A new market: Massive Multiplayer Online Casino Gaming?

We buy most of the computer casino games that come out. Some of our favorites are the authentic games you can play in the real casinos offered by Masque publishing like Bally’s 101 slots ($19.99, Mac and PC), Slots I and Slots II. If you want to play games actually found in casino then bookmark Masque and check your nearest retailer for these titles. Unfortunately, none of their slots yet have online play and they don’t have our favorite video keno games from Ballys (like Triple Trouble Keno). From time to time we check the Masque site hoping they’ll release these titles. It’s a guaranteed buy from us when/if they ever do.

We also have enjoyed some of the Tycoon-like themed casinos like Casino Empire from Sierra (that’s the best one I’ve played yet) and Las Vegas Casino.

There are many different casino games that aren’t authentic like Masque publishing offers. We bought Hard Rock Casino from Mumbo Jumbo but that didn’t get too much play.

The slots from Phantom EFX aren’t ones that you’ll find in real terrestrial casinos, but are entertaining and we have purchased some of their games too like: Casino Shuffle Master (24 casino games) and Reel Deal Slots (there are two volumes, the first being a classic).

We have been searching for that good game(s) that truly emulates the real casino experience but does not require using real money. Phantom EFX has just released Reel Deal Vegas Casino Experience ($19.99 Windows) which offers multi-player offline and online gaming in a casino with many different games including: 7 different poker games, Blackjack, Craps, Roulette, Pai Gow, Single 21, Big Six, Oklahoma 3 Card, Keno, Big Raise Hold ‘Em, Baccarat, Four Card Poker, Sic Bo, Triple Shot Bonus, 6-5-4 Poker, Bingo, Hardway Blackjack, Dragon Bonus Baccarat, Red Dog, Let It Ride, Crazy 4 Poker, Face-Up 21, High Five Poker, Casino War, Catch a Wave, Big Four Stud, Pai Wow Bonus, five video poker machines and a few slot machines.

Offline play (Free)
The offline game allows playing with two different types of cash: Dream World Cash and Real World Cash, neither of which is actually real money. I was confused a bit by the word “real world” but that’s just an in-game expression and there is no actual real money gambling taking place, it’s all for fun. Each player starts with $2,000 in dream world and real world cash. With dream world cash players can play dream world odds, which means the (slots) payout at higher winning percentages of 120% as opposed to real world odds which are something less than 100% on average (meant to emulate true house odds).

The offline play frankly wasn’t all that exciting to me and reminded me of just about every other fake casino PC game. If that was all there was then I probably wouldn’t even have written this detailed review. Sure, the graphics were great, the sounds appealing, the bonus games fun for a play, and there is even a virtual prize vault where players can use their winnings to buy virtual gifts, but it’s mostly stuff I’ve seen before in either past Phantom EFX casino-oriented games or their competitors.

But the online play is a different story.

Online Play (most features require monthly subscription fee)
Before playing online one of the downsides is having to download a ton of files from Phantom EFX servers. I’m talking like hours worth of files on even a broadband connection, seriously. Their servers must be getting just pounded!

Reel Deal Vegas was released September 6, 2005, and they didn’t officially start their First Month Free promotion until September 30, and the updates during their beta period have been constant, with their download/patch servers being very slowwww.

So don’t expect to buy this game and be up and running within five minutes for the online play portion. And no, BTW, we didn’t use a 14.4 dialup connection, we were using a very fast cable up connection. Slowdown was clearly on Phantom EFX end, not ours. Maybe they will get faster download servers by the time you read this review. Hope so.

After downloading all the patch/upgrade files for online play, the next step is player registration.

The online play requires registration through the Phantom EFX website. The first month of online play is free, which is good because some dialup customers might need to spend a good part of that time downloading patch files (I’m somewhat joking there), and new players can also use this to try out the online features (while it’s free work on getting to the magic level 10). After the first month there is a sliding scale subscription fees based on the length of committment chosen ($9.99 for monthly, less if chosen for quarterly or annual). I chose the monthly membership.

So what do online players get for paying $9.99/month? Here’s the feature hype breakdown from Phantom EFX:

New Download slot each month, an complete leveling system (your character grows in experience), an ENDLESS prize vault, an interactive and modifiable suite in which you populate with your prizes, interactive ‘suite’ games, fully functioning multiplayer world (yup, that’s right, set up a tournament with your friends – perhaps in your own suite!), bragging rights and stats posted to the web, the list goes on and on!

The monthly extra slot is a nice incentive although it seems a bit pricey for ten bones considering all the rest only cost $10 more, however, the promise is there to provide much more than one free slot, and people will play to level up just like in a MMORPG, so I can see how this will keep folks renewing.

The Games
The table games are plentiful, but what about the slots? Video Poker players, at least when they first check it out, will be disappointed as there is only one bank of video poker machines.

There are 9 slots that come with the Vegas casino: All You Can Win Buffet, Double Bonus Bars, Engine Number One, Graverobber, Lotto Luck, Mahjong Madness, Ticker Tape Tips, Triple Dice and Wild Weather.

The first month’s free download (October 2005) is Haunter of the House is also available, which as of this writing is getting most the play. The sounds and graphics and the bonus rounds are exciting for this one. Definitely a promising sign of future downloads. Of the other slots, I liked Graverobber and Wild Weather best. The bonus games in both those slots are fun.

VIP Points and Experience Level
Every new character starts at level 1 just like in a MMORPG and Phantom EFX seems to be borrowing heavily from this type game to create an environment where the more your player does online — playing slots, table games, entering and competing in tournaments, etc — the higher the level the player and more things s/he can do.

As of this writing, I’ve logged 30+ hours and am at level 6, almost level 7, so it’s not exactly fast movement getting to the all important level 10. I’ve racked up some 50,000 VIP points and about $50,000. At level 10, players get their own suite and can start buying stuff to fill it with from the virtual mall. There is even a Pawn broker for selling back stuff no longer wanted (or if needing some extra cash). There is also a frame shop where players can spend their VIP Points for a frame that goes around their character’s face.

Loans
In online play the Real World Money loans must be paid back. So if your character loses his/her $2,000 and takes a $2,000 loan, that loan must be paid back. This coupled with the fact that the maximum bet for slots is $1.00 in the lower level makes it a bit more challenging to grow the bankroll. However, we still found it not too difficult, albeit a bit grueling, to get from $2,000 to $30,000+ with the Real World odds slots using a combination of $.05 - $1.00 bets.

Online tournaments
Online slots tournaments are just downright fun! You pay a small entry free (like $500) and then can enter in these click-a-thon slots tournaments against other real human players for a chance to win money and experience. The first one I played, I placed 2nd place. These tournaments run all day, every day.

Online Chat and other in-game communication
For those who like to communicate with other real players while playing there are multiple chatrooms, including a private message system and even an in-game email system. The email system is also used by the system to notify players what new activities can be done when reaching new experience levels.

The bigger picture: a virtual casino world in the making
Phantom EFX has actually released two separate games simultaneously with the other being Reel Deal Slots Bonus Mania ($19.99, sold separately) which works in tandem with Reel Deal Vegas to form more of a full featured physical virtual casino.

If you don’t have Bonus Mania and try to click on the “slots” area you’ll get a message saying that you need the Bonus Mania game to go there. Clever marketing. Create a virtual casino with roped-off areas that require an additional $19.99 game to enter and use. With this type of marketing they could endlessly build onto their online casino, even make a street of related casinos and someday have a virtual vegas street. Very creative furture possibilities!

The bummer is we haven’t been able to find Bonus Mania at any of the local retailers, so had to order that one online instead. I think this set of PC casino games is going to be very hot for awhile, so online ordering might be the best place to find them. I was able to buy Vegas at Best Buy, but the next time I visited the store I noticed the other copies of it were gone.

So if you are a heavy duty slots player then you’ll probably want to buy both Bonus Mania and Vegas, because Vegas only comes with a few slot games. The few slots it comes with have a few fun games like this weather slot and a slot with a graveyard theme.

I wish Vegas came with at least 24 slots, considering some of their past titles have included dozens of games for $19.99. I can see why they limited Vegas though to having fewer slots, though, because it’s a way for them to ring the cash register — and effective way, I might add. Maybe they will add a way for customers who have bought past titles to plug in older slots into the ever expanding Phantom EFX Casino.

Overall, this is the most interesting and engaging online casino game for fun that I’ve ever played. The initial selection of slots/video poker in Vegas is somewhat lacking, but there are a few fun titles. The leveling is on the slow side, but the tournaments are interactive and enjoyable. What’s missing is authentic games like their competitor Masque offers. If they can work out licensing with companies like IGN or Multimedia Games and deal out some of the early bug issues (not too bad for a first launch, but there are definitely some issues like the Keno game which wouldn’t payout winnings online for example, bug report filed) then this could be a really successful title. Maybe it already is, as I wouldn’t be surprised if this takes off and becomes the WoW or Everquest, a new niche: MMOCG. Be sure to look for me, “TD”, in-game and say hello if you give this one a try. Grade: A-

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