Feel more comfortable sleeping with the hall light on because you suffer from nyctophobia? If that’s the case, Hacksaw Gaming’s Fear the Dark slot machine probably isn’t the best choice for passing the time during a storm. However, Hacksaw Gaming’s Pocketz Series of slots, of which Fear the Dark is a part, have been attractive, upbeat games so far, albeit they aren’t without the propensity to bite. Or, in Fear the Dark’s case, to frighten, all set alongside bonuses like Full Moon multipliers, Alone in the Dark free spins, and… Darkness Spins.
Fear the Dark, on the other hand, is terrifying in the vein of a classic Disney animated feature. That is to say, it’s not scary in the slightest, especially when compared to Hacksaw Gaming’s Hand of Anubis. The majority of the background is black and white, depicting a graveyard with prickly fences, bare trees, and tombstones on a gloomy night. The ethereal green ghosts float by frequently, and the tinny, offbeat sound effects are excellent. Not too scary, but a fun little’spooky’ Pocketz slot to play on your phone.
Fear the Dark is a Pocketz slot machine, although it can be played on any device with a minimum wager of 10p and a maximum stake of £/€100. A win is triggered in this 6×6 gaming grid slot machine when 5 identical symbols appear next to each other in either a horizontal or vertical line. Multiple wins can occur after a single spin because to the disappearing symbols and falling replacements. Highest regular RTP is 96.25 percent, calculated using a math model rated 3 on a scale from 1 to 5 for volatility.
One may describe the rewards system in Fear the Dark as cute and little eerie. The high-paying symbols include a ghost, green head, pig, clown, and zombie, while the low-paying ones are five black and white steps, a tombstone, a cup, a cube, and a cross. A victory with five of a kind pays anywhere from 0.1 to 1.5 times the wager, while a win with 14 or more of a kind pays anywhere from 12.8 to 120 times the wager. Maybe the wild sign for Fear the Dark ran away because of all the scary stuff going on in it.
Slots That Make You Scream in the Night
There are four feature buy choices in Fear the Dark, as well as Full Moon multipliers, Alone in the Dark free spins, Darkness Spins, and a random number generator. What they do is as follows.
It’s a full moon.
When the Moon Man scatter appears, it activates Full Moon mode, which results in the appearance of 2–5 symbol multipliers above the grid, each of which is associated with a high-paying symbol. The range of the multiplier is from 2x to 100x. While active, multipliers increase the value of all wins with their corresponding symbols. When there are no more winning squares, the multipliers on the symbols are cleared off, starting at the leftmost column. If a multiplier is taken away, all occurrences of that symbol, as well as low-pay symbols, are taken from the reels. When this process has been repeated for all multipliers, Full Moon mode is finished.
Separated by Night
Free games in Alone in the Dark are triggered by getting 3, 4, or 5 FS scatter symbols anywhere in the main game. The odds of getting Moon Man symbols during this bonus round are higher than they normally would be. Each FS icon you land on grants you +4 more spins.
The Void Whirls
After using up all of your bonus spins, you’ll enter Darkness Spins mode and play for real money. You get +2 extra spins whenever you enter or reset this mode. The grid decreases in size from 8×8 to 4×4 and ultimately 2×2 before each Darkness Spin. When in this state, activating the Full Moon will return the grid size to 6×6. In addition, a retrigger of the Free Spins feature resets Darkness Spins to regular operation and returns the grid size to 6×6 for the remainder of the current spin. Without another FS retrigger or a Full Moon, Darkness Spins mode will expire.
Purchase Incentive
If you’re a player who wants to tackle Fear the Dark from a different angle, you may do so by activating one of the following options:
Each spin during BonusHunt FeatureSpins awards 3x the wager and has a 5x greater chance of launching a bonus game. High risk, high reward, maximum RTP of 96.41%.
Free spins with the Moon Man – 40 times the wager, with at least one Moon Man symbol appearing on every spin. Extremely risky, with a maximum return of 96.25 percent.
Ten Bonus Spins – Play for free and win 100 times your wager. High risk, high reward, maximum RTP of 96.23%.
Free Spins Bonus of 15 at a 150x wager. Medium risk, maximum return of 96.25 percent.
A Vote in the Slots
The entire experience of Fear the Dark seemed like a vintage Hacksaw Gaming creation. It harks back to the studio’s roots, when it specialized in producing quirky cutie pie slots that no one else was actually doing. Om Nom, Cash Compass, Stick ‘Em, they all felt like they were made with a Hacksaw in some way. While the developer eventually expanded into other, more lucrative fields, Fear the Dark demonstrates that it is still capable of producing entertaining games in the Pocketz Series genre.
I wouldn’t call Fear the Dark a studio classic, but neither would I say it’s bad. After the first thrill of the cute, but ultimately unnerving cast, crew, and location wears off, players are left with very conventional Hacksaw Gaming gameplay. Grab a few of multipliers, up a win, and cash in. However, the Moon Man’s introduction of Moon Mode and other aspects of Fear the Dark’s strategy are cool. Similarly remarkable is the Darkness Spins section. Whether or not this means the bonus round will last longer remains to be seen, but it’s still cool to think about.
To its credit, Hacksaw Gaming has sprinkled Fear the Dark with a plethora of delightful small elements, such as the way winning symbols create their own noises, some of which are very humorous, the general old-school cartoon presentation, a comfortable tempo, and a decent max win number of 5,000 times the bet. A pleasant diversion for those who prefer to sleep in the dark, Fear the Dark may not be a Hacksaw Gaming classic.