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A Night of Mystery Slot Machine

A Night of Mystery is a 5 reel, 40 pay line slot machine that was developed by High 5 Games and licensed to IGT.

A Night of Mystery is a clever title describing how this game takes place at night, and how you’re a London based detective trying to solve a murder.

Your suspects are four burlesque dancers, and you discover the murderer by collecting clues through the bonus round.

You won’t be immediately blown away by A Night of Mystery’s graphics or gameplay. But the music and bonus round offer unique aspects that you won’t find in every slot machine.

Is this enough to make A Night of Mystery a slot machine worth playing?

Find out as we discuss this game’s atmosphere, music, animations, pay table, graphics, bonuses, betting options, and offer comparisons to other detective themed slots.

A Night of Mystery Slot Machines Overview

Atmosphere / Background

You’ll see a dim moon, dark sky, streetlight, and weathered buildings in the background, which sets the stage for an eerie detective adventure.

Certain symbols on the reels are transparent, allowing you to see the dark streets of London behind them.

If you were to picture a detective braving the night to solve a murder, A Night in Mystery meets this vision.

Music and Sound Effects

The tune that plays when the reels spin sounds more like it would come from a magician themed game. But it’s close enough to also fit the detective theme in A Night of Mystery.

Some of the animations are more suited to a horror game, such as when the wild symbol, dynamite holding woman, and knife wielding woman form wins.

Other sound effects, like those heard from the perfume and whip women, are more in line with A Night of Mystery’s theme.

Animations

Based on the animations during winning payouts, you’d think that all of these burlesque dancers are guilty of murder.

Animations from the women include: spraying poisoned perfume at the screen, throwing exploding dynamite, playing with a sharp knife, and swinging a whip.

You’ll also see the wild symbol pan out over a dark street, the detective hold a magnifying glass up to his eye, and gold coins spray from the bottom of the screen during big wins.

A Night of Mystery Pay Table and Graphics

A Night of Mystery’s symbols and payouts are as follows:

  • A Night of Mystery Icon Wild

    Appearing on reels 2, 3, 4, and 5 only, the game icon substitutes for everything except the Free Games logo, and clues in the Clue Collection Bonus.

  • Free Games Icon

    Appearing on reels 2, 3, and 4 only, the Free Games icon triggers free spins Clue Collection Bonus whenever it appears 3 or more times on the reels.

  • Detective

    The detective is the highest paying symbol, offering 500 credits for 5 symbols, 150 for 4, and 25 for 3.

  • Woman with Perfume

    Wearing a pink feathered hat and gesturing you to keep a secret, this dancer pays 250 credits for 5 symbols, 100 for 4, and 20 for 2.

  • Woman with Dynamite

    Wearing a teal hat and outfit, this woman pays 200 credits for 5 symbols, 75 for 4, and 20 for 3.

  • Woman with Knife

    Dressed in purple, this lady offers 200 credits for 5 symbols, 75 for 4, and 15 for 3.

  • Woman with Whip

    This redheaded woman pays 150 credits for 5 symbols, 70 for 4, and 15 for 3.

  • A, K

    These two letters pay 75 credits for 5 symbols, 25 for 4, and 5 for 3.

  • Q, J, 10

    The Q, J, and 10 offer 40 credits for 5 symbols, 20 for 4, and 5 for 3.

Symbol Graphics

We have mixed emotions about the symbol graphics in A Night of Mystery.

On one hand, all four of the women symbols along with the wild icon look really good. These symbols feature strong detail, a glossy finish, and quality animations that make them stand out.

But the detective, letters, and number are a class below the other symbols. The letters and number are especially bad because it looks like High 5 tried and failed to make them look weatheredlike the buildings.

Due to the detective, letters, and number, you won’t be overly impressed with A Night of Mystery’s graphics. But the women and eerie background might gradually change your mind.

A Night of Mystery Slot Bonus Features

Clue Collection Bonus Free Spins

When you land 3 or more Free Game icons anywhere on reels 2, 3, and 4, you’ll trigger the Clue Collection Bonus. Be aware that it takes a while to trigger free spins, and we performed severalhundred spins before finally unlocking them.

Given that the Clue Collection Bonus is the most interesting part of this slot, it’s a shame that you don’t trigger the free spins more often. We also don’t like how there’s no auto spin optionto keep the reels spinning while you try to unlock the bonus.

Once you do trigger free spins, a newspaper will cover the reels, stating that you need to capture clues to solve the mystery.

The paper blows down the street, and you’ll be taken to a new screen where all four women along with their potential murder weapon are shown above the reels.

The goal is to get clues on the reels, which unlocks extra wild symbols and/or awards you more free spins. Clues include: boots, dynamite, knives, lipstick, perfume, a spoon, handkerchief, andwhip.

The wild symbol is also active during free spins, but it won’t substitute for any clues or newly formed wild symbols in the bonus.

Once the free spins are over, your prizes will be added up and you’ll be taken back to the main reels.

Again, we hate how you rarely trigger free games. But the clues and extra wild symbols help make these free spins truly unique from the rest of the industry.

Stacked Symbols

This isn’t technically a bonus, but you’ll frequently get stacked symbols, where the same symbol takes up an entire reel.

The strange thing, though, is that these stacked symbols don’t help form wins as often as other games. In fact, there were many times where we wondered how we weren’t forming payout combinationswith 40 pay lines in play.

Betting Options

You can adjust pay lines from 1 40, and change your coin denomination from $0.02 to $2.00 per spin. This makes the minimum bet worth $0.02, and the max wager worth $80.00.

Note that pay lines change in the following increments, 1, 10, 20, 30, and 40. This doesn’t give you as much control over pay lines as some games, but at least you can make adjustments.

Other Options

One disappointing aspect about this game is that there’s no auto play feature.

The only thing that we see is a Replay button, which spins the reels once with your selected betting options. Considering that Replay only works for one spin, it’s a pointless option.

Luckily, you can speed up play by clicking the Spin button, then clicking it again to halt the reels. The only downside is that this requires you to constantly click the Spin button.

Other options include turning sound on and off with the speaker button, and clicking the question mark button to look at the pay table.

Win Frequency

The win frequency in A Night of Mystery is average for a 40 pay line slot machine.

While the win frequency may not be anything special, we did win on a consistent basis and at least one payout came every 3 to 4 spins.

The wild symbol comes up frequently and helps form lots of wins.

Our only problem in this category, though, is that the stacked symbols don’t form winning combination nearly enough. It becomes frustrating watching stacked symbols appear spin after spin, onlyto fail to produce wins.

Return to Player RTP

RTP for A Night of Mystery is 94.9%, which is good for a land based slot machine but average for an online slot. This falls in line with the average win frequency.

Game Rules

The rules for A Night of Mystery are standard for a 5 reel slot machine, which you can see below:

  • Winning combinations are formed from left to right.
  • If two or more wins are formed in the same pay line, only the highest win is paid out.
  • Line wins are made according to the coin denomination bet per pay line.
  • Free games are played at the same coin denomination and pay lines as the triggering spin.

Comparison to Other Detective Themed Slot Machines

A Night of Mystery is one of several slot machines that revolve around detectives and mystery. Below you can see how A Night of Mystery compares to a couple of other online slots that deal withthe detective genre.

Betsoft’s After Night Falls

After Night Falls sees you try to catch a notorious cat burglar in the dark streets of Paris.

This 5 reel, 30 pay line slot is a generic take on the Pink Panther franchise, with Inspector Rousseau being awfully close to the Pink Panther’s Inspector Clouseau.

One thing that you’ll notice immediately is how this game’s graphics are better than A Night of Mystery. The 3D graphics are top notch, while the background looks stellar.

We like how the music and sound effects are closer to a mystery game that what A Night of Mystery offers.

This game also delivers more bonus features, including free spins, moving wilds, and the 5 Rooms Click Me and Help Granny bonuses.

5 Rooms Click Me involves helping the burglar loot different apartments, while the other bonus sees Inspector Rousseau find clues in Granny’s apartment to catch the burglar.

Overall, we like After Night Falls better than A Night of Mystery. The only reason why you might choose A Night of Mystery is if you’re looking for a more serious theme.

Rival Gaming’s Moonlight Mystery

This 5 reel, 15 pay line slot opens with an overview of London and a murder being committed by a shadowy figure.

It’s your job to find out who this murderer is through the Who Dunnit bonus round.

This bonus sees you look upstairs or downstairs, then select a crime scene, culprit, motive, and weapon to earn a bonus prize. The Who Dunnit bonus is just as detailed as the Clue Collection freespins in A Night of Mystery.

Moonlight Mystery’s graphics are also similar in quality to A Night of Mystery, with neither game shining in this department. The sound effects are yet another area where these two games areequal, with both games sounding more like horror themed slots.

Long story short, Moonlight Mystery and A Night of Mystery are equal to each other and worth playing if you like the detective genre.

Conclusion

A Night of Mystery may not be the most polished detective slot available, but it does have some good points.

For starters, we like how the dark streets and old buildings create a sense of danger in this game. The animations, which include everything from a woman spraying poisoned perfume to anotherwielding a knife, also feed into the ominous atmosphere.

Another thing to like about A Night of Mystery is the Clue Collection Bonus, where you try to collect murder mystery clues during free spins. As you find clues, you’ll earn more free spins andextra wild symbols.

Things that we don’t like about A Night of Mystery include how certain symbols look, the lack of an auto play feature, and how infrequently free spins happen.

Our main problem with the symbol graphics is the letters and number, which fall well short of matching some of the other symbols in this game.

Given that the Clue Collection is the most exciting part of this game, we’d like to see it triggered more often. And considering that there’s no auto play option, you can’t just leave the reelsspinning and expect to trigger the bonus.

Overall, we think that the unique atmosphere and Clue Collection Bonus make this game worth playing no matter what. But due to the infrequency of the bonus and poor letter / number graphics, ANight of Mystery won’t end up being your favorite slot ever.