Gonzo's Quest

Gonzo’s Quest Overview

Gonzo’s Quest is produced by NetEnt, a developer of more than 200 slot games. The game was released back in 2011, and has since launched sequels like Gonzo’s Quest Megaways and Gonzo’s Gold.

Gonzo’s Quest has a standard layout for online slots, with a 5×3 grid and 20 paylines that pay out wins from left to right. It comes with a medium-to-high volatility and a maximum jackpot of 2,500x your wager. The game symbols and design tie into the theme, which revolves around a character named Gonzo searching for ancient treasure deep in the jungle.

The game keeps things exciting with added features like multipliers, avalanche reels, and a bonus round. With 3D animation and extra attention to detail, NetEnt has pulled out all the stops, making Gonzo’s Quest a slot game that has remained popular since its release. Both casual and serious players will find something to enjoy when playing Gonzo’s Quest.

Where to Play Gonzo’s Quest Casino Game?

Gonzo’s Quest is a popular game at real-money online casinos, such as BetMGM, BetRivers and more. If you like to play casino games with real money, you’ll have no problem finding this game or one of the Gonzo’s Quest spin-off titles.

Playing Gonzo’s Quest at a sweepstakes, or social, casino is a little more tricky. I wasn’t able to find it at many sweeps casinos, including McLuck which is one of the few sweeps sites that stocks NetEnt games.

You can play Gonzo’s Quest at BetRivers.net however, which is a genuine social casino with no sweepstakes play available.

If you want to play Gonzo’s Quest without spending money, I have two other recommendations. First, you can sign up at a real-money casino that offers demo versions of their games that allow players to try them out before spending. Second, visit NetEnt’s website where they have demos of all of their games, including Gonzo’s Quest.

If you prefer to play games at a sweepstakes casino, try searching for games similar to Gonzo’s Quest. Searching by theme can bring up plenty of results – I tried searching “quest,” “treasure,” and “Aztec” and found fun titles like John Hunter and the Aztec Treasure by Pragmatic Play.

I hope to see a developer as big as NetEnt have more of a presence at sweepstakes casinos in the future. However, you can still have fun by playing a demo version of Gonzo’s Quest or finding games with a similar look and feel when you visit a sweepstakes casino.

Gonzo’s Quest User Experience – 4/5

Gonzo’s Quest brings players an entertaining and unique slot game experience. It offers straightforward gameplay with some extra challenges thrown in, as well as an engaging story and main character.

The game screen is made up of 5 reels and 3 rows, and contains a total of 20 paylines. This is a common layout for slot games, but the extra details of this game make it feel anything but common.

The playing experience starts with a short animated intro explaining Gonzo the explorer’s backstory (this intro is not always available in demo versions of the game.) Gonzo also appears on the game screen, standing to the left of the reels and expressing his reaction to bigger wins. This attention to character and narrative really makes Gonzo’s Quest stand out next to other slot games, adding an engaging and immersive feel.

The game is set against the backdrop of an ancient Aztec structure deep in the jungle. Sounds of insects chirping and stones rumbling can be heard, adding to the atmosphere. This is accompanied by a musical sting whenever you land on a winning reel.

The slot symbols are stones with carvings of various animal and human faces, each with a different prize value ranging from 3 to 2,500 gold coins. The symbols drop into place on each spin, and can be replaced when you trigger the game’s avalanche feature.

Game controls are embedded in the earth at the bottom of the screen. You can set bet levels and coin value, find the spin and autoplay buttons, and see your total balance. The green information button in the left corner will tell you everything you need to know about prize values, paylines, and multipliers.

The game’s performance is reasonably smooth, although I did feel like there was too much waiting at times. The avalanche reels are a great feature to create multiple wins, but the crumbling and falling rocks could be sped up to improve the momentum of gameplay.

I also was unable to land the bonus free fall round despite several hours of playing. While some players might find this a deterrent, others might enjoy the challenge that comes with finally accessing this round. Personally, despite not landing the bonus, I found the overall design and my new friend Gonzo enough reason to keep returning.

Gonzo’s Quest Slot RTP, Payout, and Volatility – 4/5

Gonzo’s Quest comes with an RTP of 95.97%, a medium-to-high volatility and a high payout of 2,500x your bet. I like that this game has a competitive RTP rating and provides a challenging volatility for players. Let’s take a look at these figures in more depth.

The current average RTP (return to player) for slots games is 96%. This means that for every $100 wagered, $96 is returned on average to players. Gonzo’s Quest has an RTP of 95.97%, just short of the industry average but high enough that it’s still competitive.

A volatility rating is used to measure the size and frequency of a game’s wins, and are classified as low, medium or high. Low volatility slots pay small amounts regularly, while high volatility slots pay less often but the amounts tend to be higher. Gonzo’s Quest has a medium-to-high volatility, which means it’s likely to pay out larger amounts less often. I found this to be true when I played the game.

The top payout for Gonzo’s Quest is 2,500x your wager, which can be won if you land 5 of the valuable silver-and-gold mask symbols on a payline. The 2,500x is lower than some other classic slot games like Cleopatra, which has a max payout of 10,000x. However, Gonzo’s Quest adds the avalanche feature, increasing your chances of landing on that top win.

These figures are fairly typical of the slots offered by NetEnt. Divine Fortune is another of their most popular games, with an RTP of 96.59% and a medium-to-high volatility. This kind of consistency makes me feel confident whenever I see a slot game with the NetEnt logo.

Gonzo’s Quest Bonus Features – 4/5

Gonzo’s Quest has a few interesting bonus features that add extra adventure to the gameplay. These features include a Wild Symbol, Scatter Symbol, Multiplier, Avalanche, and a Free Fall round.

Gonzo’s Quest Wild Symbol

The Wild Symbol is a grey tile with a gold question mark. It substitutes for any regular symbol in the game, and can appear during both the base game and the Free Fall round.

I like that the Wild Symbol animates and flips around to reveal the symbol it’s replacing.

Gonzo’s Quest Avalanche Reels

Gonzo’s Quest comes with the Avalanche reel feature, also known as cascading or tumbling reels. When you land a win, the symbols in the winning payline drop away allowing new symbols to fall into place. The Avalanche can retrigger up to four times per spin with an increasing multiplier each time, adding up to some sizable wins.

Gonzo’s Quest Multiplier

Gonzo’s Quest offers several multiplier levels, increasing your wins up to 15x. The multiplier increases each time you trigger the Avalanche feature, up to four times with each spin.

During regular play, the multiplier increases from 1x to 2x, 3x and 5x. In my experience, the multipliers are harder to get each time – I could land the 2x multiplier fairly often, but that 5x multiplier was rare. If you trigger the Free Fall round, the multipliers increase to 3x, 6x, 9x and 15x.

Gonzo’s Quest Free Fall Round

The Free Fall round in Gonzo’s Quest can be triggered by landing three or more of the Golden Free Fall symbol, which is similar to a scatter symbol. Unlike some other slot games, the Wild Symbol in Gonzo’s Quest can substitute for this symbol too.

The Free Fall round awards between 10 and 20 free spins. It takes place on the regular game screen and includes the Avalanche and multiplier features, but with the increased multiplier values. The Wild and Free Fall symbols can appear in this round, retriggering more free spins and those high multiplier wins.