Our critique of the slot game «Thunderstruck Stormchaser»: chase for more simplicity

Thunderstruck Stormchaser is released on November 1 2022 and has a 5x4 grid with 1024 ways to win. Coming from the pedigree of Thunderstruck and Thunderstruck 2 and further onto Thunderstruck Wild Lightening (TWL) I can imagine the game has it's followers. But I honestly think they will be somewhat disappointed. The base game plays nicely and allows you to stay within your budget for hundreds of spins. But that's not all that we are looking for.. The Free Spins game has 'Buy' Feature that's unlocked after 100 of spins and priced 50x of your bet, which is too expensive for its performance. I personally could not win more than 125€ at the game priced 140€ 4 times (after which I quit). So, the whole performance of the FS round drills down to chasing the WildStorm feature that's unlocked after collecting 12 tokens (i.e. 'Hammer' symbols), whereas most of the time you'd be given 6 from the start of the bonus round and would need 6 hammers more...

Thunderstruck Stormchaser start screen

Needless to say, it's obviously too hard to collect the right number of WILDSTORM tokens... But what actually a WILDSTORM feature is simply a Wild Reel or a couple of Wild Reels (advertised up to 5)... A Wild Reel you can have randomly in games like Bust the Bank (Microgaming) or Bork The Berzerker / 1429 Uncharted Seas (Thunderkick) without a need to go through different missions and stages. So, it might be a little disappointing...

Well, just as Thunderstruck Wild lightning, the game is loaded with 5 of a kind wins. The probability of landing 5 of a kind seems quite high. I must say that random multipliers work just fine with 5 of a kind. For example, you may often get an 11€ prize for 5 symbols and have it multiplied by 4. I have even had 3 combinations of '5 of a kind' symbols in a row!

Thunderstruck Stormchaser Base Game mode gameplay

2 Hammers Symbols landed

2 hammer symbols works the same way animation-wise as with Thunderstruck Wild Lightening: it will strike the lightning to the left corner of the screen. Yet, with the latter game 2 hammers combinations will add up points to collectable features of WildStorm. If you remember, TWL has a condition: you have to collect 20 scatter pairs to unlock this feature for the next free spins selection.
Here, by contrast, a pair of scatter combinations DOES NOT produce any profits. It will only have you see an advert of the WildStorm feature itself. It looks a bit awkward to me.. Adverts within a slot game itself always look like placeholders whereas the actual game features are either not there or missing their best representation.

Buy feature

Buy feature is unlocked from 100th spins onwards. This is a part of the mission and a way to get acquainted with a game too. It is wise to do this way: missions improve retention by tens of percent. Think, if you can try any feature at once (through an option to buy it), you will not enjoy the base game at all. If a provider puts a focus on the base game too, then she needs to immerse a player into it in order to get a chance to 'sell' the game. So, it's an elegant and exclusive way to put you through gameplay before you can try the free spins feature, though you'd have to pay for it. Here exclusive means you'd probably feel yourself a member of a certain 'circa' of players who manage to live up to a bonus feature. It is also true that some missions take too long to complete and are frustrating. True, 100 spins might feel like long, especially from the onset. I would recommend StormCraft to couple an option to unlock a Buy feature with any kind of the Collectable feature. That way, a player will hit two birds with one shot: collect scores for unlocking a free feature and both get an ability to buy a bonus feature too: it may seem a fair price for sticking with a game for 100 spins, etc.

Multipliers

2x to 10x multipliers as well as 15x and 20x
Sum of multipliers displayed are added up to create a total multiplier that's applied to the prize
Multipliers appear anywhere in base game and FS game.

Free Spins Game

The FS game in Thunderstruck Stormchaser consists of the old good wheel of fortune that will give you up to 6x initial multiplier and from 6 to 12 spins. How much exactly you'd get depends on a chance. Else, you would get WildStorm Token, which are randomly awarded at the start of the feature. So, you must collect 12 Wildstorm tokens to start the feature. Likewise, if you're awarded 6 tokens (as I was) it means you will have to land 6 hammer symbols during your bonus spins. It is indeed hard to do.. Think, you need to catch 6 symbols during 6, 7 or 11 spins (how much you'd get depends on a chance).

Thunderstruck Stormchaser Free Soins gameplay

Effectively, the logic of the Free Spins game consists in chasing hammers and collecting WildStorm tokens to unlock this (WildStorm) feature. What about the rest, you might ask? The free spins game mostly relies on the multiplier add-up feature, since it does not use Wilds or any other special features to produce prizes. Likewise, in addition to your starting Multiplier that applies to all winnings, you may land more multipliers that will add up to the total multiplier that's applied to the winnings of a spins round. Apart from a multiplier, you'll have Rolling Reels mechanics that we know quite well from other releases by Storm Craft. That's practically all.

Free Spins games can be bought for 50x your bet, so if I play 2.6€ per spin it's 130€. Is it expensive or not? I think it is expensive.

First, remember you'd have to make at least 100 spins to enable the 'Buy' feature. Judging from my personal experience with the game, the base mode plays pretty well but I still lost some 50€ over 100 spins playing at 2.6€ per spin, which amounts to 0.5€ loss per spin. Obviously, with no FS game gained organically.

Second, the price of 50x seems quite affordable if you judge by the Pragmatic Play or Big Time gaming menu, where the price might be 100x your bet, like for example in Max Megaways.... But the truth is that you'd only buy a ticket to a lottery where you will spin the wheel, which in turn will give you a chance to hit 12 tokens, which in it's terms will give you some chances to get WILDSTORM feature, which is essentially a Wild Real: from 1 Wild Reel to up to 5 Wild Reels. And 50x is rather a high price for such a purchase. The purchase is structured such as to spark your interest, but effectively you may loose an interest in the game as you'd approach the final prize round and get disappointed with the thrill.

Comparison with of Thunderstruck Stormchaser with Thunderstruck Wild Lightening (TWL)

Let's take a closer look at what actually makes this game different from Thunderstruck Wild lightening?

Distribution of spins and multipliers in FS game(s)

In TWL Frees spins game is a ladder, where you have to complete one step certain number of times before you can select another step, i.e. kind of Free Spins game. In Stormchaser it is decided by chance: you'd get to spin the wheel to find out a combination of spins and a starting multiplier attached to them.

FS Re-trigger feature

Once you have a certain number of spins you cannot re-trigger or somehow increase it (except if you get a WILDSTORM feature). By contrast, in TWL (where there are 4 kinds of free spins rounds AND a special WILDSTORM free spins round), the number of spins is set from the start but you can have more if you'd retrigger the feature. Yet, 4 kinds of FS games work as missions: to be able to unlock one, you'd have to do the previous one a number of times specified by the producer.

How exactly do multipliers apply?

As we discussed in TWL review [.], for example, Jotunheim Free Spins, that's available at once, has 15 spins with 2x, 3x or 5x multipliers attached to your prize. Literally, multipliers are applied randomly - within the specified range - towards your winnings where the prize is formed through participation of the Thor (Wild Multiplier). So, effectively Thor takes on one of the sizes specified by the terms of a specific FS game.
By contrast, in the Stormchaser FS game, the multiplier is onset from the start, yet, it can increase down the road (by adding-up multiplier symbols you've landed in the meantime). The multiplier will aply to all winnings (here we simply don't have Wilds).

Wild symbol

In TWL, Thor is a Wild Multiplier feature that can also work as an expanding wild [to catch up the whole reel] during the Free Spins game if you'd happen to land a 2 Thors in the random symbol position (highlighted by a blue frame). In TWL Wilds can be Stacked up too. Thunderstruck Stormchaser does not have Wilds whatsoever. Needless to say, Wild Multiplier accounts for majority of wins bothe in the base game as well as free spins game.

Link & Win feature and Jackpots

Link&Win feature represents a distinct 'game in the game' wherein you'd collect fireball symbols featuring their cash values on a special grid and be able to unlock more rows, spins and finally hit a jackpot. So, it is in place in TWL but not in Stormchaser.

WildStorm feature

Basically, the WildStorm feature works just the same in both games. The only difference is how you get to have this feature activated. So, both game variants involve a scatter collector that has to be filled in for the feature to be activated.
- In TWL the collector capacity is Scatter Pairs that have to be striked during the Base Game only.
- In Thunderstruck Stormchaser the Scatter collector capacity is 12 scatter symbols (not pairs), but you can only collect these scatters during Free Spins game, not base game (as previously). So, it is true that you'd have a certain number of scatters granted to you from the onset of the FS game too: 5 or 6. The rest should be collected in the duration of a free spins game. If not filled to the fullest, the scatter collector is reset, so you cannot save your scatters anyhow.