Sherlock Holmes The Hunt For Blackwood Pokie Machine
With the full title of Sherlock Holmes The Hunt For Blackwood, The Hunt For Blackwood, this fantastic pokie from IGT is based on the 2009 movie that stars Robert Downey Jr as the fictional sleuth, Jude Law as Dr Watson and Mark Strong as the nefarious Blackwood himself. Any game based on a film will be sure to attract fans, but with a box office haul of US$600 million behind it and an equally successful sequel, this will bring in more players than many others.
Featuring a host of extra bonus treats such as random multipliers, combined symbols that pay out bigger wins, a wheel of fortune and pick a prize rounds, there’s some pictures of the main cast making up the higher value symbols, plus some of Holmes’s tools of his trade to fill out the reels.
It all adds up to an impressive-looking game that IGT should be very pleased with and players who land some winning spins are going to be pretty pleased with it as well. Even loading the game up is a pleasure, as it’s done in the same distinctive style as the credits from the movie.
Playing Sherlock Holmes The Hunt For Blackwood
The symbols and the 5 reels that they are on, fill the screen leaving very little room for a background image. All we get are some church windows above them, a bit of a red border to the sides and a series of standard control buttons underneath it. There’s a bet range from just 0.60 to 180.00, with all 30 paylines active at all times, and winnings multiplied by the number of coins staked.
Those wins come when 3 or more of the same symbol run from the left side on a line, across adjacent reels. The smallest payouts will be from landing items associated with Holmes, like the pipe, pocketwatch, magnifying glass, violin and bulldog, and all of them are worth 5, 10 or 30 coins when they land on 3, 4 or 5 reels.
Higher up, we see Inspector LeStrade, along with Watson’s fiancée Irene, both of whom pay 10, 25 or 75 coins, then Watson and Sherlock are each valued at 20, 50 or 100 coins depending on how many reels they appear on across a line. The most valuable symbol however, is the game logo, and this has returns of 50, 150 or 500 coins.
Sherlock Holmes The Hunt For Blackwood
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Bonus Features
Some of the bonus features need to be triggered by special symbols, some require player input before they begin, and some just turn up after random spins, including the Mystery Multipliers that can boost the value of any win by up to 10x over.
The Teamwork feature sees any appearances by Holmes and Watson transforming into a joint symbol which is worth 75, 150 or 300 coins if 3, 4 or 5 are created. Both the Multiplier and Teamwork features can happen on a single spin, giving lucky players the chance for a 3000-coin payout.
When 3 or more bonus scatter symbols appear at once, the Picker Puzzle is triggered, which requires players to select items from Sherlock’s room. Different features will then play out, depending on which bonus symbols are revealed in the 5 initial picks.
Picker Prizes
The pile of cash symbol pays 2x the bet if just a single one is found, 5x if 2 are uncovered, or 10x if players find 3 or more of them, while a +1 symbol will award an extra pick. Picking 3 map symbols starts 10 free spins in the Hunt bonus round, while finding 4 of them triggers 15 spins which play out on a map where 5 crime scene positions are circled. If Holmes or Watson land on any of these positions, they become locked wilds for any remaining spins and if all 5 crime scenes become wild, the total amount won in the round is doubled. Different symbols are in use during these games, including a wild that will act as any other to improve the winning ratio.
Finding any 3 wheel symbols in the room will set the Blackwood Wheel spinning, and 4 symbols will fill the wheel with richer sections. The wheel has cash prize wedges, some Blackwood wedges and others with Sherlock on them, with 3 pointers that get deactivated if Blackwood stops against them, or reactivated by Sherlock, and if any pointers are left after 10 spins, the total bonus win will be doubled.
The Verdict
This pokie is as action-packed as the movies, and anyone who likes engaging bonus rounds should try it out, whether they were a fan of the movies or not. It’s richly detailed, with photos of the cast, has some nice animations along the way, and there’s the potential for some big payouts in the base game and the bonus rounds.