Starquest

Are you ready for an interstellar adventure? To zoom past the various planets and stars and see various alien worlds and cultures? At current pace, humanity will no doubt reach for the stars. We already have planned mission to Mars, and even some basic plans to establish a lunar colony. Who knows, in a few hundred years, we may be able to enjoy a proper Starquest after all!

Starquest Review

The slot was released in 2016, with a breath-taking view full of little details. There are a total of six reels with varying heights. Yep, you guessed it, this is another Big Time Gaming release with Megaways! That means each reel can have as little as two, or as many as seven symbols present. The number of icons in each reel changes every time players spin the reels.

Available bonuses in this game will be quite familiar to anyone who played Queen of Riches before. They are quite similar at first glance, but with some important changes. Full reel Wilds make the switch, but only count for five symbols in height instead of seven. Multipliers are also restricted to 5x maximum, and can appear on reels two to five. To make up for it, cloned reels have now become the far more lucrative re-spin Wilds!

Theme & Symbols

The idea of Starquest is fantastic. After all, exploring outer space may be the closest thing to the wild west humans will ever see again. There are no colonists or civilisation to be found anywhere. Just a distant, hostile looking planet, and endless stars as far as the eye can see.

The background image is quite detailed, full of little effects we did not notice at first. You have obvious ones, like the particle effects on the edges of the screen. Then, you have the more subtle ones. Things like the Aurora Borealis, or the occasional flash of thunder beneath the colourful clouds of the planet.

Where the theme and background excel, icon take a huge step back. There’s not a single symbol present that has anything to do with outer space. You have the slot’s logo, some precious gemstones, and playing card royals. None of those things help immerse us in the idea of outer space.

How to Play Starquest

As is standard for Megaways games, online gamblers have six reels on offer. Each reel has a different height every time you spin the reels. The first reel could be three icons high, then five, then two.. there’s no rules! As you might expect, this bumps up the volatility significantly. It ultimately forces you to pick – do you want big wins, or safer gameplay?

If you choose the former, then you should get ready to grind hard. Starquest borrows more than special features from Queen of Riches. It can be annoyingly grindy, and there is no way to get around it. Other Big Time Gaming releases fixed that issue by letting you buy bonuses directly, but no such luck here.

The special features are even more annoying to land than they were previously. This is personal preference, but we think full reel Wilds pair quite well with the re-spin Wilds bonus. Sadly, the prizes are not nearly as magnificent as they were in Queen of Riches. The slot can still net you an awesome jackpot! Just not as great as its predecessor.

With a minimum bet of 0.20 per spin, casual and mid-range players will be quite happy. They get some insane value for money! You pay for 20 paylines, and get to enjoy up to 117649. Even with the worst of luck, that’s still a plus. The maximum wager is capped at 20.00 per spin.

Bonus Features

Available special features failed to excite us. Again, Starquest’s similarity to Queen of Riches forces us to compare the pair. And we cannot help but notice some glaring issues.

• Full Reel Wilds

This bonus makes a return in Big Time Gaming’s release. However, this time around full reel Wilds only count as five symbols instead of seven. The multiplier also only goes up to 5x instead of 7x. At the very least, you can still multiply several full reel Wilds for an awesome prize! These expanded Wilds can only appears on reels two through five.

• Re-spin Wilds

A full reel Wild appearing on the reels grants a single re-spin. If another Wild lands during this re-spin, then a new one is played. Each re-spin increases the multiplier of all full reel Wilds by one, up to 5ix. Re-spins continue until the four middle positions are held by Wilds, or no new full reel Wilds appear.

Payouts

Another hand-me-down from Queen of Riches is the insanely high variance. As we said earlier in the review, this will come down to preference. If you want a chance at winning a huge jackpot, Starquest will be the perfect game for you! However, you should prepare for a long and boring session before you get anywhere close to a big win.
The jackpot for this slot is 120,000 coins. The RTP is also in your favour, sitting at 96.9%.

If you are particularly attentive, you may have noticed both of these are identical between Queen of Riches and Starquest. It just goes to show how nearly identical the two games are.