Play Lord of the Rings for Free

Many of the sounds and dialogue that feature in the game are taken directly from the movie franchise, and this adds an extra layer of authenticity to proceedings. Players will be swept away by the cinematic feel of the action. Big wins are accompanied by fantastic graphics and animations too; for fans of the films, this is a superb touch.

The gameplay is smooth and slick as you’d expect from a Microgaming title, and it really is easy to get to grips with whether you are a complete newcomer to slot gaming or a more experienced player.

Use the handy Coin Indicator meter to set your wager for each spin exactly how you want it, and remember with 243 ways to win you will need to set your base slot machine coin value accordingly. The + and – buttons make life easier, and remember that the more you bet the more you win.

As a LOTR themed slot title, it will come as no surprise that the film’s characters are the mainstays on the reels. All of the characters are here: Sam and Frodo, Legolas, Gollum, Gandalf, Aragorn and more of the gang, and these each pay out a prize for matching three or more of them on your reels. You can see exactly how much by consulting the paytable.

The fun doesn’t end there. You’ll even see the evasive ring rocking and rolling on the reels, as well as a cache of weaponry that our intrepid adventurers wield in the film franchise. You wouldn’t want to be roaming Middle Earth unarmed, after all.

The game features not one but two expanding wilds as well: the Eye of Sauron and the Lord of the Rings logo. Both of these will substitute for any other symbol on the board – apart from the scatter – to help players uncover winning combinations where otherwise they didn’t exist. These will also expand to engulf the complete reel – the Eye of Sauron on reel 3 is a complete crowd-pleaser – and create even more winning lines.

There is a scatter to behold here too, and this is the much-maligned Ring. Everybody wants to get their hands on this golden trinket, and for good reason: three or more of this symbol launch the Free Spins bonus, where players are handed 15 freebies with which to take advantage. Very precious indeed! Oh, and then there’s that bit about the wearer of the ring being able to control people in the film. That’s why the ring is so prominent here.

During your free spins a wild symbol will appear on one of your reels and stay there for the duration of the feature. If you manage to spin another three of the scatter symbol during the feature then an additional 15 freebies will be awarded to your allocation and the wild reset. This is a key point worth highlighting: unlike many other slot titles, there is no maximum amount of free spins that can be won. How good is that!?

So as you can see, Lord of the Rings is a slot game of high quality in its own right. Often, movie franchise based titles tend to be a bit disappointing – they use their name, rather than any originality, as a way of ‘selling’ the game. But LOTR brings something different to the plate with not one but two expanding wilds and a Free Spins bonus feature of unlimited potential.

“I wish the ring had never come,” says Frodo in the Fellowship of the Ring. Once you’ve loaded up the slot game of the same name you’ll be wondering how you coped without it!

I imagine this game will be well promoted by online casinos in New Zealand given most of the films were shot there - maybe the film extras will be hoping they made it to the game version also!