Gonzo’s Quest review
Gonzo’s Quest is an especially well-designed slot game created by one of the most popular game providers, Swedish🫰 company NetEnt, which describes it as "its first platinum video slot game". The game is beautiful to look at, has🫰 nice and swift animations and allows its players to win big, especially after triggering the Free Falls feature with increasing🫰 win multiplier.
Those are just some of the reasons why Gonzo’s Quest became popular right after its launch in 2010 and🫰 still remains a go-to game for many players to this date.
Read my Gonzo’s Quest review and find out everything there🫰 is to know about this game, including:
Gonzo’s Quest theme and story line
Gonzo’s Quest follows the story of Gonzo the conquistador🫰 in the year of 1541. This explorer arrives to the Peruvian coast on a galleon and decides to abandon his🫰 ship and begin his search for Eldorado, the lost city of gold. He steals a treasure map, jumps off the🫰 ship and begins his journey. All of that is displayed in the game’s intro.
When the intro reaches its end, Gonzo🫰 poses beside the game's reels, becoming a constant feature of Gonzo’s Quest. He doesn’t change the outcomes of the spins,🫰 but stands there and celebrates with you when you hit a nice win.
The theme of the game is based around🫰 the culture of Incas, which is famed for its unique architecture and art. The architecture forms the game’s background, while🫰 the famous Inca masks take a form of the symbols, accompanied by likenesses of wild animals created in a similar🫰 style. All in all, Gonzo’s Quest offers a really unique experience.
A cinematic introduction to Gonzo's Quest
Gonzo’s Quest graphics, sounds and🫰 animations
Great graphics and smooth animations definitely are among the reasons that make Gonzo’s Quest so popular. The gameplay is swift🫰 and fast, which only increases the thrill of playing this game. You can enjoy the sounds of blocks falling onto🫰 the reels, while hoping for them to form a new winning combination to trigger another avalanche.
Note: The Avalanche feature is🫰 one of the cornerstones of Gonzo’s Quest. I will explain it later on in this review.
However, there is one complaint🫰 that many players share. The animations are a bit too fast when using the Autoplay feature. Many players like to🫰 look at new symbols falling onto the reels and figure out what exactly they need to form another winning combination.🫰 That’s almost impossible to do when using Autoplay, which is a shame, as it decreases the amount of fun some🫰 players have when playing Gonzo’s Quest.
A demonstration of Autoplay animation speed of Gonzo's Quest
Gonzo’s Quest simply is a beautiful game🫰 with a great mix of animations, 3D effects and sounds that make playing it a very enjoyable experience, which can🫰 also be said about many other NetEnt games.
Gonzo’s Quest gameplay
Gonzo’s Quest really distinguished itself among other slots with the way🫰 the game works. Instead of classic reels, the game has a so-called Avalanche feature, which has symbols fall into the🫰 reels from the top. Symbols that form a winning combination get destroyed and make room for new blocks of symbols🫰 to fall in from the top.
Note: Nowadays, many video slot games work similarly to Gonzo’s Quest. However, at the time🫰 of the game’s release, the Avalanche feature was really something that made Gonzo’s Quest stand out from the rest of🫰 the games on the market.
Thanks to the Avalanche feature, numerous consecutive wins can be achieved in the same game round.🫰 What’s more, every time new symbols are added to the reels, the multiplier increases. Each spin starts with a 1x🫰 multiplier (with the exception of free spins). Then it can increase with consecutive wins in the same game round to🫰 2x, 3x and subsequently 5x, which is the maximum multiplier that can be achieved outside of the free spins feature.
There🫰 are 5 "reels" with 3 symbols each and the number of winlines is 20. You can’t choose the number of🫰 active winlines, it always remains "locked" at 20. This makes Gonzo’s Quest not suitable for some of my slot machine🫰 strategies, but it makes sense, as the Avalanche feature, which is one of the cornerstones of this game, wouldn’t work🫰 very well with fewer winlines. Winning combinations must appear on a winline from leftmost to right.
There are 7 regular symbols🫰 in the game. They are a bit difficult to describe because of the abstract nature of the game, so I🫰 will include a picture with them. Apart from the 7 regular symbols, there is a Free Fall symbol and a🫰 Wild symbol. Three Free Fall symbols in a winline triggers 10 free spins (or Free Falls as they are called🫰 in Gonzo’s Quest). The Wild symbol substitutes for all symbols, including the Free Fall symbols.
Gonzo's Quest paytable with winlines and🫰 symbols
The Avalanche feature really is what made this game so popular. It’s the core component of Gonzo’s Quest’s gameplay that🫰 makes the game much more interesting and thrilling to play. It can be really exciting to hit multiple consecutive wins🫰 in a single game round, just to see the multiplier rise and root for another big win with the combination🫰 of old symbols and the ones that have newly fallen onto the reels.
Gonzo’s Quest free spins – Free Falls
Gonzo’s Quest🫰 has only one special feature, the Free Falls. Three Free Fall symbols trigger 10 Free Falls (free spins). However, the🫰 Free Fall symbols don’t function as scatter symbols, therefore they have form a winline from leftmost to right.
That makes the🫰 Free Falls much harder to hit, but at the same time it creates a possibility to trigger much more Free🫰 Falls at once. Each winline with three Free Fall symbols triggers 10 Free Falls, so you can be awarded with🫰 much more free spins if you manage to align them on multiple winlines.
What makes the Free Falls special, are the🫰 increased multipliers. Regular game starts at 1x multiplier that can subsequently rise to 2x, 3x or to the maximum of🫰 5x. In the Free Falls, all of these multipliers are 3-times higher. That means that each Free Falls starts at🫰 3x and can rise to 6x, 9x and 15x. This means you can really achieve nice winnings during the Free🫰 Falls.
A generous Free Falls win some player captured on video
The Free Falls feature is really interesting for the player, both🫰 from the perspective of unique experience and the possibility to hit a big win. However, it can be quite hard🫰 to hit, as the Free Fall symbols must form a winning combination on a winline, just like any other symbols.
That’s🫰 my main criticism of Gonzo’s Quest. It only has one special feature, which is not triggered very often. It doesn’t🫰 have any other bonus feature or a jackpot. That can make the gameplay a bit boring for some players, especially🫰 after playing some of the newer games with multiple special features that can be triggered in any spin.
Gonzo’s Quest bet🫰 and win sizes
Gonzo’s Quest has a minimum bet of €/£/$0.2 (€/£/$0.01 per winline) and a maximum bet of €/£/$50 (€/£/$2.5🫰 per winline). Of course, the maximum and minimum bets be different in casinos with other currencies. You control the size🫰 of your bet using the "Coin value" and "Bet level" buttons.
Note: To simplify the rest of my review, I will🫰 choose the currency ofR$ and use it from now on. The wins will differ based on the currency you play🫰 in.
All of the wins in the paytable are displayed in multiples of bet per line. The highest possible win per🫰 line awards 2,500x the bet per line, which isR$25 for the minimum bet ofR$0.2 andR$6,250 for the maximum bet ofR$50.🫰 That’s 125x the total bet, which is not so high when compared to some other slots, but you have to🫰 keep in mind the possible multiplier.
The maximum multiplier is 5x in regular gameplay and 15x during Free Falls. That means🫰 the highest win per line is 625x the total bet in regular gameplay (with the 5x multiplier) and 1,875x during🫰 Free Falls. The last number is really nice, as it means a possible win per line ofR$93,750 when bettingR$50 andR$375🫰 when bettingR$0.2.
On top of that, you have to keep in mind there always are 20 active winlines and you have🫰 multiple chances of winning in one game round, thanks to the Avalanche feature. Of course, huge wins like the ones🫰 I mentioned are incredibly rare, as basically in any other video slot game.
Gonzo’s Quest RTP and variance
Gonzo’s Quest RTP (return🫰 to player) is 96 %. That means that you can expect to "win"R$0.96 for everyR$1 you wager. Of course, this🫰 value only works statistically and in the long run, so your results will vary.
Note: If you are unsure about how🫰 RTP and variance of slots work, read more about them in my article on slot machine’s RTP and variance.
The RTP🫰 of 96 % can be considered somewhat of an average in the world of online slots. That means that there🫰 are games which are worse for the player in the long run, but there are also many slot games that🫰 are much better in terms of RTP.
In terms of volatility (variance), Gonzo’s Quest can be considered a medium variance game.🫰 That means that the game generally awards medium-sized wins with medium frequency, at least when compared to other video slots.🫰 The concept of variance can be a bit difficult to grasp, so feel free to read the article I linked🫰 above.
Conclusion
Gonzo’s Quest is a very entertaining and popular online slot with a strong position in video slots’ history. It was🫰 one of the first (if not the first) games of its kind thanks to the Avalanche feature. Its medium volatility🫰 makes sure you win something every once in a while, while you also have a reasonable chance to hit a🫰 big win, most often thanks to the Free Falls feature.
On the other hand, the RTP of 96 % means that🫰 there are games better for the player, however, this value can be considered an average and it’s nothing to frown🫰 upon. As I already mentioned, some players (including me) would welcome additional bonus features, as the game can become a🫰 bit boring after some time.
Want to try it out? Play Gonzo’s Quest for free on our website and decide whether🫰 you want to try it out in a real casino.
