Imagine, if you will, a windswept Peloponnesian plateau spearing down into the rough wintery waters of the Ionian Sea. A wizened soothsayer puts his hand on a warrior's shoulder and tells him of the great battles he will win, the lands he will conquer, and one day a long time hence, the glory retold in countless online slots. No doubt the warrior would have been a little confused about that last divination, but not us, due to the number of Ancient Greek slots on the market. Here's another one to try, from Pragmatic Play carrying the name Shield of Sparta.
Shield of Sparta splits its time between a rugged coastal location in its base game and a battle scene for the bonus round. Pragmatic Play hasn't exactly dug deep into the theme to come up with much that will surprise players familiar with the subject matter. We get the usual run of warriors, helms, swords, ships, chariots - all that sort of stuff. Visually, Shield of Sparta is by no means minging, but its stock look isn't the most inspirational either.
To the stats, Shield of Sparta is a highly volatile slot, though not one which holds back its bonus round, letting it loose when users have just about given up all hope. At least, that's the way it was for us during testing, where free spins triggered quite frequently. Three RTP values are possible, and a quick look at the paytable will let you know if you've got the standard 96.5%, or the 95.5%/94.5% version on your screen. Any device may be used to play Shield of Sparta, offering bet selections from 30 p/c to $/€100 per spin.
Framed by Ancient Greek architecture is a 5-reel, 3-row game grid with 20 paylines for landing combinations of three to five-of-a-kind across. The first four pay symbols on the table are J-A card ranks, paying 5x the bet for five-of-a-kind; then come chariots, catapults, ships, and warriors as the four high-pays, worth 15 to 25 times the stake for five-of-a-kind. Appearing on all reels is the close-up headshot of a warrior wild symbol, which substitutes for all symbols except the bonus symbol.
Not exactly a features bonanza, Shield of Sparta nevertheless offers a bonus symbol respin in the base game and a free spins bonus round with a total win multiplier component.
Shield of Sparta has two types of bonus symbols – a regular one and a magnetic one. They appear on all reels, and when 2 bonus or magnetic bonus symbols hit, they are locked in place while the rest of the symbols respin once. Hitting 3 or more bonus or magnetic bonus symbols triggers free spins.
Landing 3, 4, or 5 bonus or magnetic bonus symbols awards 10, 15, or 20 free spins, respectively. For the free spins round, the positions where the triggering bonus or magnetic bonus symbols landed are highlighted with a frame. Whenever a new bonus symbol lands in a marked position, the position is upgraded – up to a maximum of three levels. Now, positions which were marked with a magnetic bonus symbol are magnetic positions. They nudge any bonus symbol that lands on their reel towards them. If a position is not magnetic, but a magnetic bonus symbol lands there, it is upgraded to be magnetic.
At the end of the free spins round, all of the marked positions display a random multiplier depending on their level. Level 1 could be x1, x2, or x3, Level 2 could be x5, x6, or x8, while Level 3 could be x10, x12, x15, or x20. The multipliers are added together, and the value is applied to the total win of the free spins round. While the feature is active, landing 3, 4, or 5 bonus or magnetic bonus symbols retriggers the round with 10, 15, or 20 free spins, respectively.
Not being Ancient Greek scholars, the inclusion of a catapult symbol got us wondering when exactly they burst onto the scene. Maybe it's because you don't really see King Leonidas and the team using siege weapons in the movie '300'? After delving into the history of warfare for a bit, it appears catapults were used in Greece in the fourth century BC, though they did crop up earlier in China, India and Judah. In other words, catapults do fit right in Shield of Sparta, being a slot with a focus on fighting and warfare.
If Shield of Sparta was a war, then the base game, with its lack of any sort of major feature, is like Hoplites marching to a battlefield before squaring off and staring down their enemies. Once triggered, free spins are where the action has a chance of being ratcheted up a degree, thanks to the framed position/multiplier element. As mentioned, free spins triggered relatively often during testing, so the low-thrills base game was interrupted enough to prevent it from getting overly tedious, and the framed positions leading to multipliers were occasionally interesting. The end of the bonus round phase has the potential to get somewhat tense, as random multipliers appear on the framed spaces before being added up and applied to the total round win. Don't expect monstrous results, though, as Shield of Sparta's max win has been capped at 3,000x he bet.
Not exactly Thermopylae levels of glory, but a number commensurate with the rest of what Shield of Sparta delivers - pretty basic gaming set in an unimaginative yet fairly eye-pleasing slot world. The framed position/multiplier feature in Shield of Sparta's free spins phase has a level of creativity to it, but it doesn't seem to be one that Pragmatic Play particularly desired to spend a vast amount of effort or resources developing.
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