Sands of Eternity 2

Sands of Eternity 2: Slot Overview

It's funny how casino game makers sometimes exhibit traits as if they were regular individual people. You've got the cold, aloof ones, slinging out games for the peon masses from their ivory towers, happy to keep a thick, strong barrier between themselves and the people they're supposedly trying to entertain. Then you've got the warm fuzzies like developer Slotmill, who, like a stage diving crowd-surfing rock star, are keen to get amongst the punters to see what makes them tick.

Case in point is this here game on the review block. The name is Sands of Eternity 2, and as players aware of the previous release have no doubt spent less than 0.2 nanoseconds deducing, is the sequel to the 2021 slot Sands of Eternity, which apparently turned out to be quite a success story for the studio. So much so that the team gathered players' feedback and requests for a sequel, then returned to the drawing board to hammer out Part 2. If you had a list of upgrades you wanted to see injected into the original, hopefully, you can now start ticking them off.

If a bigger play area was one of those wants, boom, cross that off the list because Sands of Eternity 2 is held in a 6-reel, 7-row symbol area, which means it has an extra row up on the past release. Stone block symbols and corner stone feature symbols return, but now it is possible to have from 729 to 117,749 ways to win. The artwork has been stepped up for Sands of Eternity 2, too, including a new bonus round location, which is nice to see.

The volatility has been eased back a notch, now rated as medium-high, and the RTP has dipped a bit to 96.1%. This is the value when betting 20 c to $/€60 on each individual base game spin, though the return varies if buying stuff off the Fast Track. It also changes when using the Xtra-Bet to 96.17%. Activating the Xtra-Bet makes it 2.8 times more likely to trigger free spins for an extra spin cost of 50%. Burst Mode is also on hand to make the Sands of Eternity 2 pass by even faster like sand rushing through an hourglass.

Sands of Eternity 2 awards wins left to right from the leftmost column and has 12 regular paying symbols. Its 4 lows are animal shapes on blocks, the 4 mids are gems on blocks, while the 5 highs are like interpretations of Ancient Egyptian gods. Hitting a 6 OAK low pay way awards 0.25-0.3x the bet, 0.5-0.6x for the mids, or 1.5-3.5x for the highs.

Sands of Eternity 2: Slot Features

Sands of Eternity 2 starts with its avalanche feature. All winning symbols, plus stone blocks directly adjacent to winning symbols (up, down, left, or right), explode off the reels. Symbols still on the reel strips fall downwards to fill the gaps, creating new chances to win. Stone blocks do not fall down since they have fixed positions, even if there are spaces beneath them. Avalanches repeat till no new win appears.

Special Stone Blocks

The blocks in each corner of the symbol area hold special modifiers. When these stone blocks explode, their corresponding feature triggers. Special stone blocks are also present in free spins.

• Wild Scarab - when exploded, a wild symbol appears in its place
• Shift of Thoth - in the rightmost top corner is the Shift of Thoth. When exploded, Shift of Thoth triggers. When no more wins occur, the Shift of Thoth feature picks a random amount of symbols and transforms them into another symbol.
• Rays of Ra - in the rightmost bottom corner is the Rays or Ra stone block. When exploded, the Rays of Ra feature triggers. When there are no more wins in a game round, the Rays of Ra feature adds wild symbols.

Random Expansion

The Random Expansion feature can trigger randomly in the base game on any spin. Once active, it removes a random number of non-special stone blocks, increasing the number of bet ways.

Free Spins Bonus

When a scatter symbol lands on the reels, it explodes, removing the neighbouring stone blocks, and the scatter is added to a collect meter. If 3 scatters are collected, then 8 free spins are awarded. On each free spin, additional special stone blocks are added to the reels in random stone block positions:

• Multiplier Stone Block - exploding this block adds a win multiplier. The multiplier stays for the duration of the free spins round, and it can be increased if additional multiplier stone blocks explode.
• Extra Free Spin Stone Block - grants 1 extra free spin when exploded.

Super Mode

Super Mode may activate randomly when the free spins bonus begins. In Super Mode, every win increases the win multiplier by +1.

Fast Track

Slotmill's feature buy menu, Fast Track, is where players can buy these:

• Expand - 15x to guarantee a game round triggering the Random Expansion. RTP 96.15%.
• Free Spins Bonus - 100x the bet. RTP 96.36%.
• Super Mode Bonus - 300x the bet. RTP 96.4%.

Sands of Eternity 2: Slot Verdict

First off, it has to be said that the changes that Slotmill has worked into Sands of Eternity 2 have not transformed it into a completely unrecognisable game. This is a good thing, by the way, as the original was no fugly underachiever as it was. On the contrary, the skeleton of Sands of Eternity 2, and much of the meat, remains very close to the original. Let's say it sticks to the spirit of the first release, and this is no bad turn of events. Furthermore, the changes that Slotmill has incorporated this time round are pretty much all positive ones, where each element does its part to help make Sands of Eternity 2 end up a bigger, fuller game.

This is a bit of an aside, but anyway, one important aspect of a stone block-destroying avalanche slot is how satisfying the destruction process is. A small detail in some ways, perhaps, but get it right, and watching repeat avalanche wins demolishing stone blocks, leading to more grid space, additional wins, and triggering features, can be very satisfying to witness. Happy to say Sands of Eternity 2 is one of these games. When everything's flowing and popping, it's like mowing the lawn and following each freshly mown strip of grass, just so. It's the sort of thing that satisfies a deep primal desire for form and symmetry. Relax Gaming has mastered the satisfying tumbling symbol crush effect, and Slotmill is right there nippy at its competitor's heels.

Better yet, the features in Sands of Eternity 2 are just as satisfying, if not more so, than the visual effects, and while the upgrades aren't like 180-degree revolutions, they help make a good game better. Bigger grid space, vastly more ways to win, double the winning potential at 15,000x the bet, feature adjustments, and the intoxicating thought of avalanching into the new Super Mode Bonus all add up to a captivating Ancient Egyptian revisit.