The modern world owes a great debt to the Ancient Greeks. Much that we take for granted was inspired by those great thinkers of the past – philosophy, medicine, mathematics, democracy, and so on. More pertinent to slots players though is its wealth of theme ideas. When it comes to slot themes, the ancient Greeks are the gift that keeps on giving. Why is that? Why are we so drawn to this civilisation that feels so familiar, and alien at the same time? Whatever it is, Pragmatic Play has attempted to tap into that with their new slot Greek Gods.
We say Gods, but only two actually show up in the game, albeit one is the leader of the Olympus Zeus and his beloved wife, Hera. Not that he was overly faithful to her, but that’s a story for another time. Greek Gods is not a slot that has run wild with the theme but the background tries hard. The 5x3 grid has a bright modern look and is set against a hazy, golden mass of clouds. A Greco styled temple frames the grid with the sun rising hopefully over the raking cornice of its roof. Cast your eyes to the reels, and they are a step down in quality. They have that bog-standard video slot look to them – functional but nothing special. Zeus is the top paying symbol at 6 times the stake for five of a kind. Hera is up next, followed by an urn, a goblet and the kind of 10 - A royals that could show up anywhere.
To get the divinely inspired action going, players can choose stakes from 25 p/c up to $/€125 per spin by adjusting the coin number and value. Other controls include Autospin which comes with Quick Spin, or if that’s not fast enough, Turbo Spin. Like other Pragmatic Play slots, Turbo Spin is super-fast, blink and you’ll miss 10 spins. It comes in handy when testing to sample the features, or for blasting through wagering requirements. Other than that, engage it at your peril because the thing is lightning fast.
Like an archon, the RTP is respectable at 96.5%, and volatility gets a 4/5 lightning bolt rating from Pragmatic Play, putting it in the medium to high category. Winning combinations are formed when symbols land right to left, regardless of which row they are in, providing 243 win ways. There is also a wild symbol which can land on any reel and substitute for all symbols bar the scatter.
The first feature to pop out is the extra row above the reels which contains various rewards that change on each spin. This is called the Random Award feature and can result in cash prizes of up to 50 times the stake, a bonus Wheel of Fortune, or free spins. To win the random awards, players need the reels beneath one or more of them to be covered in stacked scatters. During the base game, Random Awards appear on reels 3, 4 and 5. During free spins, every reel has a Random Award.
Cash prizes and free spins need no explanation, simply win them, and the money or spins are yours. Land the Wheel of Fortune award and a segmented wheel takes over the screen, which spins and can result in wins from 10x to 1000x the stake. If more than one Wheel of Fortune is won on a spin, then they play consecutively one after the other.
The lightning bolt symbol is the scatter which not only triggers Random Awards but also Free Spins if 5 or more land in view simultaneously on the same spin. Free spins are awarded at a rate of 3 plus 1 for each scatter. This means 8 free spins for 5 scatters, and up to 36 free spins (24 from stacked scatters, and 12 from Random Awards). Free spins can be retriggered during the bonus round, and with the 2 additional reels of Random Awards, up to 40 additional free spins can be awarded.
It was hard to form a conclusive verdict on Greek Gods. It doesn’t do enough to provoke strong reactions either way - good or bad. It’s not bad looking, it does its thing, and there are a few features on hand to mix up the base game. It never gets all that exciting, though, and has little in the way of x-factor. Greek Gods were powerful, fickle, deities that could turn men into heroes or demigods or crush them for eternity – depending on their whims. We get little of that with Greek Gods the slot and only two of the gods themselves bother to show up. It is another case of a huge theme that went begging.
Ah well, they can’t all be epic slots, but still, why bother playing something so middle of the road in terms of both entertainment value and payout potential? We could sit here and tear shreds out of its shortcomings, but it hasn’t inspired enough angst to do a good old fashioned hatchet job on it. This is vanilla gaming that looks nice in a casino line up but arouses little emotion in play.
That might sound a bit harsh, and Greek Gods does have one or two exciting moments. The random bonuses can provide the odd thrill here and there, and a good number of free spins can be won. When it comes to potential, 1,000 times the stake is mentioned on the load up screen which won’t inspire many players. At the end of the day, it’s a mediocre slot, and players would get more out of a game like Gods of Olympus, Rise of Olympus or Big Time Gaming's Apollo Pays Megaways if they are pining for some Ancient Greek action.
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