Avalon II

Basic Features

Avalon II is a sequel to the original Avalon, which shared the fate of so many other Arthurian slots, in that it was well-received and moderately popular, but wasn’t really anything special. A decent attempt, and a nice distraction, but nothing more. Not content with mediocrity, though, Microgaming got hard at work on a sequel, and I have to say that it completely paid off! Avalon II has got almost everything that you might want from a slot – an amazing RTP, frequent winnings, great visuals, literally tons of fun and varied bonus games and a detailed paytable. While not perfect, I think it’s a safe bet to say that it’s the best Arthurian slot ever made, which is certainly a worthy achievement!

Avalon II Slot
		Software:	Microgaming	Double option:	No
		RTP:	97.00%	Mobile version:	Yes
		Progressive:	No	Coin value:	£0.01-£0.05
		Autoplay:	Yes	Bet value:	£0.30 – £7.50
		Quick spin:	Yes	Max. bet:	£7.50
		Reels:	5	Free spins:	Yes
		Paylines:	243	Bonus round:	Yes

Avalon II is a 243 paytable slot with a stunning 97% RTP – which is incredibly rare among well-developed slots. Most developers generally need to make a choice between a slightly lower RTP with more opportunities to win (such as bonus games and bonus features) and a higher RTP, but more standardized features. It’s great to see that Microgaming haven’t shied away from getting the best of both worlds and providing that rare experience which will keep you entertained while also providing you with a few bucks. Sadly, the lack of jackpot can definitely be felt, but you can still have a lot of fun and hope for some good rewards playing Avalon II.

Paytable

As is standard for Microgaming slots, we’ve got a dozen non-special symbols and two special ones (a Wild and a Scatter). Six of them are letters, which as you may know is a pretty big pet peeve of mine. And even worse, the letters here aren’t stylized in any way, they’re just taken from some random, colourful font that would look a lot better superimposed on paper plates at a children’s birthday party than on the reels of a dark and rather realistic Arthurian slot. To serve as further contrast, the other six symbols, which represent characters such as Guinevere, Morgan and Merlin, are rendered very well, which makes seeing them side by side with these large, cartoony letters very jarring and, honestly, kind of unnerving.

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All winnings presented in the images are in pounds and adjusted for the maximum bet of 150 coins per spin

The letters, as ugly as they are, actually paying fairly well – the lowest you can possibly get is 20 times your bet, which is actually very decent for a slot where you bet on all paylines automatically. On a slot with 20 paylines where you make an individual gamble for each one, a win of 20 times your wager will not actually get you anything, but here, what you see is what you get – 20 times your bet means 20 times your bet. And it gets better – the letters can win you up to 500 times your stake, but the character portraits can bring you up to 5000 times what you invested. But if you manage to get 5 Wilds (represented by the slot’s logo), then you’ll be leaving with 10000 times your bet. Not so impressive, perhaps, but the most you can get (around £75,000) is still not a sum you’d scoff at. Still, the real charm ofAvalon II isn’t the high winnings – it’s the bonus games that allow you to score even more impressive loot!

Bonus Rounds/Free Spins

Mmmm, I love this sentence… “There’s so many bonus games and features that I’m physically unable to talk about all of them in the space that I’ve been given”. I’ve used a variation of it in one or two of my other reviews, but it always feels SO good to say! Rolls right off your tongue like cinnamon ingested by a stupid YouTuber. The slot presents you with at least a dozen different bonus games, each of which is unique and different. You activate them by getting three Scatter symbols, represented, of course, by the Holy Grail. It’s funny how the object of Arthur’s quest is also what you’ll be aiming towards throughout your adventure. Now that’s good design right there!

I highly recommend that you just check out the paytable in order to learn more about the bonus games, since as I said I can’t possibly explain everything about them here, but let me share some of my favourites with you. There’s the game where you need to roll a die, with each side of the die representing a fragment of the shattered Excalibur – you have 10 tries to get all 6 sides, and if you can manage it then you win a huge bonus, but even if you don’t, the higher numbers you roll, the bigger your reward at the end will be. In the Hall of Shadows bonus game you’ll have to fight the Black Knight until one of you remains limbless (what is he gonna do, bleed on you?), and in the Whispering Woods you’ll have to choose one of the shields and claim the prize attached to it (with the possibility to exchange your shield up to two times if you’re not happy with what you got). Additionally, there’s plenty of games that just give you free spins or extra Wilds.

Experience of Playing the Slot and Other Recommended Games

Avalon II is definitely a decent slot. While I wouldn’t call it the best slot ever made in history, it’s definitely among my top 10. Unlike its sister slot Thunderstruck II, which suffered from some very questionable design choices and overall didn’t present anything that different, King Arthur’s latest outing is a gem to behold, one of those rare slots that aren’t just good enough if you want to win some money, but are also really fun to play on their own. While certain aspects of it tend to be a bit rough around the edges, there is something here that is often missing from slots, even those with bigger budgets and greater visuals – effort. The people in charge of Avalon II actually sat down and put some actual, honest to God effort into making their slot good. They didn’t tick boxes, they didn’t just try to put the lowest amount of work possible into producing SOME kind of slot, no, they went all out in order to make something worth playing. And you know what? They ultimately succeeded.