Monopoly Utility Trails

Monopoly Utility Trails Review

There are many Monopoly-themed games available. Monopoly Utility Trails plays out on an impressive 8x7 grid, but the pace of the gameplay could be better.

There is a delay after most actions in the game, including wins and cascading wins. Generating wild clusters is key, and you build up to 2 bonus rounds by collecting tokens. The math model is good, but those expecting features that mirror the board game may be disappointed.

Monopoly Utility Trails Features

The Cluster Pays engine forms winning combos when 5 to 15+ matching symbols land adjacent both horizontally and vertically. Winning clusters are removed, and symbols cascade down. This Cascading Wins feature continues as long as you land new winning clusters.

There are 4 different tokens that are wild symbols in the game, and they substitute for the regular symbols. The wilds are removed when part of a winning cluster. The golden locomotive wild triggers the Wild Tracks feature when you land 2 on the same reel or row.

All symbols between the 2 golden locomotive wilds will be replaced by the silver carriage wild. If you land 4 golden wilds forming a square, the whole area will be filled with silver carriage wilds. If bonus symbols are between golden wilds, they are both wilds and bonus symbols. Carriage silver wilds turn into golden locomotive wilds if they remain on the grid after a Cascade.

You can land a 3x3 Community Chest symbol at random times. It will open to reveal an instant cash prize between 5x and 1,000x, and then the mega symbol explodes to trigger a new Cascade.

The bonus scatters are the Water Works Tap and the Light Bulb symbols, and these are collected in meters. You need 15 of each to trigger their features.

During the Water Works Bonus, the reels spin until at least 1 winning cluster is landed. Winning clusters become sticky for the feature, as non-winning symbols cascade. The taps above the reel set can become active, upgrading the sticky cluster win symbols in 2 ways:

• If there are multiple sticky clusters with unique symbols, all the winning clusters are upgraded to match the highest paying cluster.
• If all winning clusters are of the same symbol, the symbol will be upgraded to the next tier in accordance with the paytable.

The Electric Company Bonus plays out with the 8x7 grid filled with 56 multiple-color tiles, Chance Cards and Property Cards. The Property Cards are worth between 0.25x and 25x your stake, and they become sticky whenever they land. The colorful tiles might generate non-paying clusters and be removed, and this doubles the value of any Property Cards with the same color.

You have 3 lives in this feature, and you lose 1 life if you land no color cluster, property card or chance card on any given spin. The Chance Card will flip to reveal either a house or a hotel, triggering the following multipliers:

• House - doubles the value of a random Property Card.
• Hotel - doubles the value of all Property Cards in view.

The feature goes on until you’ve either filled the grid with nothing but Cash Property Cards, or until you run out of lives. Either way, all your winnings will be summed up, and back to the base game you go.

If you manage to fill the entire grid with wilds in the base game, you win the Off The Rails Jackpot. There are 2 ways to fill the screen with wilds. You either land 1 golden wild in each corner on any given spin, or you trigger the feature by landing 10 consecutive Cascading Wins. The Off The Rails Jackpot is worth 5,000x your stake either way.

The 200 Spins Monopoly Utility Trails Experience

It is suggested to set the speed to 2x if you plan to watch a highlights video of the game. The reason is the pause between each spin. Anyway, you can safely skip to a point in the video to avoid the base game. See how a bonus is triggered and the outcome of the bonus by watching the video.

Review Summary

The game's pace might seem like a minor detail, but in the case of Monopoly Utility Trails, it's an issue. We understand that 56 symbols can be a lot, but nobody wants to stare at a non-winning grid for several seconds, while hammering the spin button, before another spin commences. A turbo spin option is needed.

The Wild Tracks feature adds excitement to the base game, since filling the grid to win the 5,000x jackpot is an ever-present possibility. The Electric Company Bonus wasn’t as appealing as the Water Works feature. All in all, this Monopoly feels a bit too rigid, stiff and mechanical, lacking the flow and pace that makes other grid slots good.

If you enjoy Monopoly Utility Trails you should also try:

Other Monopoly-themed games are recommended, with board game elements, classic slots, and Pick'em features.