Elements: The Awakening pokies review

Most top leading software providers have tried their hand at 3D graphics, developing pokies featuring their own take on the new technology. Some have succeeded, while others not so much.

Where to play Elements: The Awakening

When NetEnt developed Elements: The Awakening in 2014 three dimensional graphics were just taking off and as expected, they executed the 3D visuals incredibly well. We take a look at whether the gameplay is as good as the graphics, and detail the safest sites to try Elements out for real money.

How to play Elements: The Awakening

Elements is a 5 reel and 20 payline title, featuring some of the best graphics we’ve seen on a real money video pokie. Based on the basic elements, fire, water, earth and air, the symbols float and appear almost astronomical as beautiful animations light each symbol up.

You do need to have selected ‘high’ graphics quality to experience the true nature of these visuals, while ‘low’ will speed up performance but decrease the overall aesthetics. Alter the settings by clicking the spanner icon in the bottom left hand corner of the game screen.

• Coin sizes: 0.01, 0.02, 0.05, 0.10, 0.20, and 0.50
• Minimum bet per spin: $0.20
• Maximum bet per spin: $100
• Maximum coins per spin: 200 coins
• Scatter: No
• Wild: Main Wild – the metallic cube; Free Fall Wilds – four including the Air, Water, Earth and Fire Wilds
• Bonus Features: Avalanche Metre and Re-Spins, Energy Metre, and Free Falls
• Free Spins: Yes (10 which are known as Free Falls, but you receive more since you get Avalanche Re-Spins)
• Jackpot: 1500 coins in the base game
• RTP: 96%

These floating symbols are set on a backdrop of all four elements and their landscapes combined, including a volcano, a lake, land, and sky making it one stunning title.

The audio is incredibly suspenseful with explosive sound effects on winning spins and extra bonus features. These can be muted via the audio icon in the bottom left hand near the settings, however.

Elements: The Awakening symbols

There are eight standard symbols on this real money pokie, with two symbols represented by each element – Water, Air, Earth, and Fire. Each are unique looking symbols, with the larger versions appearing to have eyes. The Water symbols are coloured blue, the Air symbols are coloured purple, the Earth symbols are coloured green, while the Fire symbols are coloured red.

The lower value symbols are represented by the smaller versions of the elements, while the higher value symbols are represented by the larger sized versions. The best possible payout of all is the large fire symbol paying 1500 coins by spinning five.

Other symbols which are integral to gameplay include the numerous amount of Wilds.

• Base game Wild: The metallic cube is the main Wild which substitutes for all symbols in the base game and in the Free Falls. It only appears on reels 2, 3, 4, and 5 and pays out the highest possible winning combination.
• Fire Storm Wild: Appears in Fire Storm Mode (see below) on reels 2, 3, and 4, but can expand to reels 1 and 5.
• Air Storm Wild: Appears in Air Storm Mode (see below). Two will randomly fall on the reels for the first Free Fall and will remain for the entire feature.
• strong>Earth Storm Wild: Appears in Earth Storm Mode (see below) on reels 2, 3 and 4 and will stay in place until a win or for three Free Falls.
• Water Storm Wild: Appears in Water Storm Mode (see below) on reels 2, 3, and 4 and can become Expanding Wilds – will cover a whole reel when completing a win.

Each perform the usual Wild function, substituting for all symbols to complete a winning payline.

Elements: The Awakening bonus features

There’s quite a few bonus features to Elements, including a unique Avalanche Metre, Energy Metre and Free Spins feature known as Free Falls.

• Avalanche Metre

  The Avalanche Metre involves Cascading Reels and on every win the metre fills up, the symbols explode, and new symbols fall in their place. The metre tracks how many in a row you get, with up to four eligible– essentially giving you up to four free Re-Spins on consecutive winning spins.

  These are also available in the Free Spins feature, meaning you get free Re-Spins added into the mix giving you the chance to win four extra free Re-Spins on every Free Fall.

• Energy Metre

  There’s an Energy Metre which will determine the mode you will enter for the Free Falls. This will fill up as you spin the same element combinations and will trigger the corresponding element bonus feature when you’ve completed four consecutive wins of the same element.

• Free Falls

  The Free Falls bonus features 10 free spins and the mode you activate during the Free Falls will ultimately depend on which quadrant of the Energy Metre you filled up, including;

  • Fire Storm Mode
  • Air Storm Mode
  • Earth Storm Mode
  • Water Storm Mode

Each have their corresponding element Wilds applied, plus the standard Wild too.

Our thoughts

We’ve already mentioned how visually appealing this pokie is due to the use of 3D graphics, but when you activate one or more of the four Free Fall modes you will really see the animations come to life.

The Avalanche Metre, which is the Cascading Reels feature, is one of our favourite features for a pokie as you are essentially getting a free Re-Spin every time you win.

The Free Falls are equally as amazing and we won almost 15,000 coins, which worked out to be over $7000 as we were playing a high $60 per spin – worthwhile since we triggered the Free Falls in the Fire Mode early on. Overall, Elements: The Awakening is an incredible title which is worth our real money wagers.

Where to play Elements: The Awakening

You can find Elements: The Awakening by NetEnt at many of our favourite online casinos, each of which offer generous welcome bonuses, including those listed in the casino table at the top of this page. Each of these casino sites has undergone our rigorous testing to ensure it ticks all the right boxes in terms of licensing, security and regulation, while also offering a great range of games for free and real money players.

For more great online slot games from NetEnt and other game studios, check out our online slots review page.