When breaking down a game title like Book of Golden Sands, you'd imagine there's a good chance we are going to bump into some sort of expanding symbols in the exotic land of Ancient Egypt. After encountering countless numbers of these sorts of slots in the past, Book of Golden Sands from developer Pragmatic Play seems pretty self-explanatory. And, spoiler alert, expanding symbols in Ancient Egypt do form the core of Book of Golden Sands. However, on top of this, Pragmatic Play has wedged in a number of unorthodoxies in terms of features and general mechanical set-up. If you're up for some dust and heat, come take a look.
Well, there's not much unorthodox about Book of Golden Sands' look. In the middle is a glossy game grid, surrounded by the usual sights and sounds of Ancient Egypt. This includes temple or palace-like architecture, glimpses of a pyramid, sand, palm trees, columns, that sort of thing. If you've played an Egypt-themed slot before, you'll know the drill. The same doesn't quite go for the soundtrack, which in the base game is loaded with drum and synth-like effects with Egyptian influences. It shouldn't fit in with the traditional scenery, but somehow it kind of does, giving the game a fun, almost 1980s feel.
One of Book of Golden Sands' differences is the way the grid has been set up using 6 reels, with 3 symbols each, and the fact there are no paylines. Instead, players are equipped with a 729 win-all-ways format, occurring when matching symbols land on adjacent reels starting from the left-hand side. Pragmatic Play has rated the volatility 5 out of 5, so it's high, and the game comes in three RTP settings – 96.46%, 95.42%, or 94.05%. It's also playable on any device, supplying bets of 20 p/c to $/€100, plus a bonus buy option for eligible players.
Eleven regular pay symbols have been made for Book of Golden Sands. The first five low-pays display various images like Ankhs and pay 1.25 to 1.5 times the stake for a six-of-a-kind win. Following the low pays are three jewellery objects and three character symbols, awarding 2 to 5 times the bet for landing six-of-a-kind winning combinations. Unusually, Book of Golden Sands has a dedicated wild symbol that appears on all but the leftmost reel to substitute for any pay symbol. When wild symbols hit, they carry a random multiplier of x2 or x3, which is applied to any wins the wild symbol is part of.
There is still a book symbol, though, appearing on all reels. Landing 3, 4, 5, or 6 book scatters awards 10 free spins and a payout of 2, 10, 50, or 500 times the stake, respectively. Before free spins start, a random pay symbol is selected from the flicking pages of a book. This chosen symbol becomes the special expanding symbol. During free spins, after any regular evaluations have taken place, if the special expanding symbols can form a win, they expand to cover all positions on their reels. Expanded symbols pay from any position, even non-adjacently, and can start from any reel.
Also, when expanding symbols expand, one instance of the symbol is collected at the top of the respective reels. The next time expansions occur, they expand to 3 positions, plus the number of symbols collected at the top of the specific reels, up to a maximum of 10. This means it is possible to have a lot more ways during the win evaluation. The bonus round can be extended, too, by landing 3 or more scatters to win an extra 10 free spins. Retriggers are not limited, and the chosen symbol remains the same throughout them.
Lastly, if the chance is there, players can buy free spins for the cost of 100x the total stake. Buying free spins has the same RTP of 96.46%.
Pragmatic Play hasn't gone completely wild and crazy with the 'Book of' format like, say, Book of Shadows, but there is much in Book of Golden Sands that isn't found everywhere. The theme choice and execution are pretty much par for the course, aside from a few unusual audio choices, which at times seem odd but actually give Book of Golden Sands a bit of personality. So much so, it might have been nice if Pragmatic Play had been a bit more creative by matching the unorthodox gameplay with a more original presentation. Not a biggie, though, since Egyptian-based 'Book of' slots continue to prove their popularity, and Book of Golden Sands has the characteristic Pragmatic Play sheen the studio is adept at coating their slots with.
The base game's okay, it's got multiplier wilds, but symbol values aren't as weighty as they are in regular 'Book of' slots, so despite the extra ways, it can amble a bit. Free spins perk up as you'd expect, and the special symbol collection leading to extra ways is a clever twist that should pique the interest of 'Book of' fans. Collecting a lot of symbols and using them wasn't the easiest task to perform, though when a couple of them are added to expanding special symbol wins, the results can be quite exciting. The good news is Pragmatic Play has loosened the purse strings to compliment the masses of extra ways to win, as Book of Golden Sands tops out at 10,000x the bet. Not the biggest, but the higher-than-normal max win is another sweetener which might help persuade players in for a test drive.
Book of Golden Sands isn't a complicated game by any measure, but it doesn't have the foot down straight forward thrills of iconic games like Book of Dead. It's a bit fiddlier, meaning a few more components have to align to really get the ball rolling. Once it does, though, Book of Golden Sands has the potential to be quite a ride and is an interesting addition to the massively popular and populous slot category.
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