Play Jewels for Free

Jewels offers the chance for players to strike it rich by way of matching jewels up in like combinations. Although the stones and rocks themselves are covered by a map of the paylines – which is slightly confusing given you don’t actually need to know where the paylines are (we’ll come to this later), you can just about make out the various colours of pictures you’re looking to match up.

Hit the Paytable button at the bottom of the screen, where most of the controls for the game are, and things should become a lot more apparent. So, the idea is to land combinations of threes, fours, or fives of like-pictures in order to successfully claim a prize. The lowest value of these are the letters, which are, of course, diamond encrusted.

After these we have stones in red (heart shaped), purple (diamond shaped), and lighter red (which looks more like a rock that has been chiseled out of the ground and roughly cut). On top of these there are some special icons, but let’s not get too far ahead of ourselves just yet.

Jewels offers a couple of ways in which you can impact on how much, and how often, you stand a chance of winning. The first of which is by introducing more, or reducing the overall number of paylines in active play. Do this by hitting + or - on the Bet Lines control at the bottom of the screen. You can add or subtract in increments of 10 at a time.  The more you have in play the more chances you have of winning because winning combinations only count as a win when you land them on an active payline.

Next up it’s time to adjust the value of each individual bet. Do this by hitting + or - on the Bet Per Line control. The more you’re willing to risk the higher the value of your win, although don’t think it’s always a good idea to go for max bet size and max bet value, as this is likely to see you burn through your budget like there’s no tomorrow. So think carefully and hedge your bets accordingly.

In addition to the standard pictures you also have some special icons that need to be understood. The first of these are the Jackpots. There are three variations – Mega, Mini, and Minor, and these names reflect their individual value when you land five of a kind. Basically, get one on every reel across active paylines and you stand to win big, bigger and biggest.

On top of those you also have a Scatter, which looks like a brown cloth bag of gold. This acts as a multiplier, increasing what you walk away with from winning lines. There’s a Free symbol too, which is a pile of gold coins. Land these and you’ll be given free spins - basically free goes at winning cash- a different number depending on how many you land.

The Bonus, which looks like an overflowing treasure chest, will trigger a bonus game if landed on reels three, four or five. And, finally, the Wild, which is impossible to miss as it says ‘Wild’ in huge letters, can substitute for any other symbol to make a winning combination other than the Bonus, Free, Scatter or Jackpots.

On the whole Jewels is an incredibly fun, and incredibly compelling 5-reel gambler that is hard to put down once you’ve picked it up. The inclusion of the Jackpots and bonus game really add to the offering and make it feel like more of a complete gambling experience, and the gameplay is as smooth as you could ask for.

A strong effort by anyone’s definition, it’s the reason we’ve been getting such little sleep of late. Definitely one to get involved with then.