Rise of Olympus

If you look at pretty much any online casino with a large selection of games, you'll find no shortage of titles that use elements of Greek mythology. Play'n Go showed how aware they are of this with their Rise of Olympus slot because it steps out of the sub-genre in terms of the format, gameplay, features and other aspects of how it's played. The graphics are strong as well, and they show off the three brothers who overthrew their father to form what most people know as the group of Greek deities: Zeus, Hades and Poseidon.

Format and Layout

This is one of those games where it's really important to know exactly how the layout works because it's a bit different than the standard approach for slots. Instead of having paylines, players can win by lining up three or more matching symbols in a straight line anywhere on the game board. It doesn't have to be on any particular positions of the five rows and five columns of symbols. These matching lines can come up in the middle of the grid or anywhere else.

All wins are based on how much you're wagering per turn. For example, a 2x payout would mean that you're winning twice the amount that you were betting. With total bet sizes that go from $0.20 to $100 per play, you can find a bet size that fits your bankroll and what you're comfortable with pretty easily.

Hand of God Feature

If you have a spin that doesn't have any wins, you can randomly trigger the Hand of God feature. This feature cycles through Hades, Poseidon and Zeus to give you a rotating series of three features that can be triggered. Hades will give you a feature where one symbol is replaced completely by another in every instance on the board to give you more chances to win with more lines. Poseidon gives you one or two random wilds on the reels. Zeus picks two sets of symbols and has them completely destroyed on the reels, which allows new symbols to fall into place for extra opportunities to win.

Avalanche Feature

After winning combinations are paid, you'll see the winning symbols disappear to allow new symbols to fall into place to create extra winning lines. Whenever this happens, you'll be given an increasing multiplier for the next set of wins, if any occur. This happens over and over until you end up with a drop that has no winning opportunities whatsoever.

Wrath of Olympus Feature

Winning combinations of any of the three god symbols will increase a meter on the side of the reels. Once it's full, one of the Hand of God features will automatically be triggered. This is just another way to award players extra features and more ways to win, and that helps to keep the gameplay exciting and action-packed.

Free Spins Modes

Three free spins modes can be triggered if you clear the grid of symbols completely. Hades will give four free spins, Poseidon gives five and Zeus gives eight. The associated Hand of God feature will trigger on all non-winning spins during this game mode as well, and you can charge the meter to get more spins worth up to a maximum of 20 total for the bonus round.

Winning Combinations and Prizes

The Pegasus symbol on the golden coin is wild and pays 50x for five of a kind. You can also earn 10x for five of either Zeus, Poseidon or Hades. On top of that, mixed combinations of those three gods pay out 5x for five, which drastically increases the hit-rate for this game as a whole.

Four other thematic symbols are on the reels as well. The orange harp and the red helmet symbols are each worth 3x for five of a kind. Five of the green trident or blue bolt of lightning are worth 2x when you line up five as well.

Our Thoughts

What Play'n Go has done with the Rise of Olympus slot is put players in a position where they can win in a lot of different ways on the game board because of the different style of winning than what players are used to. They then piled on features that can be triggered in multiple ways (randomly, through the meter and through the free spins). To cap it all off, the pay table is balanced and set up in a way that players can expect multiple wins on the same paid spin.