Startup Valley

We have seen plenty of video slots inspired by superheroes, a multitude of others that had ancient gods as their main characters, but so far geeks have rarely been the main focus of such a game. 

StartUp Valley will change that perception, it turns geeks into heroes. The idea is generous enough and should be appealing to a large audience, but whether all that can result in quality entertainment remains to be seen. 

Theme

The reels are set right on the work desk of a tech startup, with graphs, pens and a rubik cube scattered around. The story behind the game is that five smartheads have kicked off this small company and now they are looking for a big investor to take everything to the next level. 

The five characters are present throughout the game as each of them has its own reel. The five heroes are not human, the developers have chosen some strange-looking sea creatures to play the roles of the five geeks. 

The reason behind that choice is that the big investor is a Shark, that kind of glues the whole story together. It might have looked more appealing with human characters instead of the cartoonish sea creatures, though. 

Betting Options and Functions

This slot does not have a standard setup, despite having the usual five reels and three rows. Below each of the five reels we have one of the main characters, and each of them has an experience gauge next to it. 

Apart from that, the game has 15 fixed paylines, four low-paying symbols and five high-paying. The maximum possible win is 5,000 times the stake, volatility is listed as medium, and the RTP is 96.48%. 

Features

Things get into another dimension when the special features kick in:

• Solo Free Spins

Remember the character experience gauge I was talking about earlier? It comes into play whenever the Experience symbol lands, that will give the respective character 10 xp points. The gauge fills when it gets to 100, and in that case you get 3 free spins with the lucky character providing some interesting boosts. 

Richard will give you some extra Wilds on each spin, he throws between 3 to 5 of them on the reels. Gilfoyle will populate the reels with Mystery Boxes, which all contain the same symbol. Dinesh spices things up with Coin Wilds, awarding between 10 and 100 coins for each Wild on the screen. 

Dunn is in charge of the Wild Multiplier, he adds a x4 multiplier to any winning line that contains a Wild Symbol. Last but not least, Erlich will improve your chances to win with between 3 and 9 Wild symbols that will be thrown randomly on the reels. 

• IPO Free Spins

If you manage to land three Shark symbols, which represent the Scatter in this game, you will get all five characters around a table for a big meeting as the company gets its shares on the market. 

This time you have 10 Free Spins, and each of the five characters will display their abilities regardless of the experience level that they have reached in the base game.

Conclusion

Startup Valley is an innovative title from TrueLab, they have chosen a rather unusual theme for this slot and it turned out pretty well. At first you might be put off by the strange characters, but once you get a few spins under your belt the game will most likely be quite enjoyable. 

I still believe it would have been more appealing to a larger audience with human characters instead of the strange sea creatures, but it might just be a matter of taste and personal preference. 

The gameplay is solid and entertaining, especially thanks to the possibility of getting Solo Free Spins quite easily and in quick succession.