Dark Hearts Slots

Dark Hearts is a 5-reel, 243 ways slot that focuses on a vampire love triangle. The theme is very similar to the Twilight movie series. This begs the question of whether Dark Hearts is just a generic vampire game or something more original.

A let's find out by looking at this game's symbols, atmosphere, special features, betting options, and return to player (RTP). We'll also offer a verdict on whether Dark Hearts is worth playing.

Symbols and Theme

Unlike many Rival Gaming slots that we've played, this one doesn't offer an introduction video. And we were a little disappointed because this is a hallmark of many Rival Gaming products. In any case, we'll give Dark Hearts a pass because the story is fairly obvious from the symbols and overall atmosphere.

Speaking of which, Dark Hearts lives up to its name by featuring a dim background with thorny roses surrounding the screen. You'll also see drops of blood falling from the roses to indicate the vampire theme. The pay table shows that this game takes place near a big city because there are skyscrapers across the water.

Symbols include the Love Bites wild icon, Marcus, Viktor, Willow, rose, DH icon, goblet, cross, key (scatter), A, K, Q, J, 10, and 9. The wild symbol substitutes for all other icons except the key to form payouts. The DH symbol pays the most, offering 1,250 coins for 5 icons. This game features plenty of haunting piano tunes when you form wins.

The symbols are presented in Rival's traditional cartoon style. The graphics aren't outstanding, but they're adequate enough to back up the theme. You'll also see animations whenever the main characters appear in a winning payline.

Dark Hearts Special Features

Dark Hearts only has one special feature, but it's a decent one. Any time that three or more keys land anywhere on the reels, you'll be taken to a new screen to choose how many free games and what multiplier you want.

Viktor offers 30 free spins and a 1x multiplier, Willow offers 15 free spins and a 2x multiplier, and Marcus offers 10 free spins and a 3x multiplier.

The obvious trade-off here is that you get less free games when picking a higher multiplier. There's really no correct strategy in this situation. Your choice will depend upon whether you want fewer chances at bigger prizes, or more chances at smaller potential prizes. Once you make your selection, the free games play out like normal spins.

Betting Options

This game gives you the ability to change coin size from $0.01 to $0.25 and coins per line from 1-10. There are no paylines, but you're required to bet at least $0.30 per spin (at 1 cent coin size) to activate the 243 ways to win.

Other options include Bet Max and autoplay. The Bet Max option quickly turns coin size and coins per line to their highest value. Autoplay allows you to spin the reels automatically, but this is only available in real money play.

Dark Hearts RTP

This game offers 95.2% RTP, which is average for an online slot. The average return to player is somewhat made up for by the high payout frequency.

243 Ways to Win

Dark Hearts offers you 243 ways to win on any single spin. This means that you can form winning combinations by icons touching in adjacent reels. Contrast this to the average online slot, where you need symbols to appear in active paylines for a win.

Final Thoughts on Dark Hearts Slots

Dark Hearts isn't the best game that we've ever played. In fact, it's not even one of the top slots we've tried from Rival Gaming. But this game does offer just enough to make it worth a few spins.

The biggest reason to check out Dark Hearts is its atmosphere, which does a good job of reflecting an eerie vampire love story. We also like how the bonus round gives you three different options when choosing free spins and multipliers.

The big downside to this game is simply that it doesn't stand out much from other vampires slots in movies. Perhaps a second-screen bonus round could've remedied this. But there isn't one to speak of in Dark Hearts. Nevertheless, we still recommend giving this game a quick try if you enjoy vampire-themed slots.