Imagine making it to the Gates of Olympus only to find one ticked off looking Zeus with glowing blue eyes, ready to rain lightning bolts down on your head. The Ancient Greek gods were famously fickle, many saying they were more or less human-like, just blessed with the power to do whatever they wanted. Mortals had to keep their heads down, provide enough deference and hope they didn't catch the gods on one of their off days. However, after reading the classics, it can seem even sacrificing the right number of bulls was no guarantee of not being turned into a linden tree.
>Moving on, and there is no doubt many players might claim you can find this fickle spirit when it comes to gambling, running hot one moment, cold the other. If so, then Ancient Greek themed slots are doubly apt. That leads us to Gates of Olympus from increasingly busy developer Pragmatic Play. It might use a common theme, but the studio has used it to reintroduce a rather unusual pay-anywhere system. We're used to pay-all-ways, yet rarely are regular symbols essentially scatters, paying from any position – providing the right number are in view. Combining this function with cascades, and multipliers (should Zeus be in a giving mood) means all sorts of mayhem is possible.
Olympus and the Greek gods don't automatically bring to mind thoughts of candy, but they might after learning this is a follow-up, of sorts, to Sweet Bonanza, which was a hit for the studio on account of its (supposedly) huge potential, crackable via some epic multipliers. All of this returns for Gates of Olympus as well as several changes, both large and small.
The action occurs on a 6-reel, 5-row grid located in Olympus, where Zeus stands off to the side, ready to strike at any moment. This is a far cry from Sweet Bonanza, and the whole experience feels magnitudes heavier than staring at a swirling pink candy land. The default RTP is roughly the same on 96.50%, while volatility has been boosted and thus getting the full 5 out of 5 rating from Pragmatic Play. Unusually, potential has gone in the opposite direction, taking a huge hit, down from 21,100x to a mere 5,000x. This, however, could be a sign that the criticism voiced in regard to their sometimes over-exaggerated advertised potential has reached Pragmatic and thus adjusted the numbers to correlate better with what is actually realistically achievable.
Playable from 20 p/c to $/€125 per spin on any device, you win in Gate of Olympus when 8 or more matching symbols land anywhere on the grid. Winning symbols are removed from the board to allow new and existing ones cascade down to fill in the blank positions, possibly leading to new wins. As usual, the cascade systems trundles on until no new winning batches of symbols appear. There are nine regular pays to knock together wins with - five are gems of various colours, the rest are cups, rings, egg timers, and crowns. As to values, should you manage to land 12 or more of the four higher value picture symbols, you will pick up a win of 12 to 50 times your bet. As you'd imagine with this type of pay system, there is no wild symbol, that'd be mental.
When multiplier symbols land, they display a random value of 2x to 500x. If a multiplier is present, then its value is applied to the total win at the end of a cascade sequence. If there is more than one multiplier, their values are added together before being applied.
Landing 4, 5, or 6 scatters at once is worth of payout of 3, 5, or 100 times the bet, and awards 15 free spins. If a free spin produces a win, any visible multiplier symbols have their values added to a global multiplier. This multiplier does not reset; it can only remain the same or rise throughout the round. The round can be extended as well as 5 additional free spins are awarded when 3 scatters hit – without limitation.
Gates of Olympus is another Pragmatic Play slot to offer the Ante Bet. Engaging this increases the stake cost by 25%, and adds extra scatters to the reels, doubling your chance of triggering free spins. In some cases, a bonus buy option may be available for the cost of 100x the bet.
In a plot twist, Pragmatic Play might have moved the action to the heavens, but Gates of Olympus comes across as more grounded than Sweet Bonanza. Potential especially, feels both more representative and more achievable at the same time. Fortunately, the signature pay-anywhere feature has remained. It’s an entertaining system too, and slightly unusual it doesn’t get rolled out more often. Crazy win chains spark at times, using a lot more of the grid than usual in a regular slot. Pragmatic Play has enhanced the experience by tweaking the previous one’s features, thereby evolving Gates of Olympus into a brand new, more volatile, experience.
One of Sweet Bonanza’s main highlights were its rainbow bomb multipliers which could drop from a fluffy cloud to power up a payout. However, they were only available in free spins. In Gates of Olympus, they reach near-mythical status of up to x500 which can seriously juice a regular win – in all phases of the game. Naturally, free spins are where the action comes to a head, and the way the global multiplier doesn’t reset is a great twist. Again, this is something its predecessor did not do. Regular wins are pretty decent for clusters of ten or more, so there is a major incentive for triggering free spins. It’s worth noting that despite the vastly enhanced capabilities of the multipliers here, Pragmatic has left cluster values exactly the same as before.
In many ways, Gates of Olympus is a much more attractive option for hardened gamblers than the candy game. As well as being more thematically serious, volatility is up, and while the advertised top win is down, the more realistic figure actually boosts Gates of Olympus’ appeal rather than retards it.
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