Dark Hearts

This slot tells the story of two love-struck ancient Vampires, Victor and Marcus who despite having eternal youth, are still torn apart by their unrequited love for the beautiful Willow. Willow, however, has her wits about her and is ready to fend off these amorous vampires with the help of her silver crucifix.

Will Victor and Marcus manage to sink their teeth into Willow's neck and feast on her soul eternally, or will Willow resist the advances of the creepy twosome and remain human, rather than turning into a bloodthirsty vampire herself? All will be revealed in the new slot from Rival Gaming.

Let's now take a look at some of the key aspects of the slot including a brief overview of the key elements and a more detailed review previewing the main features and bonuses of the slot.

Overview

• Game: Dark Hearts
• Developer: Rival Gaming
• Reels: 5
• Pay Lines: 243 Ways to Win
• Minimum Bet: $0.30
• Maximum Bet: $75.00
• Jackpot: 100,000 coins
• Free Spins Bonus: Yes
• Other Bonuses: No
• Progressive: No
• Volatility: Medium

Where can I play the Dark Hearts slot?

If you want to sink your teeth into the newly released and virginal Dark Hearts slot, then there is no better casino to sign up with to enjoy this and plenty of other top quality Rival Gaming slots than Slots Capital.

As a new customer with this popular casino, you will receive a nice $7 chip for free when you sign up which will give you an opportunity to trial one or more of the games available on the site, completely risk free and without spending a cent of your own cash.

Then when you decide you want to play at the casino, your first deposit will be subject to a fantastic bonus, which could be worth as much as $1,000 on top of what you already have deposited to play with, meaning that you could have considerably more cash available than simply your own deposit in order to trial the many and varied slots and games the site has to offer.

If you make your second deposit prior to 30 October at Slots Capital you will receive extra 20 free spins! Use the promo code: DARK20FREE on your second deposit. Note this special offer is valid only between 25-30 October and you must have already made a deposit and this would be your second deposit to use this special promo code.

Alternatively on the Desert Nights Casino you can claim 113 Free Spins on Dark Hearts when you make your first deposit of at least $30. Use the promo code: DARKHEARTS113 when making that deposit. Note this special offer is valid only till October 31st 2017. Hurry and click here now.

Presentation

As you would expect from a slot pertaining to Vampires and their blood-lust, this is a very Gothic and dark slot and this is emphasized by the dark coloring used throughout the slot which is predominantly a mix of black and red. It works very well in terms of setting the atmosphere for the slot which isn't just focused on the horror aspect, but also on the romantic side of things too, albeit with a vampire=themed twist.

The five reels are displayed prominently on the screen and they are nice and big, so they are as easy to see on smaller screens as they are larger. The main controls of the slot are at the bottom of the screen and are the standard controls with all the usual options available.

The backdrop and music are also nicely done capturing the scary element of the slot, but also the rather sad, lovelorn elements too. The red roses oozing blood around the outside of the reels being a perfect emblem of what is one of Rival Gaming's darker slots.

What's on the reels?

There is a total of thirteen symbols on the reels and six of these are the lower value ones. These are the ubiquitous playing card lows, although in the Dark Hearts slot they have at least been decorated in a more Gothic styling. These cards offer lower value wins ranging from 4 coins up to a maximum of 100 coins for five aces across the reels.

There are also four medium value symbols on the reels and they start with the red rose, then in terms of ascending value, Marcus (the bearded, darker-haired vampire), Viktor (the blonde vampire) and then finally Willow. These four medium value symbols offer pay outs ranging from 12 coins up to a maximum of 500 coins for five Willow symbols across the reels.

Three of the symbols offer higher pay outs and these are the Silver Crucifix, the Chalice filled with red liquid (which we can safely assume to be blood, rather than wine) and the Dark Hearts logo. These offer wins of between 30 coins and 1,250 coins.

The only other symbols on the reels are the Wild symbol and the Free Spins scatter symbol and both of these link to bonus features which we will explain in more detail below.

Wild features

The Wild symbol in the Dark Hearts game is the Love Bites Wild, which is a pair of rosy red lips, with one tell-tale Vampire fang on the right-hand side. This Wild will let you sink your teeth into more wins as it can replace any of the other symbols in the game on the reels, apart from the scatter symbol.

However, none of the pay outs triggered by the Wild symbol will receive any form of multiplier bonus, which is a little disappointing. The Wilds can appear across the reels in any position and obviously, the more Wilds you land on the reels in a single spin, especially during the free spins bonus rounds below, then the greater your chances of landing a decent sized win.

Free Spins features

The Free Spins bonus is triggered when you land three or more of the key and lock scatter symbols anywhere across the reels. When you do, you enter the free spins bonus round where you get to select which of the three available games you want to play.

The Viktor Free Spins bonus sees you land the maximum number of free spins, 30 in total, but all your wins come with a standard 1x multiplier.

Alternatively, you can take the Willow Free Spins bonus which has a total of 15 free spins in play, but which comes with a 2x multiplier. Or the third option is the Marcus Free Spins Bonus which has the minimum number of 10 free spins to play through, but you do get a 3x multiplier on all wins in this bonus round.

Other bonus features

Other than the bonus features outlined above, there are no additional bonus features contained in the Dark Hearts slot.

Best feature of the Dark Hearts slot

There's lots of nice features to enjoy on the Dark Hearts slot, from a genuinely creepy soundtrack and presentation, to the way the icons have been represented on the reels. There's only two key bonuses however and that does limit what the slot has to offer, though I think the fact that you can select which of the Free Spins bonuses you want to play is always a winner.

This is a key choice though as if you opt for more spins with Viktor Free Spins, then you are not likely to win the bigger amounts. However, the amount you win in the Marcus Free Spins can be much more volatile as although you only get 10 free spins (so only a third of the chances to win compared to the Viktor bonus) you do get a 3x multiplier which can radically increase the value of a win, especially if you manage to land a bigger value win in the game.

What does the Dark Hearts slot lack?

If there was one thing I would have added to the Dark Hearts slot, then it would have been some multiplier bonuses on wins with Wild symbols. I think that would have added a little extra spice to the base game and would certainly have made Free Spins more appealing as with multipliers already in play in two of the three bonus features, these additional multiplier wins could have generated some bigger value wins and made the slot more appealing.

I also feel a randomly triggered base game bonus always helps keeps players interested in the base game, especially when it is playing somewhat tight, or not allowing you access to the bonus features. Adding this I feel would have given the base game a little extra appeal too.

Conclusion

The Dark Hearts slot is a very enjoyable game and although it has darker elements than most cutesy styled slots, it works well. Clearly there is a thirst for games such as these with the success of Immortal Romance, but it does feel like Dark Hearts is entering the arena perhaps a little too late to capture the groundswell of interest in these games, although a Halloween release is a smart move on the part of Rival Gaming.

The game itself is a relatively basic offering, although it has been nicely presented and does have the bonus of a free to select free spins bonus round, which does add variety to the bonus and a chance to win some sizeable money, especially with the 3x multiplier option. Dark Hearts is a decent slot, it should certainly appeal to fans of this particular genre of game and it has enough to keep players spinning for a long time after they start playing.

Ratings

• Presentation: 14 / 20 - The presentation on the Dark Hearts slot is nicely done. It is dark, without being too dark and it is romantic, without venturing into the realm of slushy nonsense. Combining the two in a slot isn't new, Immortal Romance most notably has done this previously, but Dark Hearts is a slot that is different to that offering and which has its own style and game-play and as such, is all the better for it.
• Game-Play: 12 / 20 - The main gripe I had about the game-play on the Dark Hearts slot was that at times in the base game, things did get a little repetitive without the addition of a bonus game. However, Wild wins do help matters here although again, a little multiplier would have given this feature an added boost. However, once you trigger the bonuses the game does get more exciting and you can select which bonus you want without having to play through to unlock bonuses, which again is a positive aspect to the game-play. Overall, the game-play is engaging enough, but perhaps doesn't grab you in the same way the very best slots do.
• Bonus Features: 13 / 20 - There are effectively just two bonus features and while the Wild symbol is particularly useful in the base game, its lack of multiplier does impact how exciting it is when it lands. That said landing multiple wilds can result in some sizeable wins on a single spin. The Free Spins bonus however offers a good choice of games of different variances, the Marcus 10 Free Spins bonus is the most volatile, whereas the Viktor offering of 30 is the least, so pick your game wisely based on how you want it to play out.
• Entertainment Factor: 13 / 20 - This is what I would term as a standard slot in that it has the base game, a free spins bonus and a Wild but little else. However, that doesn't mean that you won't enjoy the game. The presentation of the slot helps you enjoy it and if you like slots such as Mythic Maiden or Immortal Romance, then this is a slot game that will certainly tick all the right boxes for you.
• Play Value: 11 / 20 - As a medium variance slot, you know that this is a game that is going to have variable pay outs and so it proved in testing. Sometimes you can come away from the game with a decent profit, other times it will take a vampire-sized bite out of your balance, but won't drain you completely. Again, it is a standard medium variance slot and players that enjoy this type of game, especially with a decent sized jackpot available, will certainly enjoy what is on offer here.
• Overall 63 / 100 - Dark Hearts is an interesting and playable slot that is perhaps a little basic compared to some other modern releases in terms of content but what is there has been done very well and all elements of the slot link together nicely. A good sized jackpot will make this appealing to many slot players and while there's not a huge amount of content, what is there is certainly playable and enjoyable.

Good Luck!

Next Offer: Samba Sunset