Rise of Olympus

Rise of Olympus (Play'n GO): Overview

Cascading grid type slots is a Play'n GO speciality, and something they've had a lot of success with following hits such as Reactoonz, Moon Princess, Viking Runecraft, Cloud Quest, and Gemix to name a few. In all honesty, some of them are quite similar to each other and with Rise of Olympus we sort of struggled to tell the difference from Moon Princess, only to learn that there is no difference. Bummer. Or not?

So for those of you who love the mechanics of Moon Princess but are less impressed with the Manga theme, here's a much more masculine version for ya'll. Cute girls are replaced with ripped superhero Greek gods, possibly in an attempt to please the other half of the population? The only downside compared to Moon Princess is that clicking the breasts does nothing here. We honestly even tried to click on the...well, you get it. Although visuals alone shouldn't make much difference, it's surprising to learn that it can have quite an impact when it comes to how you perceive a slot, even when you know it's a clone.

Rise of Olympus is a 5x5 grid slot playable on all devices between €0.20 and €100. This game is delivered to the casinos with a 96.5% RTP, but since Play'n GO allows for different settings, always make sure to see what RTP version you are playing. Symbols included in the game are bolts, tridents, helmets and harps as well as three high-value symbols represented by the Greek gods, and main stars of the game - Hades, Poseidon and Zeus. The most valuable symbol, however, is the Wild which is worth 50 times the stake for 5 on a payline.

Wins are formed when 3 or more symbols connect either vertically or horizontally. As already mentioned, Rise of Olympus is a cascading type slot, which means symbols are dropped in the grid to form winning combinations. When this happens, the wild symbol appears in the middle location, and the win multiplier keeps increasing with every consecutive drop. This repeats itself until there are no more winning combinations, after which the multiplier will reset to x1.

Rise of Olympus (Play'n GO): Features

There are two features included in the game:

• Hand of God - triggers randomly on non-winning spins. Any of the three Gods may appear, all with their own unique abilities. Hades will transform one set of symbols to another symbol, Poseidon adds up to 2 wilds, and if Zeus appears, two sets of any symbol are destroyed.
• Wrath of Olympus - is triggered when the meter is fully charged which is achieved by landing a 5 of a kind win combination with any of the God symbols. All three gods will then take turns to bless the grid set with their superpowers, increasing the chance of activating the free spins.

The free spins game is activated by clearing the game area of all symbols bar the Wilds. Players will then be faced with three options, each represented by the gods as can be seen in the image above. The abilities for the particular God you choose will trigger on every non-winning spin (Hand of God feature) during the free spins, which means that if you decide to go for Poseidon for example, up to 2 wilds are added following a losing spin.

Moreover -  the multiplier never resets and can grow to a maximum of x20, and clearing the grid from symbols awards an instant 100x win. It's also possible to re-trigger the free spins game up to a maximum total of 20 free spins by fully charging the meter.

The three Gods all have their own volatility level - high, medium and low. Choosing Hades involves higher risk, but a chance of bigger wins.

Rise of Olympus (Play'n GO): Verdict

Confirmed by Play'n GO themselves, there is no difference to Moon Princess whatsoever regarding mechanics or payouts. In other words, the math model remains the same, it's only the outer casing that has changed. It doesn't make a difference which one you choose to play, so it all comes down to taste and which one you feel is more visually appealing. Production-wise, Rise of Olympus deserves a high score although it could have benefited from a tad bit more originality .