The Great Albini 2

The Great Albini 2: Slot Overview

Join Microgaming partner Foxium as they return to the stage to perform a trick or two in their sequel slot, The Great Albini 2. This time around, Foxium has made a number of big changes to the looks, features, and stats. Some of the upgrades have merit; others are as insubstantial as a cheap illusion. Buy your ticket to the show, and let's have a look at Albini's return.

First up, the view. Presumably, for players who liked the original, the way Foxium made it seem as though you were sitting in the audience was a large part of the thrill. The reels were set up on an intimate stage, all thickly draped, as Albini bobbed away to one side, while his assistant Lily popped up at times. That has all largely gone in The Great Albini 2, owing to the way it is presented. It seems Foxium went for the mobile-friendly approach studio PG Soft is famous for, so when playing on a desktop, players get a blurry stage sitting behind an active game area crammed into a squished central window. The results are less immersive than part one, with less of a live performance feel to it than before, despite an excellently magical soundtrack.

The Great Albini 2 comes in several mathematical forms, with RTPs ranging from 96.1% down to 92.1%. In all cases, players get a 5x4, 40-payline video slot spitting out a win at a rate of 27.19%. A medium volatile slot, the game is available on any device, where bets of 20 p/c to $/€12 may be set. As an optional extra, players can activate the Booster ante bet feature, which increases the cost per spin by 50%, to have additional Money Gems, and Collect symbols added to the reels. The chance of hitting Albini Multipliers and Lily Extra spins in the bonus game is also increased.

Along the 40 fixed paylines, starting from reel number one, players win when three or more matching pay symbols land. A payout of 0.67 to 1.33x the bet is paid for a line of five 10-A low pays, or 2 to 6.67x for five high pay Lucky Cups, Knives, Lilies, or Alibins. Wilds assist with this by landing on any reel to substitute all of the regular pay symbols. Wilds also payout up to 16.67x the bet when landing a line of five of them.

The Great Albini 2: Slot Features

Foxium has completely overhauled the features, stripping out what the original had and replacing them with a cash symbol collection mechanic and a hold & win style bonus game.

Collect Feature

Keep an eye out for Money Gems appearing on reels 1, 2, 3 or 4 in three different colours, representing three different value sets. Blue gems award 1-9x the bet, the purple gems award 10-20x, and red gems are worth 25-50x the stake in the base game. When a collect symbol lands on the last reel, the total value of all Money Gem symbols in view on the reels is awarded. Collect symbols may appear with an x2-x5 multiplier. This multiplier is applied to the total value of collected Money Gems.

Bonus Feature

Scatter symbols are present on reels 2, 3, or 4, and landing 3 of them at once triggers the bonus feature. Now, 3 spins are awarded to start with, in a bonus round where only Money Gems, Albini Multiplier symbols, or Lily Extra Spins symbols may land. When they do land, the number of spins left is set back to the starting value. When spins run out, the accumulated value of the Money Gems is multiplied by the win multiplier and awarded.

The win multiplier increases whenever Albini Multiplier symbols land. These symbols have a value of 1-5x, which is added to the multiplier. When Lily symbols hit, they increase the starting value of the current spin count by +1.

The Great Albini 2: Slot Verdict

The initial squeezed game area set a disappointing tone from the get-go that Albini 2 struggled to recover from. Instead of buying seats and being treated to a night out at the theatre, playing Albini 2 was closer to staring through a peephole to watch it for free. As mentioned, the soundtrack is quite magical, but the rest doesn't have the same stage presence as the previous game. To be fair, this might actually be a benefit for some players as much as it disappoints others, making The Great Albini 2 more of a straight-out gambling device, without all the theatrical flourishes. Whether this was done on purpose to streamline the process or because there simply wasn't room using the mobile-focused approach, who can say.

The gameplay felt quite balanced in a way, where the base and bonus game are split between cash symbol collections and streak respins. The latter proved to be highly elusive during the review, as bonus round triggers were rare. It didn't help that the first time the bonus game activated, we ended up with a grand total of zero dollars and zero cents. Hey, these things can happen in any game. However, after squinting to see what was going on for so long, the zero win was like getting a piece of grit flicked in our eye for the trouble, almost prompting a walkout before the show had finished.

The Great Albini 2's real headliner is its 20,000x the bet top prize, awarded when filling the grid with symbols in the bonus game. A big total, to be sure, yet it feels like there is a massive drop off for second prize or less, so a realistic win target would be advantageous to know.

Peering at The Great Albini 2 for a while produced a few fun moments, and there was a touch of magic in the air, yet the tricks included are far from being on the cutting edge and playing on anything other than a mobile seems a tad pointless. In the end, The Great Albini 2 felt like a magician borrowing your pocket watch for a trick, placing it in a black velvet bag, then proceeding to bash it with a hammer. However, something didn't go according to plan, so instead of getting back a fully functioning watch, he hands you a bag full of broken bits.