Masters Of Olympus

Masters of Olympus: Slot Overview

Nordic studio Snowborn Games previously mastered Valhalla, or attempted to at least, and has now turned its attention from Norse Mythology to Mythology of an Ancient Greek nature. In other words, the follow-up to Masters of Valhalla is upon us in the form of Masters of Olympus, an online slot which borrows much from its predecessor while changing up one or two bits. Most has stayed the same technically, so players get Zeus Respins with expanding wilds, a Spartan Booster, and a hold 'n win bonus round with a bundle of special symbols flying about the place.

High up on Olympus do we find ourselves when Masters of Olympus opens up. To the right are pastel-coloured mountain tops, and to the left stands Zeus holding a bolt of lightning before a Greco-styled structure. Snowborn Games has kept to the cartoonish style it used in Masters of Valhalla, imbuing Masters of Olympus with the same sort of lightness. Masters of Olympus does post some pretty impressive numbers, though, so while it might not look like a rugged Mythology slot, its features and stats are robust.

More on the stats now, and one thing to look out for is Masters of Olympus' variety of RTP values. There are four, with the highest being 96.01%, so always check the paytable before hitting the spin button. Suitable for players that are into volatile gaming, players get a stake range of 10 p/c to $/€25 per spin. In the base game, Masters of Olympus' conducts business on a grid consisting of 5 columns of 4 symbols, with 1,024 ways to win.

To create a win, three to five matching symbols must land from the leftmost side across adjacent reels. Doing so with five of the card suit symbols - diamonds, clubs, spades, or hearts triggers a payout of 1.1 to 1.2 times the stake. Hitting a five-of-a-kind premium win awards 2 to 3 times the bet when made up of Aphrodite, Apollo, Ares, or Athena. Lightning bolts also appear on the wild symbols, which substitute for all symbols except the bonus, to help create winning ways.

Masters of Olympus: Slot Features

When wild symbols land, they are collected, granting a chance of triggering the Zeus Respins feature. When it is triggered, wild symbols on the reels expand the full reel down, and a respin takes place. On each new respin, the wild moves one position on the grid. If extra wild symbols land during this feature, they expand as well. The feature ends when no more wild symbols are in view.

Zeus Respins – Coin Collection

Coin symbols landing during the feature are collected in a meter. Collecting 3 coin symbols during the feature awards the Olympus Bonus. However, if the Spartan Booster is full, the Spartan Bonus is instead awarded.

Bonus Symbol

Alternatively, another way of triggering the bonus round is by landing 3 bonus symbols on reels 1, 3, and 5. This will also trigger the Olympus Bonus or the Spartan Bonus if the Spartan Booster has been filled.

Spartan Booster

Bonus symbols landing on reels 1 and 3 are collected by the Spartan Booster. When filled, the next time the bonus is triggered, players will be awarded the Spartan Bonus rather than the Olympus Bonus. The difference is in the Olympus round, players get 3 respins; in the Spartan one, they get 4 respins.

Olympus Bonus/Spartan Bonus

This is a hold 'n win style bonus where the initially awarded number of respins are reset whenever a new symbol lands. Possible symbols are:

• Silver shield – possess a bet multiplier of 1-9x the bet.
• Gold shield – possess a bet multiplier of 10-50x the bet.
• Poseidon – has a multiplier value and also unlocks one of the two locked rows. Any symbols on unlocked rows are activated.
• Aphrodite – lands with a multiplier value which is used to multiply all symbols landing on that spin plus any following spin.
• Ares – lands with a multiplier value and collects the values of all symbols once on the spin it hits.
• Athena – lands with a multiplier value and collects the value of all symbols on the reels on that spin and each following spin.
• Zeus – lands with a multiplier value which gets added to all other symbols on the grid on that spin and each following spin.
• Apollo – lands with a multiplier value which is added to all other symbols on the grid once on the spin it hits.
• Hades – lands with a multiplier value and re-activates all Ares and Apollo symbols that landed on previous spins.
• Hot Spots – these randomly appear to indicate a higher chance of landing a non-silver or gold symbol.

Buy Bonus

If the bonus buy button is available in your region, clicking it lets you pick one of the three options. These are 50x the bet for the Olympus Bonus, 100x the bet for the Spartan Bonus, or 250x the bet for the Spartan Bonus with an Athena symbol on the grid from the first spin.

Masters of Olympus: Slot Verdict

Playing Masters of Olympus was just as good as Masters of Valhalla was, if not a little bit better, for players who prefer to buy the most tricked-out bonus round they can. The Guaranteed Athena bonus buy is something that wasn't available in the previous game and proved to be quite fun during the review. Masters of Valhalla brought Money Train 2 to mind, whereas Master of Olympus feels more inspired by Money Train 3 as the Guaranteed Athena mirrored to a degree MT3's 500x bonus buy with the Persistent Symbol tacked on.

Both are quite pricey but can be pretty darn entertaining when they prove their worth. Masters of Olympus never got as manic as it can get in the train games. It felt both outplayed by MT2 and completely pulverised by the follow-up MT3. It might be unfair, a bit harsh even, to compare Snowborn Games' slots to Relax Gaming's, as they would seem to suit different gambling circles, but it's hard not to when reviewing a game like this. eOn an anecdotal level, Masters of Olympus didn't seem as brutal or as volatile, maybe even a bit more forgiving than the Relax Gaming smash hit, which might make it a better match for players who don't want to feel like they've been levelled by a runaway goods train, repeatedly, when it all goes wrong. When it goes right, Masters of Olympus has the same max win figure as its predecessor, rolling in at 20,000 times the bet.

Like before, Masters of Olympus didn't come across like it was made to tear up the hold 'n win scene and flex insane levels of novelty, but it's as solid as it was before and bound to scintillate the right player keen on this kind of entertainment.