Miles Bellhouse And The Gears Of Time Slot Review
A green vortex swirls in the corner of a brick workshop, and a crouching automaton waits beside it for its turn to be flung somewhere else in time. Betsoft‘s Miles Bellhouse And The Gears Of Time takes the humble cascade and makes it the most important second of the spin: what lands, where it lands, and whether it lands on the marked positions is the entire game.
It runs on a 5×5 grid that pays in clusters rather than paylines, with an RTP of 96.98% and a time-travel system that lets a spin be rerun, multiplied or foretold. It sits alongside Betsoft’s cluster-pay work like Wild Drops and Alkemor’s Elements, and shares their taste for experiments over formulas. The gears, in every sense, are the game.
How The Grid Pays
Wins land as clusters of matching symbols anywhere on the 5×5 grid, with no paylines to follow. All cluster pays are multiplied by the bet amount, the highest win per cluster is what counts, and separate non-adjacent clusters each pay individually. When several clusters land at once, the wins are added together.
Wins cascade, too. Matching symbols clear away after a payout and new symbols fall into the gaps, so a single spin can chain several wins as the clusters keep forming. Time Charged Wilds appear with a lightning charge effect and substitute for every paying symbol in a cluster, though they never pay on their own.
Because every cascade drops fresh symbols into the empty cells, a modest initial cluster can grow into something much larger as the chain runs. Each new cluster that forms pays again at its own size.
That’s the engine behind everything else here. The Time Travelling events and the bonus trigger both hang off what happens during those chains, which makes every cascade matter well beyond its own payout.
The Paytable
Cluster values are multiples of the total bet, scaling with the size of the cluster:
- Scientist (green) – 2x for 3 symbols, 2.8x for 5, 3.6x for 7, 6x for 10, 10x for 13, 14x for 15, 24x for 18, 40x for 20, 100x for 23, 200x for 25
- Robot – 1.6x for 3, 2.4x for 5, 3.2x for 7, 5x for 10, 8x for 13, 12x for 15, 20x for 18, 30x for 20, 70x for 23, 150x for 25
- Clock/Compass – 1.2x for 3, 2x for 5, 2.8x for 7, 4x for 10, 7x for 13, 10x for 15, 16x for 18, 24x for 20, 50x for 23, 100x for 25
- Goggles – 0.8x for 3, 1.6x for 5, 2.4x for 7, 3.6x for 10, 6x for 13, 8x for 15, 14x for 18, 20x for 20, 40x for 23, 70x for 25
- Gear (copper/bronze) – 0.2x for 3, 0.6x for 5, 1x for 7, 2x for 10
- Gold Gear – 0.6x for 3, 1.2x for 5, 2x for 7, 2.8x for 9, 3.2x for 10 (top of its ladder)
- Silver Gear – 0.4x for 3, 0.8x for 5, 1.6x for 7, 2.4x for 9, 2.8x for 10 (top of its ladder)
The premium symbols scale steeply: a 25-symbol Scientist cluster is worth a hundred times a 3-symbol one. Between the cascades and the cluster maths, the middle of that ladder gets visited far more often than the top.
Clusters Of Time
Each spin marks 5 positions on the grid at random. At the end of each cascade, winning clusters may cover those marked positions, and the more of them that get covered, the better the chances of triggering one of the three Time Travelling events. Cover all 5 positions with winning clusters in a single spin and the Free Spins round begins.
It’s a quiet mechanic with a loud consequence. Nothing about the marked positions changes how the base game pays, but they give every cascade a second thing to watch, and the 5-position coverage requirement is the only route into the bonus.
Time Travelling Events
Partial coverage is what feeds these three events. They can fire on any spin where the marked positions have gathered some winning clusters, and each one intervenes in the spin differently – one rewrites it, one rewards it, one replaces it.
The Past
The Past event replays your last spin. At the very end of the replay, an extra cascade of non-matching symbols occurs, and that cascade repeats 5 times over in an attempt to improve the result. Once the fifth attempt settles, the total payout is calculated and awarded.
The Present
The Present event applies a random 2x to 20x multiplier to everything the initial spin won. The multiplier lands after every winning cascade has completed and the symbols have settled, boosting the cumulative total from that spin in one hit.
The Future
The Future event selects a random symbol from the grid and guarantees a large number of it on a free respin. Ten or more identical symbols cascade down onto the grid for that respin, stacking the odds of a sizeable cluster in your favour before the spin resolves.
Free Spins
Free Spins trigger when winning clusters cover all 5 marked positions on the grid. Once triggered, the round hands you a choice of time stream, and each one plays differently:
- Past – 12 free spins, each ending with an extra re-cascade that tries to rewrite the spin’s result
- Present – 10 free spins, with every spin’s wins boosted by a randomly selected 2x to 20x multiplier
- Future – 6 free spins, each plucking 10 or more of a randomly chosen symbol onto the grid, with a new symbol picked every spin
Each stream spends its generosity differently. The Past buys the most spins and the most extra cascades, the Present concentrates value into fewer, multiplied spins, and the Future gives up spin count almost entirely in exchange for a stacked grid on every one of its 6 spins.
The choice mirrors the three Time Travelling events, so by the time the round arrives you’ll already know which of the three mechanics suits you. It’s the same trick offered twice – once as a random intervention, once as a guaranteed bonus – and knowing the difference between the Past’s patient re-cascades and the Present’s single multiplier is what makes the pick feel like a real decision rather than a coin flip.
Our Honest Verdict
Overall Rating: 7.8/10
Playing this is like pottering around an inventor’s workshop: lots of quiet whirring, then something sparks. The reason to choose it is that something – no other cluster game reruns your spin five times or mails you a guaranteed stack of symbols from further along the timeline.
Its strength is the free-spins choice. Three genuinely different rounds rather than one bonus wearing three hats, and picking between them is a real decision every time the round arrives.
The weakness is the grind. The gears pay pennies, the premium end of the ladder needs clusters that rarely assemble, and much of the return depends on a multiplier landing kindly. It’s one for players who enjoy a clever machine ticking over; anyone chasing big, frequent hits will find the workshop a bit too quiet.
Miles Bellhouse And The Gears Of Time FAQs
-
What is the RTP of Miles Bellhouse And The Gears Of Time?
The RTP is 96.98%. -
What is the grid size of Miles Bellhouse And The Gears Of Time?
The game uses a 5×5 grid and pays in clusters rather than on paylines. Wins are formed by groups of matching symbols anywhere on the grid. -
How do you trigger Free Spins in Miles Bellhouse And The Gears Of Time?
A spin needs winning clusters sitting on all 5 of the randomly marked grid positions. Cover all 5 in one spin and the bonus round starts. -
What does the Present Time Travelling event do?
It boosts everything your initial spin won by a random multiplier of between 2x and 20x, applied once all winning cascades have finished and the symbols have settled. -
What are the free spins options in Miles Bellhouse And The Gears Of Time?
You choose one of three time streams: the Past awards 12 spins with an extra re-cascade at the end of each, the Present awards 10 spins with a 2x-20x multiplier on every spin’s wins, and the Future awards 6 spins with 10 or more of a randomly selected symbol guaranteed on each spin. -
What does the wild do in Miles Bellhouse And The Gears Of Time?
The Time Charged Wild substitutes for any other paying symbol in a cluster. It never pays on its own; it only completes and extends clusters of other symbols. -
What does the Past Time Travelling event do?
It replays your last spin, then runs an extra cascade of non-matching symbols five times over at the end of the replay to try to improve the result. The total payout is calculated after the fifth attempt. -
When is Miles Bellhouse And The Gears Of Time released?
Miles Bellhouse And The Gears Of Time’s release date is 5 November 2020. -
Who makes Miles Bellhouse And The Gears Of Time?
The game is made by Betsoft.
