Ghost Glyph

Ghost Glyph: Overview

Developer Quickspin deepens their crush on the grid slot format with the spooky(ish) game Ghost Glyph. Despite the title, Ghost Glyph has nothing to do with their first grid slot Golden Glyph. This one is concerned with gaining entrance to a haunted house where the free spins phase of the game is located. While camped out on the driveway, players get a bunch of integrated features driven by a host of friendly ghosts.

The paranormal activity takes place on a 7x7 grid at night in an expensive tree-lined part of town. Visually, the studio has struck a tone that matches the gameplay well, with cute little symbols covering the game area while big bright ghosts weave in and out when brought to life. The soundtrack also fits like a glove, accentuating the quirky atmosphere. However, the visual appearance might not be to everyone's satisfaction, as it looks more like a Nintendo game for kids than a slot machine for adults.

Ghost Glyph is playable on any device, offering bets from 20 p/c to $/€100 per spin. At the end of the day, stats will possibly determine whether the game is your cup of tea or not. This is largely due to the medium volatility, combined with what can only be described as modest potential. Ghost Glyph is not a big beast of a grid slot, so if you’re cool with that, then there’s not much else to put you off playing. Certainly not an RTP of 96.18%, or a hit rate of 33%, which is practically a win every three tumbles, on average.

Getting a win in means landing clusters of 5 or more matching symbols, connecting horizontally or vertically. There are 7 regular pays in total - 4 low wins, 3 high wins. Low wins all have the same value of 0.25x to 15x for clusters of 15 or more. Payouts heat up in the high win section where 15+ clusters are worth 210x to 840x the stake. Helping pull wins together is the golden W symbol. This is the wild, which substitutes for anything except the Ghost Glyph.

Ghost Glyph: Features

Quickspin state that when developing features, they did so not only to entertain, but to tell a story. This is pretty much what you get. Features complement and build on each other until all is revealed in the final chapter – inside the mansion.

It all starts with tumble mechanics which remove winning clusters from the board, allowing new symbols to move down into the gaps. For one, this feature can create consecutive winners on a single spin. Two, after a winning cluster has been removed, a Ghost Glyph is awarded in one of the empty spaces.

A Ghost Glyph is a 1x1 symbol which acts as a wild, substituting for any pay symbol. When a Ghost Glyph is removed as part of a winning cluster, it flies up to activate one of the Ghost Urns. If the Blue Urn is activated, all unused Ghost Glyphs are turned into wilds whilst no new Ghost Glyphs appear on that tumble sequence.

Before each spin, 5 Ghost Urns are randomly selected and displayed above the grid. The last one is always a Blue Urn (Key). When there is a non-winning tumble, any activated Ghost Urns are awarded in the order they were triggered:

• Yellow Ghost Urn – randomly places 4-10 wild symbols in the game area.
• Green Ghost Urn – selects a low pay symbol type and turns all instances of it into another low pay symbol type.
• Red Ghost Urn – targets one low pay symbol type and removes them from the grid.
• Blue Ghost Urn – activates the bonus game, or adds 3 spins to the bonus game.

Players receive 8 free spins when all Urns have been activated, leaving the Blue Ghost Urn to activate last. Once in, every tumble sequence in the bonus game increases the gauge on the Paranormality Meter. It takes 8 tumbles to fill the meter completely. When the meter is filled, it levels up, unlocking the Massive Wild feature. Once the Massive Wild has been awarded, the meter resets.

The Massive Wild feature is activated at the end of the last free spin if the meter has reached level 1 or higher. Massive wilds land in 2x2 size at level 1, or 3x3 size at any higher levels. At level 1 or 2, Massive Wilds are removed when part of a win. At level 3 or higher, Massive Wilds move position during each tumble sequence. Basically, you want the meter to fill as many times as possible so larger persistent Massive Wilds are added to the final free spin.

Ghost Glyph: Verdict

Quickspin took to the grid slot format like a duck to water and Ghost Glyph is another solid example. The build quality is high, the ghostly characters are charming (if you're into that kind of style), and the gameplay flows well. Nice consecutive chains of wins are possible, triggering feature after feature, culminating in free spins if your luck is in. Don’t expect miracles when you are let inside the mansion, though. Ghost Glyph is fun, but it’s far from being a high paying slot since potential maxes out at 2,260 times the stake.

However you feel about the rewards, Quickspin has put a lot of thought into each aspect of the game. From winning cluster/Ghost Glyph animations to the way each of the modifiers works together. Ghost Glyph is another high-quality Quickspin grid slot and no corner appears to have been cut during production. Like Wild Cauldron, Ghost Glyph has a charm that is easy to warm to; partly from its inhabitants, partly from the atmosphere Quickspin has created.

As alluded to, the main showstoppers for the harder-edged gambler will be the game engine and potential. If you identify with this group, then hearing the words ‘balanced math model’ in the blurb will probably give you pause. It is certainly balanced, no objections there, it’s just balanced in favour of those who like a fright, but not too much of a fright. Say, those who prefer Slimer from Ghostbusters to the head-spinning scene in The Exorcist.

That’s all good though, some people like to sleep soundly at night rather than worry about what’s lurking under the bed. Bottom line, if you’re happy with the math model and stats, then there is no reason why you won’t enjoy what Ghost Glyph has to offer.