Fate of Dead Blitzways

Fate of Dead Blitzways: Slot Overview

An Egyptian-themed slot with the word 'of Dead' in the title, well colour us surprised, but Fate of Dead Blitzways from software provider Play'n GO, is not an expanding symbol 'book of' slot. That doesn't mean it's blazing across the firmament with obscene levels of originality, though. Optimistic gamblers might do well to rein in those sorts of expectations. Quite the contrary, actually, for Fate of Dead Blitzways is a reskin of Legacy of Gems, which was a fair debut of the studio's Blitzways system. This core mechanic has its moments. It just might have had more moments if it weren't so close to Big Time Gaming's Megaways machine. But enough of being a killjoy, let's find out what difference, if any, a theme change makes.

Play'n GO has picked a theme it has a lot of experience with, yet Fate of Dead's base game action unfolds in a pretty nondescript ancient Egyptian place. Flames flicker, pillars hold up the ceiling, and hieroglyphs adorn the walls. That's about as far as it goes for the base game, though a mysterious soundtrack adds to the atmosphere. It looks a bit Book of Dead-ish, nothing special, though the free spins round has more menacing scenery, as it lines the borders of the screen with impressive statues from the era.

The gaming area is a 5-reel matrix, landing 2 to 7 symbols on each reel. The number of symbols varies from spin to spin, as do the number of ways to win, up to a maximum of 16,807, Megaways-ish. More numbers include a math model ranked 7 out of 10 for volatility, and five RTP configurations, climaxing with a 96.2% figure. As for stake selection, the options are 10c per spin up to $/€100. One of the interesting elements is that winning combinations can begin from any position, as long as matching symbols are connected horizontally or vertically in a cluster on 3 or more adjacent reels.

Fate of Dead Blitzways' pay symbols are 9-A royals, and four picture symbols. Landing 5 matching royals along the reels pays 0.4x to 0.6x the bet, while 1.5x to 7.5x is paid for hitting 5 matching premium symbols along the grid. Winning symbols vanish from sight after they pay out, and the gaps they make are filled by symbols dropping downwards - repeating again if a new win is created.

Fate of Dead Blitzways: Slot Features

Fate of Dead Blitzways' features are wilds/wild multipliers, and free spins where wilds have a sticky quality.

Wilds

After each win, a wild symbol is created in one of the empty spaces. If a wild is used in a win, a multiplier wild is created instead. Winning with multiplier wilds creates even bigger multiplier wilds, as the next added wild is placed on the reels with a higher multiplier value. Wilds substitute for all symbols except scatters, and multiplier wilds multiply the total value of any win that uses the multiplier wild.

Free Spins

Collecting 3 scatters from the reels during a cascade sequence in the base game triggers 8 free spins. A wild is created at the start of the session, and wilds are sticky during free spins, increasing their multipliers. Each scatter that lands during the feature awards +1 free spin up to a maximum of 46 free spins.

Fate of Dead Blitzways: Slot Verdict

You might think, for its second outing, Play'n GO would have wanted to build on the Blitzways mechanic, maybe attach a new complementary side feature, or make tweaks, or do something which the original slot, Legacy of Gems, wasn't able to. But, no, apparently not, and you won't find anything in Fate of Dead Blitzways that wasn't also present in Legacy of Gems Blitzways - aside from the skin change, and even then, ancient Egypt for Play'n GO hardly represents blue sky thinking. On the bright side, the studio does know how to utilise this subject matter well, so Fate of Dead looks nice and all.

From there, Blitzways, with its mixture of Megaways and cluster pays effect, does its thing. Adding wilds, then wild multipliers to empty spaces before symbols cascade, also gives Fate of Dead Blitzways a slight DoubleMax feel. Though the wild multiplier progression arguably isn't as exhilarating as DoubleMax, since it increments in values of 1, rather than doubling its way to obscenely high amounts. The stickiness of wilds in free spins isn't as sticky as some gamblers may have preferred, either. The wild multiplier value stays on the screen; as in it doesn't reset till the feature ends, and keeps on climbing when used in wins. But the actual wilds themselves do not lock into position for the full duration, so if you had visions of swathes of wild symbols embedding themselves across the Blitzways grid, it's not quite like that. Typically, there was one wild in view at a time, displaying the current multiplier, merging with other wilds in the same win.

On paper, at least, this system can produce wins up to a cap of 20,000x the bet, and it was about as engaging, maybe slightly more, as Legacy of Gems was. Fate of Dead is a missed opportunity to really push the Blitzways mechanic along, but who knows, maybe the next one will have something new to offer.