The Dream Slot: Will This Game Meet Your Expectations?

I must admit that when I loaded up The Dream slot, I didn’t really know what to expect. Sure the accompanying link showed two attractive ladies in what seemed like some kind of fantastical woodland glade, but how did that tie in with the “dream” theme of the slot?

Having now played the game, I’m still none the wiser as to why the slot was given the name. There are elements of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream in the slot, but other than that, it just seems to be a fantastical setting filled with beautiful ladies, doves, donkeys and fairy folk. I haven’t had many dreams like that to be honest, but we’ll overlook that and focus on what the slot has to offer.

Overview: The Dream

The Dream is a 5×4 reel slot featuring the usual mix of playing card low symbols (10 through to Ace). Alongside these are a number of higher value symbols. These include male and female fairies, a dove, and a donkey that seems to be wearing some sort of garland. There’s also the obligatory beautiful lady on the reels as the highest value symbol.

There are 40 selectable paylines in play. You can wager from $0.01 up to $1.00 per payline, giving you a minimum spin of $0.01 up to a maximum of $40. This puts The Dream slot firmly in the realm of the mid to lower stakes player. The biggest base game single payline jackpots are rather low with 400 coins the largest amount you can win in the base game alone, although you can win on multiple lines to increase the overall value of a win beyond this amount.

Who will The Dream slot appeal to?

It’s actually quite hard to think who The Dream will appeal to, simply because I don’t think the slot actually knows what it’s supposed to be about. There’s no definitive theme and “The Dream” is a very vague title. However, the general feeling of the slot is that it is a fantastical, woodland-themed slot invoking mystical animals and, of course, fairies.

Better then to look at the mechanics of the game, which mean that it’s a slot that will mostly be played by medium stakes players. However, lower stakes players can enjoy it, albeit with only smaller rewards on offer than is available on some other slots. However, what The Dream does have up its sleeve are some attractive and unusual features. These will certainly attract players and which we will look at in more detail below.

Gameplay: The Dream

Although I may not be too clear as to what The Dream slot is actually about, when it comes to the dynamics of playing the game, everything is much clearer and very neatly done. The graphics on the slot have been beautifully created. They’ve used soft hues of color to create an almost ethereal feel to the backdrop.

In contrast the reels are sharp and clear, easy to see and follow. All the symbols used on the reels are beautifully rendered. Indeed, the only thing that lets it down in terms of presentation are the generic sounds, which are somewhat out of place and bring you back to a jarring reality.

Once you have decided how many paylines to play and your coin size, you can use the Spin button or Autoplay feature to get the reels spinning. When you do, the first thing you will notice is that on every spin, random symbols are stacked across the reels. These are not just stacked reels, but super-stacked reels.

What this means is that it’s possible for entire reels to turn to one symbol (and when this happens, the wins can be much bigger than individual payline jackpots). Furthermore, the higher value symbols in the slot can also appear as split symbols too, meaning that you can have two symbols counting as one on a spin.

As such, you can have up to ten of the same symbol on a winning payline and this is reflected in the payouts you can achieve on the higher value symbols.

Additional features

Alongside the usual higher and lower value symbols is the Dream Wild symbol. This serves one purpose in the slot. That is to substitute for other symbols to create winning paylines. One nice touch is that when it substitutes for one of the higher value symbols, it will automatically count as a split symbol. Thus it will count as two symbols toward your payline win.

By using Wilds, Split symbols and the Super Stacked symbols in the base game, it is possible to trigger some rare but very decent wins. However if you want to achieve bigger wins you really need to get lucky and hit the Free Spins bonus round.

This is achieved by landing the Free Games Bonus symbols on reels 2, 3 and 4. These symbols only appear on the middle reel and are also stacked. When you land the bonus, you’ll receive seven free spins. The reels will also change to indicate that this is a free spins round.

While Split symbols and Super Stacked symbols, plus the Wilds are all in action during free spins, it is annoying that you cannot retrigger free spins, especially when you only get a maximum of seven in the first place. That said, if you can hit Super Stacked symbols and Wilds across multiple reels with a large number of split symbols included, you can land some very big wins in this part of the game.

Special features: The Dream

Super Stacked & Split symbols

During the base game random symbols appear super stacked across all the reels. These allow you to turn entire reels into a single symbol. Some symbols are split, meaning you can land two symbols in one space, offering you a chance of a larger payline win.

Free Spins

To trigger the Free Spins bonus round you need to land the Free Games bonus symbol on reels 2, 3, and 4. When you do you receive seven non-retriggerable free spins with all the same features active in the free spins round as in the base game.

Wild

The Dream Logo is the Wild symbol. This can be stacked on the reels and is used to substitute for other high and low value symbols to create winning paylines. For high value symbols, the Wild acts as a split symbol, counting for two symbols on a payline win.

What works?

Wilds & Split symbols

The Wild symbol helps the game along nicely completing many winning paylines. The fact it serves as a split symbol when substituting for a higher value symbol gives the base game a little added spice.

Regular small wins

Although this is definitely a medium to higher variance slot, you do win regularly on the game. The majority of these wins are small though, so you do need those bigger, rare wins to keep your balance topped up.

Super Stacked symbols

The key to winning big on this slot is the super-stacked symbols and particularly landing them with Wilds and Split symbols in order to create multiple winning paylines of 6+ symbols or more. This is when you can trigger those isolated big wins which can really bump up your bankroll.

What doesn’t?

Muddled theme

One of the most obvious things about The Dream slot is that it is a very muddled theme. It certainly has dreamlike qualities, but the slots name doesn’t really bare any resemblance to what you see in the game, which is more like a fantasy-themed slot.

Small base game wins

Those small base game wins can become a nuisance. The majority of them tend to be considerably less than your total bet. This means that even if you’re winning, you can actually be losing money until you land a bigger win.

Small jackpot

Even with the option of multiple payline wins, the small jackpots available for single paylines are tiny compared to some other slot games. When value is so hard to hit, it does subtract enjoyment from the slot as you feel, even if you win, you won’t win enough to justify the time you put into playing.

The scores

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Graphics & soundtrack 2/5

There’s nothing wrong with the graphics on The Dream slot as such, even if the theme is a bit confused. But, the generic soundtrack that accompanies it is completely out of place with the atmosphere the slot wants to evoke.

Originality & creativity 2/5

I’ve given this slot a couple of marks for the Super Stacked symbol feature and the Split Symbol feature, but in many other ways this is very much a standard 5×4 slot with little originality behind it, to be brutally honest.

Play value 1/5

This is where things start to get really ugly. The Dream is a slot which doesn’t pay out too often. You need to be the lucky player to win big. Other times, you are almost guaranteed a loss with small payouts and small payline jackpots.

Jackpot potential 1/5

At 400 coins per payline for a jackpot, you’ll be reliant on hitting many payline wins on a spin if you want to win big on the slot. That makes this game extremely unattractive to jackpot hunters who want a chance of a big win on a single payline.

Repeat play 2/5

In truth, the Super-Stacked symbols may keep you coming back for more, as will the free spins round. However, after a couple of sessions, I can’t see you being awake enough to enjoy The Dream slot much longer.

Total score: 8/25

There was so much potential for this slot but unfortunately The Dream has turned into a bit of a nightmare. It has some great features, but the somewhat tightfisted payouts, high variance, and low jackpot sizes all combine to make this a slot that is nice to look at, but one that lacks the immediate appeal to keep you spinning the reels.