expand in any direction to transform two random adjacent symbols into wilds.

Even though the capacity of each wild symbol is determined by the element, and these vary in terms of value, I find the Storm Wilds to be equally balanced. So an Air Storm Wild feature may not necessarily produce weaker outcomes compared to the Fire Storm Wild.

Bets and Payouts

Bets can be set by selecting the Coin Value amount and the bet level. Coin values range between one penny and 50p. The amount is multiplied by the Bet level to provide the total bet per spin.

The Level setting has values between one and ten, which are multipliers on the bet amount. For example, setting the coin value to one penny to the fifth level results in a total bet of $1.00 per spin.

In terms of payouts, I find two completely different extremes on the paytable, and this is one of the details that I really like about Elements.

For example, the minor symbols can pay between 3x and 5x for three of a kind, however, getting five matching symbols to land on a payline results in prizes between 50x and 100x.

The high paying symbols can pay prizes that are significantly higher. Most lucrative prizes are made with five of a kind. The water element pays 300x, wind pays 500x, earth 750x and fire the game’s highest prize of 1500x.

All winning outcomes are annotated in the bar at the bottom so that players can see the total win following the cascades.

Conclusion

Elements: The Awakening is one of the most fascinating games dating in 2012. I love the gameplay and the features, especially the fact that back then slots weren’t all high variance. So whoever is enthusiastic about a great slots experience and the possibility to win moderate prizes, relative to the bet, Elements is the game to play.

Leticia Miranda

Leticia Miranda

Slot Games Analyst

Leticia Miranda is a former gambling reporter who knows everything about slot games and is happy to share her knowledge. She has covered a broad swath of topics and trends on gambling and is always full of new ideas and energy. Leticia also has a master’s degree in journalism from New York University and is passionate about writing.