Russia Slot
For years Eastern Europe was in the doldrums as far as online casino gaming was concerned, as the development scene was pretty much non-existent. In recent years that seems to have all changed, as on Russian shores at least there has been an online slots resurgence.
Standing at the forefront of this boom is Drive Media, who are attempting to get on the map by having one of the most active production lines in the industry to date.
While not all games from the brand have hit the mark, they’ve shown that they do have plenty of creativity to go around. With Russia, the brand’s latest release, it appears that Drive Media is channelling the spirit of its motherland.
Russia is a title that clearly places heavy focus on classic slots play, but is that enough to secure this game an audience? The following review tells the true story of this Eastern European slots experience!
Channelling the spirit of St. Petersburg
The design of Russia happens to be a tale of two approaches. First, we must say that the “real word” slot machine look is something we are really growing tired off. We don’t know why developers have this rigid fascination with it, but in games like Russia it just doesn’t work. On the flip side, the actual theme of Russia looks great, as it presents a classic St. Petersburg’s landscape as a backdrop.
Veering away from the theme, you’ll find that the symbols of Russia offer up real old school flavour, even if they do appear a touch flat in places. On the reels you’ll see Matryoshka dolls, accordions, and Russian bears, this all features among a selection of redesigned low value symbols.
When you create a game based around a set country or nation, it’s easy to fall into the trap of rolling out cheap clichés. Thankfully, Drive Media has been able to sidestep this with Russia, as the game looks pretty pleasant to the naked eye.
Braving the cold front
Russia may look pretty good, but sadly the gameplay here really isn’t up to much. It’s a largely basic affair as a result, with minimum and maximum bets coming in at 9.00 and 450.00 respectively. Russia features 9 paylines across its 5 reels, but arguably it could have done a little much more when it comes to action, even if they game is of a low to medium variance.
Russia has a theme that is large in scope, so it’s disappointing to see Drive Media play it so safe when it comes to gameplay. This represented a great chance for the developer to present something different, but it’s chance that they’ve baulked at it.
Kicking things up a notch
In the special features department, Drive Media has kicked things up a notch ever so slightly with Russia. While there is still no dedicated bonus game, they have raised the number free spins available within the game from 10 to 15. It’s not a huge difference, but it does give the scatter symbols here a little extra weight.
Accompanying the scatter symbols in Russia is the bear wild, this symbol pretty much acts as standard, as it links players to an instant payout.
Button mashing madness
If you’ve a played a ‘classic’ Drive Media game in the past, the control panel used in Russia will be very familiar. Representing the types of buttons you would see on a real life slot machine, through ‘Start’, ‘Max Bet’, ‘Bet One’, ‘Hold’, ‘Info’, ‘Full Screen’, ‘Select Game’, and ‘Auto Start’ you can tweak Russia as you please.
From Russia with love!
Russia is actually a pleasantly surprising slots title, as while it slipped under the radar upon its debut, it has since gone on to defy critic’s expectations. Speaking with honesty, what Russia presents is far from revolutionary, but what it does bring to the table is plenty of Eastern European charm.
If you’re in a bind and need a snappy online slot game fix, take a look at Russia by Drive Media, odds are it’ll deliver exactly what you’re looking for!
