Olympus Hades Megaways

Olympus Hades Megaways: Slot Overview

At the time of writing, developer iSoftBet had been on a bit of a mythology binge, releasing Olympus Zeus Megaways, then backing it up shortly after with this one, Olympus Hades Megaways. From the top of Mount Olympus, players are plunged into a cavernous realm ruled by the Ancient Greek god of the dead and brother of Zeus - Hades. In other words, we're in a totally different location than we were before. However, some things change, some things stay the same, and Olympus Hades Megaways boasts a lot of the same features. Not all, though, keen underworld delvers have one or two new things to uncover. If you're keen, gird yourself for a sojourn through the underworld and let's take a look.

And quite a picturesque representation of the underworld it is too. Like before, Hades hovers on the left side of the screen, adding gravitas and occasionally taking part in certain features. Around him and the gaming panel, smoke billows in a rocky, dimly lit region, which comes across as a rather heavy place to chill. It looks very Greek, too, with all the columns and connected patterns, plus the dramatic soundtrack provides an extra dose of soaring 'epicness' a game like this thrives on.

Playable on any device, Olympus Hades Megaways takes bets from the usual iSoftBet range of 20 p/c to £/€20 per spin. Probably like the underworld itself, the game relies on a highly volatile mechanism, generating two return values depending on how you play the game. In the default pay-per-spin mode, players can theoretically expect a return to player value of 95.95%, rising up to 96.43% when making use of the Hades Bonus Buy. On each spin, 2 to 7 symbols land on each of the 6 columns (including the top 4 position tracker reel), providing up to 117,649 ways to win.

Of the ten pay symbols found in Olympus Hades Megaways, the first lower-value six award 0.8 to 1.75 times the bet when landing a six-of-a-kind winning way, while the four premiums (a vase, Medusa, Cerberus, and Hades) are worth 2 to 50 times the bet for a six symbols winning way. Wilds, when they appear, may be used to replace any symbol in the game except Hades scatters. When wins hit, the winning symbols disappear from the board and are replaced by cascading symbols from above on the main reels or from the right on the tracker reel. Cascading wins continue to rack up until no new winning way is created.

Olympus Hades Megaways: Slot Features

Alongside Cascading Wins, other features to be aware of are Max Megaways, Hades Wilds Modifier, and Hades Free Spins.

Max Megaways

If the Max Megaways animation triggers, it means that on the current spin, the reel will force the maximum number of symbols onto the board, creating 117,649 ways to win.

Hades Wilds Modifier

At random on any spin, Hades adds wild symbols onto the tracker reel. When this happens, a win is guaranteed to be generated.

Hades Free Spins

Hades scatters are the gateway to the bonus round, and landing 4, 5, or 6 of them awards 12, 17, or 22 Hades Free Spins. An unlimited multiplier is active in Hades Free Spins, starting at x1. Following every cascade, the multiplier rises by +1 and does not reset until the feature ends. Hitting 3 or 4 Hades scatters on the top tracker lengthens the round by awarding +5 or +10 free spins, respectively.

On any free spin, there is a chance Hades adds a walking wild to the rightmost cell on the tracker reel. Walking wilds move 1 position to the left on the following spin until reaching the end of the tracker, where they disappear. A walking wild can be used once per spin in a winning cascade; following that, it will disappear for that spin. On the next spin, the walking wild will move one position to the left of where it was. Hades can add multiple walking wilds on a single Hades Free Spins, up to four on the top tracker.

Rounding this section off is the bonus buy feature, letting applicable players buy at least 12 Hades Free Spins for 75 times the bet.

Olympus Hades Megaways: Slot Verdict

Approaching Olympus Hades Megaways brought to mind a quote by S. R. Hadden from the movie Contact, 'First rule in government spending: why build one when you can have two at twice the price?' Coming so close together, you'd think the two games were developed at or around the same time, forming some sort of duality, representing the upper world and the underworld, the dimly lit and the light, a two sides of the coin type deal. Pretty cool doing it that way, too, if Ancient Greek beliefs and mythology appeal, as both are solidly built games with masses of potential on tap.

Would it have been more exciting if the two games offered completely different features? Maybe, we could speculate on that for a while, but what's available in both slots isn't absolutely, utterly, completely the same - this one has those walking wilds, after all. For all intents and purposes, the two games do provide a similar ride, with all the dips and dives that involves. Focusing on Olympus Hades Megaways, there's not much to add here which wasn't mentioned in the previous game. Potential is big, capped at a million coins, and it's as engaging as ever. iSoftBet has done a number on the audio-visuals to provide a splendid feast for both eyes and ears.

To sum up, players enraptured by the Ancient World, more specifically the Greek part of it, aren't exactly short of choices when it is time to select an online slot that caters to their taste. iSoftBet has just made the job of picking one even harder with the release of Olympus Hades Megaways. It might not blaze with innovation, and most of what is included here is standard Megaways stuff, but it's difficult to fault, too, as each component has been finished to a choice standard.