Knights of Avalon

Knights of Avalon: Slot Overview

Avalon is deeply entwined in the Arthurian legend as a place of healing, magic, and mystical practice. And where Arthur goes, knights usually aren’t too far behind him, either. In Knights of Avalon, though, from software provider Red Tiger, King Arthur is conspicuous by his absence. The studio has left any explicit reference to the legendary ruler out and put the focus on a bunch of chaps in armour. While plate armour might have ceremonial qualities, it was also used as a protection device during times of war. Hence the reason Knights of Avalon, the online slot, features a ‘fighting’ element where knight symbols transform each other, as well as free spins and a couple of bonus buys.

There’s not much Avalon-ish about Knights of Avalon’s appearance from a mystical perspective, making it lack a bit in the personality departement. For the base game, the action takes place out of doors at what appears to be the foot of Camelot before heading inside one of its ornate rooms for the free spins bonus round. As an aside, the soundtrack in free spins is outrageously heroic, something you might imagine an orchestra playing while a group of dignitaries are being knighted by a royal family. If it really was an age of chivalry, heroism, and daring, then Red Tiger has done a commendable job of bottling all that knightly stuff up for Knights of Avalon.

Knights of Avalon is played on a 5-reel, 4-row gaming grid, which, a little unusually for Red Tiger in a non-Megaways slot, uses a 1,024 ways-to-win system rather than paylines. Matching symbols landing on at least 3 adjacent reels from the left-hand side create a winning way. Highly volatile, Knights of Avalon possesses a theoretical return to player value of 96.69% when betting 10 p/c to £/€4 per individual paid spin or 95.7% when buying one of the features.

Symbolism was big back in those days, and in regards to Knights of Avalon’s symbols, the game info screen displays 9 regular pays. The lower value 5 are shields of various colours and adornments, awarding 0.3 to 0.8 times the bet for 5-of-a-kind, while 4 knights are used as the high pays, worth 1 to 2.5 times the bet for 5 OAK. Appearing on all reels as well is a golden lion wild symbol, which substitutes for all regular pay symbols and is worth 2.5x the bet for a five wild winning way.

Knights of Avalon: Slot Features

Features time and this part of the review shouldn’t be very taxing as Knights of Avalon contains just two main ones – Knights Drop and free spins, as well as the Buy Feature menu.

Knights Drop

At random on any spin, up to 6 knight symbols of one single type may be dropped in any position on the reels. When the reels stop spinning, the added knight from the Knights Drop picks a ‘fight’ and transforms other random knight symbols into the same type of symbol as itself.

Free Spins

When 3 scatter symbols land on reels 1, 3, and 5 in the base game, 7 free spins are awarded. While the bonus round is active, each scatter that lands awards an extra free spin. During free spins, there is a greater chance of triggering the Knights Drop. In addition, knights from the Knights Drop may randomly have a multiplier of up to x5 attached to them.

Buy Feature

Opening up the Buy Feature displays two options – a spin guaranteed to trigger the Knights Drop with up to 6 knights for 25x the bet, or a spin guaranteed to land 3 scatter symbols and trigger free spins for 100x the bet.

Knights of Avalon: Slot Verdict

Slots with a battling element aren’t exactly monstrously numerous, but there are a few of them dotting the iGaming landscape. It was tempting to think they were becoming more popular amongst game designers, but that might have been because one of the games we reviewed before Knights of Avalon had a strong fight element. For those interested, the title in question was Ronin’s Honour from competitor company Play’n GO. Others which sprang to mind were those in Yggdrasil Gaming‘s ‘Vikings Go’ range, as well as Hacksaw Gaming‘s battle-minded slots such as Gladiator Legends – amongst others. Feel free to add your personal favourites down below and let the battle commence.

Knights of Avalon presents quite a different experience from those aforementioned slots, one reason being the ‘fight’ bit isn’t really much of a fight. There’s a bit of sword-on-shield clanging before picked symbols are transformed into the Knights Drop symbol. The results of this feature swung wildly from so-so to relatively heroic, and using a ways system rather than paylines felt like a positive move. In saying that, though, Red Tiger enthusiasts may miss those clanging metallic lines clinking on the grid the studio often uses to highlight wins. With all the other metallic objects in Knights of Avalon, shields, armour, etc., that method would have fit right in. On the plus side, Knights of Avalon’s impressive winning potential of 17,729.8x the bet should help cushion the blow.

For a brightly lit, colourful glimpse of an earlier epoch of knightly deeds, shining weapons, and heraldry, Knights of Avalon could be worth tussling with. At times it did kind of come across like someone heavily laden down by a full suit of armour, cumbersomely lumbering across a battlefield, but when Knights of Avalon lines up a good hit, it can pack quite a wallop.

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