Contributing another ‘Book of’ slot to the pile usually means one of two things. Either a studio just wants to churn out a clone, or they’ve come up with a twist or two to keep the imitation train rolling. In Mysterious Egypt, developer Pragmatic Play leans toward the latter. It might not be a revolution, yet the studio has included a couple of new(ish) concepts in Mysterious Egypt that produce a certain level of novelty.
>Freshness doesn’t exactly extend to the visuals, which depicts a standard 5-reel, 10-payline grid in what must be one of the most common views in iGaming – the Pyramids of Giza. To their credit, Pragmatic Play has designed a pretty picture, especially on mobile, where the player has a Nile’s eye view of the action, as if docking at the temple complex from the river while pyramids loom. It really must have been a shockingly impressive sight back in those days, the sheer size and majesty of the structures must have gone a long way in convincing regular Egyptians of the Pharaoh’s divinity.
Bringing things back to the physical realm, Mysterious Egypt may be played on any device, and offers stakes from 10 p/c per spin, rising to $/€100 for the high rollers. Behind the picturesque scenes, Pragmatic Play has put together a highly volatile math model, rated 5 out of 5, whilst also producing a solid default return to player value of 96.5%. Keep in mind, however, that Pragmatic makes use of flexible RTP and that your go-to casino might offer play on a lower setting.
There are two ways of winning in Mysterious Egypt. Regular left to right line wins, and also expanding symbols which pay anywhere - both occur in the base and bonus game. The symbols are all Egypt based. On the low side, 9-A tiles have been nicely decorated with little icons like Ankhs, while the high pays consist of birds, cats, followed by a golden pyramid, then finally the special Eye of Horus. Full five of a kind premium wins are worth pay outs of 75 to 500 times the stake.
If you’ve ever played any of the regular ‘Book of’ style slots in the past you won’t miss much by skipping this section. Pragmatic Play has stuck closely to the blueprint by including a triggered round of free spins with specially selected expanding symbols. Yet, there are several alterations you don’t always see in a Ra game.
The first one is that on every spin, paid or free, special mystery symbols are in play. In the base game, this symbol changes from spin to spin, whichever one is active is displayed in a box above the reels, so you know what to look out for. These symbols may expand vertically to cover all positions on the reels they land on. Even better, they pay from any position, meaning they do not need to be adjacent. Symbol expansions are only triggered if enough of them land to form a win. For example, two reels containing pyramid symbols, or three of any low pay.
One of the most important symbols in any ‘Book’ game is the scatter/wild. In Mysterious Egypt, we get an elaborately styled queen symbol, decorated in gold snakes and whatnot, in place of a book. As the wild, she substitutes any symbol to help complete a winning combination, except expanded symbols. In her scatter duties, 3, 4, or 5 in view award 10 free spins, plus a payout of 2x, 20x, or 200x the bet respectively.
Before free spins begin, there is another twist. Instead of the customary one special expanding symbol, Mysterious Egypt chooses two, at random. During free spins, whenever these symbols land they expand, following the rules laid out above for the base game. Free spins can be retriggered the same way they are triggered from the base game. Finally, where available, Mysterious Egypt provides a bonus buy options, where for 100x the bet you can buy 10 free spins.
Okay, the alterations might not be huge shifts or the major modifications of say Book of Shadows, but neither is Mysterious Egypt a creative-free zone. It sits somewhere in the middle, with enough new bits to make it worth a spin or two for fans of the format. Having expanding symbols in the base game adds an enjoyable dimension. It’s not as sophisticated as say the way Max Win Gaming handled the concept in Ali Baba’s Luck, but it makes things arguably more exciting than not having them. It also means, should the game pick the Eye of Horus, and five land on separate reels, then 5,000x your bet is technically possible on any spin. This might have diluted the desirability of triggering free spins, yet Pragmatic has offset any negative effect by including two special symbols in the bonus rather than just one.
The number crunchers have done it in such a way that you don’t get twice the payback from regular Ra free spins as such, but again, it adds a new dynamic. If you land the required number of both special symbols at the same time, they will pay out one after the other too. There’s none of this only paying the highest special symbol on the reel stuff which would have been annoying. At the most, you’re looking at potential wins of over 5,602 times the stake, putting Mysterious Egypt in the respectable range of the spectrum for this type of game.
To sum up, despite its differences, Mysterious Egypt is at its core more of the same, so don’t expect a Ra revolution. However, it is a good looking example, and the additions set it apart from the vast majority in this category, making it an interesting option for those who appreciate the style.
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