Pharaoh’s Gaze DoubleMax

Pharaoh's Gaze DoubleMax: Slot Overview

Prior to this, the last time we tangled with software developer Bang Bang Games was via the piratically themed online slot Shadow Raiders MultiMax. Now the studio has hit back with a slot utilising another gaming component from its partner studio Yggdrasil Gaming. As it says in the title, Pharaoh's Gaze DoubleMax is built around the DoubleMax feature, which blasted from the bush like a hungry dino in the ground-shakingly good Raptor DoubleMax. Pharaoh's Gaze DoubleMax hauls the mechanic back while adding its own touch called the Pharaoh's Gaze. What does this part do? Only one way to find out.

Fortunately, interested players won't have to dig holes in the sand to solve the mystery, though, if you'd prefer to pretend you're doing so, all fine and dandy. Apologies for stating the obvious, but Pharaoh's Gaze DoubleMax is an Ancient Egyptian slot that mixes in-theme visuals with a very serious looking sovereign. The music is a real fusion, too, where Ancient Egyptian-inspired influences meet with an energetic rock track that gets turned up a notch during free spins. It all takes place in a stone-blocked, flaming torched location, with a couple of statues on guard by the active gaming area, and while not the most stirring Ancient Egypt-looking slot, it's striking enough to encourage further investigation.

The next steps are picking a stake of 20 p/c to $/€50 and deciding whether to activate the Bonus Boost, which jacks the stake by 25% whilst doubling the chance of the free spins bonus. Since the win multiplier does not reset during the bonus round, free spins are pretty desirable. Any device can be used to play this highly volatile game, which comes in four RTP models, 96% being the highest possible value. The actual action is played on a 5-reel, 3-row reelset, with 20 paylines for landing line wins across.

For symbols, Pharaoh's Gaze DoubleMax has 8 pays, a bonus, and a wild. The pay symbols are split into J-A lows, awarding 1x the bet for a five-of-a-kind winning line, then three representations of Ancient Egyptian gods, plus a throne as the four high pays. Landing a line of five premium symbols is worth 2 to 5 times the stake. Lastly, wilds can do their thing on all five reels, substituting for anything except the scatter symbol.

Pharaoh's Gaze DoubleMax: Slot Features

As to extras, Pharaoh's Gaze DoubleMax mixes up a Dropdown Feature, the DoubleMax, Pharoah's Gaze Wilds, Scarab Free Spins, and a bonus buy.

Dropdown Feature

Pharaoh's Gaze DoubleMax uses a Dropdown system where winning symbols are removed from the board, making space for symbols left on the reel strips to drop down and fill. Each time a Dropdown win occurs, a wild symbol is placed in one of the winning cells before the other spaces are refilled. In this way, consecutive wins are able to accrue from a single spin, ending when no more wins are created.

DoubleMax

Each Dropdown win also doubles the win multiplier. After no more Dropdowns occur on a spin in the base game, the multiplier is reset.

Pharoah's Gaze Wilds

Displayed above the reels are 5 Pharaoh heads, and randomly, symbols may land bearing mini Pharoah Gems on them. These Gems are collected by the Pharaoh sitting above them. When a Pharaoh has collected 3 Pharoah Gems, it gets activated, and the reel is highlighted for the next 3 consecutive spins or cascades. Active Pharaohs can place 1 to 3 wilds on their reel on each spin or dropdown. Pharaoh Gems do not land on activated reels.

Scarab Free Spins

Landing 3 or more scatter symbols in the base game awards 7 free spins. Collected Gems are carried over, and at the start of the round, 6 Pharoah Gems are assigned to random empty collection slots. In free spins, the multiplier does not reset until the bonus round has ended.

Buy Bonus

Players can buy 7 free spins for the cost of 100 times their stake. When buying the bonus, players also have the option of gambling for more free spins. A correct gamble increases the number of spins from 7 to 10; then, the next successful gamble goes from 10 to 13. Incorrect gambles lose all free spins.

Pharaoh's Gaze DoubleMax: Slot Verdict

Hopefully, this doesn't sound like we're trying to take anything away from Bang Bang Games' effort, but while playing Pharaoh's Gaze DoubleMax, it felt like some of the sheen had come off the DoubleMax feature. It was kind of strange to repeatedly build a big multiplier that never seemed to link with much. Even with added wilds, in some cases full reel wilds, from the Pharaoh's Gaze Wild feature. Of course, not every spin or bonus round can be a gasp-inducing performance, and maybe we're overthinking, but it highlighted the intricate mathematical formulations bubbling away behind the scenes, balancing some pretty big modifiers while keeping everything from constantly blowing up.

Not to say Pharaoh's Gaze DoubleMax won't blow up when it hits the right note. The multipliers it generates can get pretty high indeed, and with the added contribution of wilds from Pharoah Gem collections, you can see where one solid line win could be severely boosted. Jaw-dropping results have certainly occurred before in Raptor DoubleMax on more than one occasion, so there are few doubts Pharaoh's Gaze DoubleMax might blow too, up to a maximum of 15,000 times the stake. Not as impressive as some other DoubleMax games, perhaps, yet fairly impressive all the same.

Yggdrasil Gaming certainly was onto something when it released Raptor DoubleMax because so far, the slots which have followed have failed to make the same impact - whether made by partner studios or Yggdrasil Gaming itself, Neon Villains being one such example. Pharaoh's Gaze DoubleMax is another which was perfectly fine to playthrough, has the technical goods to get pulses racing, but just didn't manage to sparkle as brightly as the original did.