Private Eye is an excellent Microgaming slot machine, one of their more modern and better looking titles. Designed around a story with a private eye that’s trying to solve a murder, the story has everything you could want. There are mobsters, beautiful women, guns and everything is retro, the action taking place sometime between the two world wars. Add the ways to win and the engaging features which are introduced in it, and you get one of the better slots that have come out from Microgaming.
There are a lot of so called paylines in Private Eye, as it uses the ways to win system, with 243 being available. Top payouts of $2,500 and free spins, wilds, multipliers and scatters are all part of the game.
Features of Private Eye
The game’s ways to win system changes how it’s played already, but it’s not the only thing you should be expecting. There are bonus games offered, scatter symbols, free spins, wilds and multipliers.
First, let’s take a look at the ways to win, a system which replaces regular paylines, and which seems to be quite common in newer slot machines. Instead of offering a fixed number of lines, which are predetermined, the game looks at the symbols which are on neighboring reels, going from left to right, and forms combinations out of them. That’s why the game can offer you so many ways to win, because everything is simpler and the constraints of the old paylines are gone.
The wild symbol is represented by the Private Eye Badge. You’re going to take advantage of this feature quite often, as it has the power to take the place of a regular symbol. In order to do that, the wild needs to appear in the exact location where the regular symbol is needed, and it helps you only if that results in a new combo. The wild can also create its own combos, of 3 to 5 symbols, paying between 100x and 1,000x.
The Private Eye is the scatter symbol, but one that has only the role of a prize trigger. It doesn’t bring you other features, but it will offer a payout of 2x to 100x the triggering wager, whenever you have between three and five present.
Free Games Feature
The Newspaper Boy is the second scatter symbol, and the one that you can count on to get the free spins activated. Whenever you have the three Newspaper Boy scatters on the reels 3, 4 and 5, you get a feature which allows you to win free spins.
You have a total of 3 picks on the new screen, and they will bring you up to 20 free games, plus multipliers of up to 4x and a bonus prize.
Solve the Case Bonus Game
The Bonus symbol is marked as such and it has a few Top Secret files behind the logo. It’s going to appear on the reels 1, 2 and 3. Get it on all three, and you enter the bonus game. In this bonus feature, you will make picks from the objects found on the table, until you hear that the phone starts ringing. If you locate a fingerprint, the bonus game goes to the next level, called Mugshot Bonus, plus you win all the prizes.
Mugshot Bonus Game
The only way to get into this level is to find a fingerprint in the Solve the Case feature. You have a simple board with five mugshots on it, and you have to pick one of them. You get a cash prize once the feature is over.
Betting options and jackpots
You can use anywhere between 1 and 10 coins per line, but only for the lines you want active. You also pick the coin’s denomination, the value being between $0.01 and $0.25. You end up with $2.50 line wagers and $62.50 total wagers.
With the wild helping you, the top reward multiplies the line bet by 1,000x. That’s a maximum of 10,000 coins which can be won, and they’re worth up to $2,500.
Design and symbols
It looks like a recent addition to Microgaming’s collection of slots, as the quality is one of the best they’ve put out. There are themed symbols only, and they all have a retro inspiration that I for one enjoyed. A simple desk is used in the background, while on the reels you see things like old cars, newspaper boys, mugshots, handcuffs, old guns and some of the first portable cameras.
Symbols: Private Eye Badge (1,000x, wild), Private Eye (100x bet, scatter), Newspaper Boy (scatter), Top Secret Files (bonus), Girl (500x), Mugshot (400x), Money (300x), Car (200x), Crime Scene (100x), Revolver (80x), Camera (70x), Telephone (60x) and Handcuffs (50x).
Is It Worth Playing?
There are plenty of reasons to like this game. It has a beautiful design, it has ways to win instead of paylines, plus its features can be a lot of fun.
You will find Private Eye at any online casino which chooses to use software from Microgaming, playable either for free or for real money.
