7×7 Zeus

7x7 Zeus: Slot Overview

Software provider 4ThePlayer is a creative outfit that dips its fingers in all sorts of gaming mechanics and theme ideas. For 7x7 Zeus, the team has, it would seem, taken cues from the Pragmatic Play superstar slot Gates of Olympus and injected a few changes it thinks players will appreciate. Like Gates, 7x7 Zeus is a scatter-paying slot with cascades and multiplier symbols, but that's not all. Around here, in Zeus's cloudy domain, the grid expands, and multiplier symbol values double, following expansions and wins. Does this mean we've got Gates 2.0 on our hands or something brand new altogether?

4ThePlayer has made use of mythology before, and like 21 Thor Lightning Ways or 2 Gods Zeus vs Thor, 7x7 Zeus prominently displays its main character on screen, standing by the reels in a cloudy, mountainous world. The realm looks dreamy, the sort of rugged arcadia one might associate with Ancient Greek belief. It also looks a bit like the place 1K/9K/90K Yeti was held. In the middle of the view is a 5x5 gaming grid, but as you might have guessed from the title, the matrix is expandable.

Plus and minus buttons are provided to pick a stake, which goes from 20 c on the low end to $/€80 on the upper. Before embarking, know that 7x7 Zeus is highly volatile and puts out a theoretical maximum RTP of 94%. To win, players need to land 7 or more identical symbols, but they can land anywhere on the screen to create a combination. Winning symbols disappear from the grid, and new symbols cascade in.

The pay symbols themselves include green, blue, purple, orange, and red gems, a chalice, a trident, a helmet, a bird, and a horse. Scatter wins made of 7-9 symbols are worth 0.2x to 8x, and the biggest combinations of 12+ pay 1.5-100 times the bet. Wilds are not in 7x7 Zeus.

7x7 Zeus: Slot Features

Growing things is a big part of 7x7 Zeus's fun, and it's possible to expand the gaming grid as well as multiplier symbol values. This occurs in both phases of the game, with free spins also benefiting from a persistent bonus multiplier.

Thunder Scatter

Landing a Thunder symbol increases the size of the reels. Each Thunder symbol adds a new row or column, or one of each, on the grid. Multiple Thunder scatters may land on a spin or cascade. The reels can grow up to 49 symbols in any configuration of reels and rows.

Multiplier Symbol

Multiplier symbols may land on any spin or drop with values of x2 to x250. Multiplier symbols multiply the entire win at the end of a spin by the total value of all multiplier symbols in view. In addition, when a winning combination occurs, or one or more Thunder symbols land and expand the reel area, all multiplier symbols in view double their value - up to a maximum of x250.

Free Spins

Landing 3, 4, or 5 scatters in the base game awards 12 free spins and a payout of 2.5x, 5x, or 150x the bet, respectively. Free spins start with the grid at 5x5. If the reels increase during the round, they remain in this expanded state till the feature ends. The feature has a global bonus multiplier that starts at zero. Multiplier symbols involved in a win add their value to the bonus multiplier at the end of the spin, which carries over between free spins. When a win occurs with a multiplier symbol in view, the bonus multiplier is applied to the total win at the end of the spin. Landing 3 or more scatters awards additional free spins.

Feature Buy

Players can buy one of two features. The first is a free spins trigger for 85x the bet; the other is a spin that guarantees a multiplier win for 125x.

7x7 Zeus: Slot Verdict

So, have we got ourselves a Gates Of Olympus killer here? Probably not, given Gates' juggernaut status, but 4ThePlayer has taken a winning design and incorporated several personal touches to alter the experience. The core mechanics work well - scatter wins, cascades, and multiplier symbol add-ins, but so do the extras. An expanding grid provides extra space for scatter wins to land in, which helps, as does having multiplier symbols in free spins and in the base game. It's pretty darn hard to feel upset about multiplier values doubling following wins and reel expansions, as well, meaning the innovations 4ThePLayer has worked in are, on the whole, positive ones.

On an eyeball level, multiplier symbols were not overly plentiful during free spins, which is kind of to be expected since their values can double. As we know from games like those in the DoubleMax range, a doubling multiplier can be deadly in the right situation. Potentially very deadly in 7x7 Zeus' free spins round, too, due to the bonus multiplier element. It wasn't super easy to bring this thing into play often since multiplier symbols were a bit scarce, but you can imagine if the high volatility kicks into gear, how this system could be effective, and the max win is 10,149x the bet - about mid-way between Gates of Olympus and Gates of Olympus 1000.

In the end, it was hard to call 7x7 Zeus a clear-cut winner over GOO, but it's a nice alternative. Many things in 7x7 Zeus are already available in Prag's slot, but it also does a few new things, likely enough to entice fans of Greek god-populated scatter-paying slots with multiplier symbols for a spin.