Risk Free Gambling
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Westopia Review ; by ; Hannibal.
Gambling is bad kids. Don’t get hooked on gambling. But on the other hand here is a gambling game.
I realized recently that I have reviewed far more IOS games than PC games. I have a folder on my phone full of games I have played to review for the blog. I am wondering if I should go back and see what I wrote about all of these games and do a looking back to see how many of them I kept playing after the fact. But the truth is the only ones are dice world and Crafting kingdom so that article I guess just got written.
Right…back to the point. Today we are talking about Westopia. This is from the creators of fruitpot, a game I reviewed several years ago. This game was suggested to me by Alicia and it sounds like fun so I thought I would check it out.
Info
Title: Westopia.
Released: 2021?
Platform: IOS.
Publisher:
What Is a Slot Machine
Some people asked me last time I reviewed one of these games what a slot machine was.
A slot machine goes by several different names. these include slot machine, Fruit Machine, Video Slots, Poker Machine, Pokies and 1 armed bandit.
While modern slot machines are much more complicated the basic idea is this.
You put money in and you pull a handle or press a button to spin the reels. each reel has a hole lot of symbols on it.
Modern ones will have 5 or more reels and the idea is to get 3 or more of the same symbol across the reels.
They can also put up more than 1 symbol on each reel. This means you can have multiple lines of symbols.
The Game
You start out with a single area called the prairie. As you progress through the game you unlock more areas such as the ranch and the forest. Within each of these areas you can construct various buildings which again you unlock as you progress.
These buildings are actually slot machines. So you are progressing through the game by playing the different machines. You can also have your building / slot machines damaged by different disasters and have to pay to fix them.
As you unlock machines and win jackpots people will come to your little town? village? area? I don’t know what it is. The aim of the game is to unlock machines and get people to your place. people come as your money goes up and you unlock things, but they leave if your stuff is damaged by the different disasters.
They use a weird name for money in this game so I am just going to use the word coin.
So lets talk about the slots.
The Slot Machines
When it comes to accessible slot machine games there usually isn’t much to it. 3 symbols come up, get 2 or 3 of a kind and either get money back or win.
So when I opened this game, started playing and the first machine was exactly that…I was concerned, but this game slowly builds up.
Not only does the number of reels increase with some machines having up to 6 instead of 3. Some also have reels with Multiple symbols. This means pay outs can vary more. different numbers of symbols, lots of different symbols and lots of bonuses. The variation on the slot machines make this far more interesting than your standard 3 reel bullshit.
As you unlock machines you can raise the amount you are betting. Standard is 1 and if you choose you can just keep betting that amount. However you have the option to bet more on higher machines.
Several bonuses can be collected on the reels which can help you as you play.
Free spin: Does what it says, a spin that doesn’t cost you anything. As you get better slot machines (which offer the chance to bet higher amounts of coins) you can also get free spins of the higher amounts.
Nudge: This allows you to nudge a reel, and change what symbols are showing. this can be handy if you have 2 or more of the same symbol and are going for a jackpot.
Hold: this allows you to hold a reel keeping the symbols while spinning the rest of them.
All of this combined’s to make these the most interesting Accessible slot machines I personally have played.
What you need to do on each machine also does change. In some cases you just need to collect jackpots. That just means getting 3, 4, 5 or 6 of the same symbol depending on how many reels you have. you will fill a percentage at the top and once it gets to 100 you get a bunch of coins and may unlock something new.
On others you may need to collect specific symbols. For example you might need to get 3 boots and 3 hats. it will tell you at the top which symbols you are trying to collect.
Disasters and badges
As you play different disasters can happen to damage your machines. These can be things like bandit attacks, fires and I am sure lots of other things. Some are natural but others can happen if you spin a set of bad symbols on certain machines. If this happens you have to pay out coins to repair the damage.
The other option is to use a badge to avoid disaster. This can be something like using a badge to send fire fighters to save the machine before fire takes hold. Badges can be gained by completing goals on the different machines. I believe you can also get them as a daily gift but don’t quote me on that. you can also get badges from the bonus games.
If you aren’t sure if you have any damaged machines the new tab at the bottom can tell you if anything has happened. it will also tell you what the chance of a natural disaster happening is.
Controls and bonus games
the controls are pretty simple.
Double tap on things to make them work.
That is pretty much it. the lay out is super simple so even those out there currently wearing padded helmets will manage.
You will also find a few bonus games. these might come up randomly, there are also some you can play with tokens. you get these for completing certain things or as daily gifts.
These can also get you badges.
These are not super interesting but can be helpful.
Final Thoughts and rating
You might be forgiven at this point for thinking I like this game.
I honestly want to say that I did. The slots are far more interesting than I have ever seen in an accessible game. Add in that there is more than just slots, and it really could be a good game…it could be but it falls short in a very big way.
The idea of slot machines is that you are gambling. At no point did I ever feel like I was at risk of losing anything. You are offering up a single coin but it is spitting hundreds back at you when you win.
sure the disasters can make costs for repairs to deal with. and building new machines cost money. But again when you are playing slots you are meant to feel like it is a gamble. For me it just felt like I was pressing a button to get money so I can spend said money to just do the same thing.
However I will say it is the best designed accessible slots game and everything works well. It is just the lack of any real risk in a gambling game that makes it boring.
Functionally I would give this an 8.5 out of 10, but personally I would give it a 4 out of 10. So I will split the difference and say 6.5 out of 10.
If you like the idea of always winning play this. Other wise maybe play something else.
Conclusion
Have you played this? Let me know what you thought.
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