Brood of Gods

Brood of Gods: Slot Overview

Humans vary widely from country to country in customs, traditions, and beliefs. But one thing we all tend to share, broadly speaking, is a desire to work out how we got here and, in many instances, explain why we're here. A massive part of tackling these existential questions has been the inclusion of powerful deities, and these come in a wide range of forms as well. In online slots, experienced players are well-versed in Ancient Egyptian, Greek, and Norse gods (amongst others), having graced the reels in loads of games. For Brood of Gods, an online slot from Light & Wonder, the studio has left the usual deities behind and moved their focus to those of Polynesian origins. Three appear in Brood of Gods, as does gameplay which will be familiar to players with anime tastes.

Might as well come clean now and say that if Brood of Gods wasn't inspired by Play'n GO's smash hit Moon Princess, then we're talking about titanic levels of coincidence. Each of its three gods chills out beside the game grid, one at a time, possessing a specific reel modifying ability, swapping up when their modifier triggers. As the god changes, so does the background imagery. After some internet searching, it appears that Papa is Mother Earth, so in the game, she resides in a fecund green environment; Rangi is Father Sky, so he can be found in a celestial setting, while Whiro is like the lord of the underworld, so you can imagine how his domain might be. The visuals are quite good, and the mystical quality they evoke is similar to the one found in games like Spirit of the River and Yanaha's Rite – both from the Light & Wonder production line.

The brood is made possible on any device, furnishing players with a stake range of 10 p/ to $/€20 per spin. With a medium-high volatile math model, numerous RTP versions of the game are planned - a 96% model is the highest. On the front end, Brood of Gods has a 5x5 game grid, shooting off wins at a frequency of 1 in 3.71 spins.

Normal wins occur when at least three matching symbols land in a horizontal or vertical line, starting from any position on the board. Wins trigger a cascade system which removes them, letting symbols fall into the gaps. However, new symbols do not appear from above when this happens, and clearing the entire grid adds an additional reward of 1,000x the bet. With seven types of pay symbols, four intricately designed shapes have been used as the low pays, worth 2 to 3 times the bet for five-of-a-kind, while five high pay deity symbols are worth 10x the bet. Also, mixtures of any god symbol type pay up to 5x the bet for a line of five of them.

Brood of Gods: Slot Features

After winning symbols have been removed, but before other symbols drop, a wild symbol appears in the middle of the empty spaces if the win is 3 or 5 symbols in size. If more than one win shares the same middle space, only one wild is added. Wilds replace any regular pay symbol.

Modifier Gods

One of the three gods is always active and can randomly award a specific modifier on any non-winning spin. Once the modifier has triggered, the next god appears on the screen. In this order, they are:

• Papa – a random number of symbols are transformed into a random paytable symbol.
• Rangi – adds a 2x2 block of a random symbol type to the board.
• Whiro – all instances of one random symbol on the board are selected, and all other symbols are removed. This causes the chosen type to cascade to the bottom of the grid, and new symbols drop from above.

Multiplier Coins

A Multiplier Coin is generated when a 4 or 5 winning symbol combo is removed from the board. Collecting 4 Multiplier Coins in the base game triggers 5 free spins. Even if free spins are not awarded, collected Multiplier Coins award their value at the end of the spin. Bronze Coins are worth 0.1-0.5x the bet, Silver Coins are worth 0.6-0.9x the bet, while Gold Coins are worth 1-5x the bet.

Free Games

Players pick one of the gods before free games begin – bearing in mind the max RTP is only possible by picking Rangi. This god remains active for the full duration of the feature and triggers on every non-winning free game. Now, during the round, collecting 4 Multiplier Coins awards +1 free game, up to a maximum total of 10 free games. At the start, an x1 Multiplier Coin is added above the collection meter. As new Multiplier Coins are collected, their values accumulate. This starting Coin does not count towards getting extra free games, though. Moreover, in free games, the Bronze, Silver, and Gold Coin is worth 1x, 2x, or 3x the bet, respectively. Also to add, coins have no monetary value, but each win is multiplied by the total value of the Multiplier Coins.

The last feature is the Buy Pass which is where players may have the chance of buying the free games round for 50x the bet.

Brood of Gods: Slot Verdict

If you can't beat 'em, copy 'em, huh? Or if not outright copy 'em, at least borrow a whole bunch of stuff and use it to springboard somewhere else instead. That seems to be what's going on in Brood of Gods which did a good job at the beginning of deflecting attention away through its creative theme choice. The visuals are certainly unique, and it's not often that Polynesian culture serves as inspiration for an online slot and makes for a refreshing change from the usual popular choices such as Norse, Greek, or Egyptian.

Moving on past the theme, Brood of Gods did have a slight treacly sluggishness that held the pace up. It's not exactly off-putting, but it didn't have the same pacey flow found in, well, a game like Moon Princess, even with turbo mode engaged. If that isn't a distracting deal breaker, however, then there are elements of Brood of Gods which may appeal. For one, it uses some of the best parts of Moon Princess while adding new bits of its own. The bonus buy is relatively thrifty, for one, the visuals are neat, and the Multiplier Coins are something new to try. What might be a deal breaker is that when it comes to winning potential, Brood of Gods is pretty weak, with a ceiling value of 1,789.2 times the bet. The Multiplier Coin feature in free games is one of Brood of Gods' highlights, though, with limited potential, it doesn't feel like it's going to get too far.

At times, Brood of Gods put up a good fight, Light & Wonder's out-of-the-box subject matter choice is commendable, but its engagement levels failed to match those possible in Moon Princess. Even putting the 'imitation' part aside for a moment, Brood of Gods' listless pace, the glacial cycling through the three gods, and knockoff feel, capped with a disappointing max win, were enough to have us pining for the slickly pulled-off anime thrills of the original.