Pragmatic Play Takes on the Classic Book of Ra Slot in their Latest Exclusive Release – Ancient Egypt!
Vera and John Casino has just added the latest and for now, exclusive slot release from Pragmatic Play titled Ancient Egypt, this super high variance 10 payline offering aims to compete with slots such as Book of Ra Deluxe (Novomatic) and the popular Book of Dead slot from Play’n Go and utilises the same Free Spins with Expanding Symbols mechanic offering wins up to a massive 5000x stake!
Whilst the Ancient Egypt slot is definitely aiming to compete with these hugely popular slots there are a couple of minor changes to the bonus feature, which after playtesting for several 1000 spins are really not to our liking.
The main bonus round is triggered by landing 3 or more of the special Scarab Scatter symbols, rather than this instantly triggering the free spins instead you are transported to a simple picking round with 3 rewards on offer, Low Reward, High Reward and 10 Free Spins, which can result in wins as low as 1x stake if the Low Reward chest is awarded.
The good news is that high reward can instantly award wins anywhere from 10x right up to 500x, but of course, the main reward you are hoping for is the free spins reward where wins of up to 5000x stake are possible.
Whilst the bonus round may well trigger a little more frequently than the slots this is trying to directly compete with, being awarded a 1x stake reward after triggering the main bonus round is not going to win over many players!
Ancient Egypt Slot Gameplay
| Ancient Egypt Slot – Technical Summary | |
|---|---|
| Paylines | 10 |
| Variance/Volatility | High |
| Free Spins | Yes |
| Multipliers | No |
| Re-Trigger Bonus Round | Yes |
| Special Features | Free Spins Expanding Symbols Picking Round |
| RTP (Return To Player) | 96.13% |
Bonus Features
The main bonus round is triggered by landing 3 or more of the Scarab Scatter symbols anywhere on the reels, from here you are then transported to a simple Bonus Picking round with 3 possible rewards as follows.
- Low Reward – 1 x Total Bet
- High Reward – 10x up to 500x Total Bet
- Free Spins – 10 Free Spins with a random expanding symbol
If the free spins reward is chosen you are then awarded 10 Free Spins with a random expanding symbol which expands to cover the entire reel if enough of them land in view with the opportunity to also re-trigger the free spins too with 3 or more Scarabs.
Ancient Egypt Slot
Overall Opinions
At first glance the Ancient Egpyt slot from Pragmatic looks to be a close rival to the slots it’s going to be directly competing with such as Book of Ra Deluxe and Book of Dead, but there is one major problem which will likely cause much annoyance and frustration to hardcore slot players and that is the bonus picking round and rewards on offer.
In essence not only do you have to first trigger the bonus feature which can take some time but then you have to dodge the “Low Reward” in the picking round which is an almost laughable 1x reward.
During our playtests of several thousand spins the best High Reward we picked was 80x stake, but generally, this was around the 10-15x mark.
The Free spins mode is exciting and what you would expect from a slot with expanding symbols, it’s super high variance and capable of some huge wins, but the overall playing experience is tarnished by the awful implementation of a picking round with such low rewards on offer.
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