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Microgaming’s new partner, Snowborn Games, has developed its first slot to be released under the Microgaming portfolio: The Vault. Snowborn Games is based in Stockholm and Helsinki and is made up of a team of experienced and passionate online gaming professionals. The studio’s first slot, The Vault, is a 5-reel, 20-payline slot that’s loaded with intense graphics and has multiple features like multiple wilds, respins, and free spins.
Slot Specs
The Vault is a 5-reel, 3-row, 20-payline slot that is playable on all devices. The game has quite a backstory. Jewel, a diamond thief, is on a mission to steal “The Pink Dawn,” the world’s largest diamond, which is housed in Paris. The diamond is protected by cutting-edge technology, and the game's background includes a laser-filled room that Jewel presumably needs to cut through to get to the diamond.
Bets range between .20 to 20, the RTP is a solid 96 percent, and the hit rate is 19.97 percent. While the numbers seem somewhat gentle, the slot is actually highly volatile.
Symbols include lower-paying 10, J, Q, K, and A royals and higher-paying gold bars, a diamond case, jewel, and the pink diamond itself. The latter, of course, is the highest-paying symbols and awards 100x the stake when 5 land in combination. The wild also pays the same amount for 5 of a kind.
Respins
When 2 or more bonus symbols land on the reels, the Respins feature is triggered. The bonus symbols remain locked in place as the reels spin, and if additional bonus symbols land, players win more respins. The round goes on until no bonus symbols land or until the Vault Bonus is triggered.
The Vault Bonus
The Vault Bonus can be triggered from the Respins round or from the base game when 5 scatters land in view. Players then get 10 free spins along with a 3x multiplier, which increases by 1x every time a x1 symbol lands. There is also a +1 symbol that awards additional free spins, and there is no limit to how many free spins a player can get. During this round, a second wild appears and completely covers the middle reel.
Bottom Line
Snowborn's The Vault offers a sleek design and intriguing backstory, and the features are designed to keep the game interesting. The only touchy aspect of the game is that it is high volatility with a relatively small betting range and a maximum payout of 5000x the initial bet. Not the best combination. Still, Microgaming’s new partner seems to have a lot of potential. If it can continue churning out the high-quality graphics featured in The Vault and make the volatility a little lower, it will indeed be a developer to follow.
