Black Gold’s action revolves around oil extraction and around the Texas land owners that got rich in the past thanks to it. It feels like a Texas game because of all the oil rigs combined with a bit of a wild west theme, with horses and riders with large hats being placed alongside the petrol extraction graphics. You can see the oil rigs both in the distance and nearby the reels. It’s one of BetSoft’s better looking slot machines, but that’s not unusual for them, not since they launched the 3D Slots line.
Black Gold offers us up to 30 bet lines, all on the same 5 reels. The $5,000 jackpot is a good enough reason to play the game, especially with so many lines available, but they’ve also added a decent range of features on top. You get access to the usual scatter and wild symbols, to free games, multipliers and bonus rounds.
Features of Black Gold
When it comes to features, the game has something for everyone. The bonus game is directly related to oil extraction, plus you find inside all the big features that modern games tend to have. They usually don’t have so many different ones in the same place, so this makes Black Gold a special title.
Drilling for Oil Click Me
The Drill symbol, made out of metal and sticking out of the ground, acts as one of the scatter features offered in Black Gold. You can get it anywhere in the game, and it can do its job as long as at least three are present at the same time. If that happens, you get a click me game, where you choose one of the drills and you get a prize from it.
Nighttime Free Spins Mode
The Barn is another symbol with scatter abilities, placed in the game for the purpose of getting free spins started, and nothing else. The free games will start once you get a minimum of three Barns on the reels.
For the duration of these free games, the Barn acts as a wild instead of a scatter symbol. It has a multiplier that keeps going up each time the wild manages to help form a new combo. It starts at 1x and goes up to 10x, so it’s a great wild symbol to have around. Too bad the base game doesn’t get its help.
Higher or Lower Bonus Round
The Oil Pump is the one that gets this particular bonus game started. Only three of these symbols are needed to start the Higher or Lower bonus game. The game is not innovative, but since it’s bringing prizes, I’m not complaining. You have to guess if the number that follows is lower or higher than the last one. Once you get four hits or four misses, the bonus game ends and you get your prize.
Center Reel Respins
This is one of those features that is there just to improve your odds of making good money, and I love it. Whenever a winning combo is formed in the game, you get the usual winnings, after which you will notice that the 3rd reel respins and gets you a new set of symbols. You will find a multiplier in the top right corner, that goes from 1x to 5x. That multiplier goes up with each additional respin and these keep going for as long as you get new winning combinations with its help.
Betting options and jackpots
Despite the generous list of features and multipliers, the game only asks for a maximum bet of $75. It’s composed of 150 coins, with 5 used for each payline and with denominations of $0.50. The lowest setting is 1 coin per line, if the line is selected, with the denomination at $0.02.
I’ve mentioned before that there is a $5,000 jackpot offered in Black Gold, but let’s see how you can get it. The regular top payout is only worth 2,000 coins, or $1,000. You can get it to $5,000 with the help of the 5x multiplier offered through the center reel respins.
Design and symbols
Black Gold might be oil themed, but it has a bit of a Wild West feel to it, with the old man on the horse having a lot to do with it. You get plenty of clues on how profitable oil drilling is, but for the most part you’re going to find here a game that really does focus on drilling for petrol. It looks as good as any of the other 3D Slots from Betsoft, and I would recommend you try this one out as well.
Symbols: Oil Pump (scatter), Barn (scatter), Drill (scatter), Old Man (400x), Horse (200x), Oil Barrels (100x), Hat and Cash (80x), Oil Dripping (60x), Valve (50x), Horns (25x) and Private Property Sign (10x).
Is It Worth Playing?
I love the multipliers offered in this game, with wilds giving you up to 10x during free spins, while the base game gets up to 5x. Add to them the rest of the features and the pretty graphics, and you get a winner.
Black Gold can be found at any BetSoft casino, where you get a chance to play it for real money or in free mode.
