Army of Ares

Army of Ares: Slot Overview

If there's a Greek god you don't want to get on the bad side of, it's Ares, the god of war, violence, and bloodshed. Unlike Athena, who represented the strategic, intellectual side of warfare, Ares embodies its chaotic, brutal, and destructive aspects. Software designer Hacksaw Gaming has embarked on a journey of recreating the god's violent tendencies in its online slot Army of Ares. When hacking and slashing their way through their enemies, gamblers can also be on the hunt for expanding full reel wild multipliers, in the base game and free spins, while the two higher-level bonus rounds will be familiar to followers of Hacksaw Gaming's output.

Army of Ares looks about how you'd expect a slot with this title to look. Ares huffs and puffs to one side of the screen while warriors line the other. The base game takes place in an open field under an oppressive sky before bonus rounds move to the sacking of cities and scenes of destruction. The artwork is good. Not just the background pictures, but the between-phases cut scenes, the symbols, all of it really has been designed to a high standard. The music, too, might be an unusual mix in parts, but there's no denying its passion.

Army of Ares' battlefield is a 5x4 play area in combination with 14 paylines. Its bet range starts from a minimum of $/€0.10, rising to a maximum of $/€50, with the usual assortment of Hacksaw Gaming feature buys present. Army of Ares is highly volatile, and four RTP models have been designed with the preferred return value coming in at 96.26%.

The paytable is made up of 10 through A card ranks, shields, axes, spears, horses, and Ares symbols. Landing 5 matching low pays in a line is worth 1x the bet, while a line of 5 matching high pays awards 4x to 10x the stake.

Army of Ares: Slot Features

Army of Ares' quiver of arrows includes Wrath Reels, three bonus rounds - Fear and Flame, Wrath and Ruin, and Ares Ascends, as well as feature buys.

Wrath Reels

When a Wrath symbol lands, it expands into a Wild Wrath Reel. Once expanded, the Wrath Reel reveals a multiplier of x2 to x300. If a winning combination includes more than one Wrath Reel, the multiplier values are added together and then applied to the win. A Wrath Reel will also add 0-5 wild symbols to random positions on the reels once expanded. A line of 5 wilds is worth 10x.

Fear and Flame

10 Fear and Flame free spins are activated by landing 3 FS scatters in the base game. It keeps the base game mechanics, but wild symbols added to the grid by the Wrath Reel land with a multiplier of x2 to x100. Multiplier values are added when more than one Wild Multiplier and Wrath Reel is part of the same win.

Wrath and Ruin

Hitting 4 FS scatters in the base game triggers this feature with 3 refilling lines. Lives equate to spins. When any Disc Multiplier or Battle Horse symbol lands, the lives are refilled to 3. Once all lives are consumed, the bonus ends. A Reel Multiplier above each reel starts at x1. Only dead symbols, Disc Multipliers and Battle Horses may land. Green Disc symbols add their value to the reel they land on, while Epic Green Disc symbols add their value to all Reel Multipliers. Additive values are 1x to 100x. Red Disc symbols multiply their Reel Multiplier, while Epic Red Discs multiply all Reel Multipliers. Multiplying values range from x2 to x10.

When a Battle Horse lands, it is collected above the reel it landed on. At the end of the feature, the collected Battle Horses activate, and each one reveals a multiplier. The Battle Horse Multiplier is applied to the Reel Multiplier above the corresponding reel. Values range from x2 to x20. At the end of the feature, Reel Multipliers are added together and multiplied by the bet to determine the reward.

Ares Ascends

This Hidden Epic Bonus triggers when 5 FS scatters land in the base game. It's the same as Wrath and Ruin except it guarantees a full grid of Disc Multipliers and 1 Battle Horse from the start.

Feature Buys

The buys include BonusHunt FeatureSpins at 3x each to make triggering a bonus game 5 times more likely, and Carnage FeatureSpins at 60x, which guarantee at least 1 Wrath Reel and a higher chance of wild symbols. Fear and Flame can be bought for 100x or Wrath and Ruin for 200x the bet.

Army of Ares: Slot Verdict

Genghis Khan may or may not have said that 'The greatest happiness is to vanquish your enemies, to chase them before you, to rob them of their wealth, to see those dear to them bathed in tears, to clasp to your bosom their wives and daughters.' But, since that sort of stuff is not an option in this day and age, people have to find other ways to experience the thrill of conquest. Army of Ares is one potential option. It's a fierce and fiery addition to the studio's portfolio, capturing the bloody spirit of the Greek god of war. From its artwork to its music, the sensorial effect evokes raw power and conflict. Even the soundtrack, though unconventional at times, builds tension and keeps the pace flowing.

In gameplay terms, there's almost nothing here that Hacksaw fans won't be familiar with on one level or another. Expanding wilds with multipliers are Hacksaw Gaming's bread and butter, having shown up in many of the studio's releases. Fair enough, they can be useful, and have proven their worth on numerous occasions. Here, they light up the base game and the 'lowest' of the three bonus rounds, Fear and Flame. Although, lowest doesn't mean the battle is over, since the 15,000x max win is available in all game modes. The other two rounds, Wrath and Ruin and Ares Ascends, have a familiar Chaos Crew ring to them, as the goal is to increase Reel Multipliers as high as possible before collecting their total values at the end. The special bit is the Battle Horse symbol, which again, multiplies Reel Multipliers at the round's conclusion.

And so, Army of Ares might not offer much in the way of brand spanking new mechanics, so best be blunting those expectations if you've got them. Much of the gameplay might be Hacksaw Gaming going over past features and tweaking them, but Army of Ares doesn't care about that; it just wants to deliver everything it's got in the most powerfully intense manner it can.