Book of Power

Book of Power: Slot Overview

Proving that the relationship is far from a casual hook-up, software provider Relax Gaming and gambling community Casinogrounds have once again joined forces to come up with an online slot to sling at gamblers. Well, maybe not all gamblers, but those with a certain taste might be intrigued by what the collaboration has produced this time. The name of the game is Book of Power, which gives much of the game away, meaning books, Egypt, and a fair whack of expanding symbol action. The previous collabs have been imaginative, well-presented events, so it is with bated breath we torched up to take Book of Power for a burn.

Relax Gaming has ridden around the block a few times, in style, and players have come to expect one or two mechanical twisty bits, typically nestled within attractive games. Book of Power is a good-looking slot, which brought to mind a Push Gaming release, like, say, Mystery Museum with hints of Print Studios' Book of Destiny thrown in for good measure. The numbers lining the game grid (depending on the screen size) hint at the 'book of' genre's long history, though Relax Gaming has dropped the old-school approach when it filled the background imagery by using a greater touch of realism.

After digesting the first impressions, it's on with the business of taking Book of Power for a spin or two. Step one is picking a base bet of 10 p/c to £/€30 and deciding whether to hit the Power Bet button or not. Engaging the Power Bet doubles the stake while enabling the chance of triggering Power Free Spins and increasing the chance of triggering any free spins feature by 170%. No surprises over the game's volatility, which is high, while RTP varies from 96.11% when betting on individual spins (whether the Power Bet is on or off), and 96.5% when buying either of the free spins options. With the Power Bet on, players are able to gamble to win Power Free Spins when regular free spins are awarded.

Book of Power sticks with tradition by using 10 fixed paylines for landing winning combinations along. Five of the pay symbol types are regal-looking 10-A card royals, while the four high pays are three symbols of Ancient Egypt and an explorer chap as the most valuable. A winning line made up of five matching symbols pays 10-15x the bet for the low pays or 75 to 500 times the stake for the premiums.

Book of Power: Slot Features

Book of Power is equipped with not one but two Book symbols – a regular Book and a Power Book. Books are wild, so they substitute for any (non-expanded) pay symbol and play the part of the free spins scatter symbol.

Free Spins

Landing 3, 4, or 5 Book symbols awards 10, 15, or 20 free spins plus a payout of 10x, 100x, or 500x the bet, respectively. A pay symbol is selected at the start of the round to be the special expanding symbol. During free spins, on top of any normal line wins, if they can form a win, expanding symbols expand to cover all positions on their reels, paying all ways from any position. Should 2 Book symbols land in free spins, an additional expanding symbol is chosen, plus 5 extra free spins are awarded. If the new random symbol is already an active expanding symbol, it gets a +1 to its multiplier, up to 9.

Power Free Spins

If one of the 3, 4, or 5 triggering Book symbols is a Power Book symbol, players win 10, 15, or 20 Power Free Spins along with a payout of 10x, 100x, or 500x the bet, respectively. In Power Free Spins, a special expanding symbol is randomly picked, which expands to cover reels and pay all ways from any position as mentioned above. When 2 Book symbols hit, the current expanding symbol is upgraded by one step as well as +5 free spins are awarded. If reaching the highest paying symbol, any retriggers award +1 multiplier for the expanded symbol – up to 9. Also, landing a Power Book on reels 2, 3, or 4 makes that reel golden, where the expanding symbol expands even if no expanding symbol actually landed on the reel.

Hot Mode

Hot Mode is available in both free spins features. Hot Mode may trigger randomly at the start of a free spin, increasing the chance of hitting something big.

Feature Buy

Book of Power supplies two feature buys. One is regular free spins for the cost of 100x the bet, and the other is Power Free Spins, costing 200x the bet.

Book of Power: Slot Verdict

This Relax Gaming/Casinogrounds meetup is getting to be a regular occurrence, and for a lot of gamblers, that can only be a good thing. Each previous release has brimmed with confident imagination, larger-than-life characters, a ton of features, pretty artwork, and bags of replayability. Net Gains, Beast Mode, and Iron Bank all being strong slots. Book of Power is a bit different from them. For starters, it is a more conventional game. This is pretty much a given when taking on the 'book of' genre, but not a guarantee, as a slot like Book of Shadows is an example of. Unlike Nolimit City, though, Relax Gaming and Casinogrounds have stuck to tradition, for the most part, while tacking on one or two newer bits to invigorate the gameplay and give book fans something new to consider.

Admittedly, there are twists here that have seen the light of day before, such as free spins retriggers adding an additional expanding symbol to the mix. However, sticking to upgrading one expanding symbol with the introduction of multipliers, which is unlikely to be a frighteningly frequent occurrence, stirs the pot. Perhaps there are players who prefer expanding royals since they presumably have a tendency to hit more often, yet for those who lean towards the higher end of the paytable, the desirability of the top symbol as the expander has been boosted by the chance of it also having a multiplier attached. Doing things this way has also boosted Book of Power's winning potential, up to a maximum of 15,000 times the bet.

To our knowledge, no one has recently accused the 'book of' category of being short on options, but their appeal is pretty self-evident. Amongst this illustrious, some might say bloated line-up, Book of Power is a slickly produced alternative that has the audio-visuals, personality, and gameplay to hold its head up high amongst its peers.