Irish Eyes 2 Slot Review & Free Play

Irish Eyes 2: Leprechaun Magic or Just a Faded Rainbow?

The expression "luck of the Irish" has its roots in the 19th-century American gold rushes when Irish fortune hunters often found success. This phrase inspires the theme of Irish Eyes 2. A sequel to Irish Eyes, it promised me a playful hunt for riches.

I discovered that the symbols carry the Irish theme further, with the golden heart-shaped rings being the most lucrative, with a top payout of 1,500x for five. The Leprechaun hats and four-leaf clovers/pipes offer a maximum of 750x and 400x, respectively, for five on a payline.
As for the traditional playing card symbols, the Ace and King can bring you up to 200x for five of a kind, while the Queen, Jack, 10, and 9 are at the lower end of the paytable.

The rules are straightforward: line up matching symbols across the reels on any of the 25 paylines to win. I initially encountered a series of modest wins, like 2x to 4x my bet, aligning symbols like letters and numbers that filled my pot with small coin rewards.

The Wild symbol is an Irish Girl, and it helped me complete a winning line a couple of times. While she could bring in up to 5,000x per bet for five on a payline, I couldn't help but remember the original Irish Eyes game's more generous offering of 10,000x for the same combination.

The Scatter symbol is a glistening Pot of Gold, and it holds the key to the bonus round. Landing three or more doesn't just bring up to 100 times the bet; it also triggers the Free Games feature.

With three Pots on the reels, I was awarded 10 free spins once, which helped me win 14x my bet. The possibility of retriggering more free spins was there, although I wasn't fortunate enough to experience it this time around.

If you hit 3 Pots, you will get 10 free games. If you can land 4 Pots, that's even better – you can unlock 15 free games. And if you're lucky enough to see 5 Pots, you're in for a treat with 20 free games. Any prizes you win in these free games get tripled.

Now, as much as I enjoyed the steady flow of smaller wins and the more generous free spins bonus rounds, I found the halving of the prize for five Wilds and the absence of the Pick and Win feature from its predecessor to be a letdown.

Clearly, the game doesn't try to reinvent the wheel with complex mechanics but rather provides a comforting, nostalgic experience. While it still offers a fun theme and the chance for good payouts, it does so with a conservative approach. 

I would say it's not a monumental leap forward from its original; it's more of a sideways step into a familiar, luck-filled world. If you have played the first game from the series, I think it might feel like a missed opportunity to double down on what made Irish Eyes shine.