Olympus Unleashed: Slot Overview
Few casino game makers have punched out the highly volatile sector quite like Push Gaming has, and for a while now, the studio has had its sights set on gamblers who prefer ‘less vicious’ engines, shall we say, running the show. Another less tightly wound game to tumble off the Push Gaming production line is Olympus Unleashed, a slot that takes a classic theme and gives it a modern twist. The theme is the Olympian gods, but instead of Ancient Greece, they’ve wound up somewhere futuristic and are accompanied by modifier-triggering Power-Ups and an Unleashed feature bonus round.
As well as other reasons, Olympus Unleashed was ‘created for players who enjoy classic slot machines but want something new.’ Looks play a big part in the ‘something new’, and while Olympus Unleashed might sound like it’s a mythology slot, it has been placed in a futuristic setting rather than an ancient arcadia. The location is like a futuristic arena on another planet or in an alternative realm of existence where, let’s pretend, contestants or gladiators clash for whatever passes as glory in this place. Maybe, and just taking a moment to ponder aloud here, the Olympian gods do have a presence on other planets, and they’ve only dwindled in the collective consciousness on Earth due to humankind bending the knee in worship of Cartesian rationality, which has stopped us being aware of them?
The gaming arena is a 5×5 matrix in combination with 50 paylines. It’s kind of surprising for Push Gaming but not so shocking anymore; Olympus Unleashed is a low-medium volatile slot with three RTP variants, maxing out at 96.32%. Another surprise is a lack of Push Bet and feature buys, so the only betting choice players must make is choosing a stake of 10 c to $/€100.
J to A card ranks are the least exciting pay symbols, awarding 1x the bet for 5 OAK, while the axe and mace are slightly more exciting at 2x-3x the bet for 5 OAK. The three character symbols, Athena, Poseidon, and Ares, are more interesting because their 5 OAK payout values can be upgraded from a baseline of 6x to 10x to a maximum of 12x to 20x the stake. Olympus Unleashed’s wild symbol substitutes all paying symbols and is present on each of the five reels. Wilds may land with a multiplier of x2, x3, or x5 and can create winning lines of themself worth up to 20x when hitting a 5 wild winning line.
Olympus Unleashed: Slot Features
Power-Up symbols are something you want to see on the reels since they trigger several of Olympus Unleashed’s modifiers. They land in the base game as well as during the Unleashed feature.
Power-Up Symbol
Power-Up symbols may land in any phase of play. Each position holding a Power-Up symbol spins to reveal a Feature symbol. In the base game, this can be the Expand, Surround, or Upgrade symbols, while in the Unleashed feature, Shift and Additional Row symbols are added to the list. The effects these symbols trigger when landed are:
- Expand – in the base game, a high-pay symbol is selected, and all symbols on reels where the Expand symbol appeared transform into matching high-pay symbols. Wilds are unchanged unless they are on the leftmost reel. During the Unleashed Feature, all unoccupied positions on that reel will be occupied by the high-paying symbol.
- Surround – a high-paying symbol is selected, and all surrounding symbols, except wilds, change into this symbol. During the Unleashed Feature, all unoccupied positions around the Surround symbol will be occupied by the high-paying symbols.
- Upgrade – activates a high-paying symbol and upgrades its payout value. Up to two upgrades are possible for each high pay.
- Shift – moves all symbols on the reels to the left by one position.
- Additional Row – adds one row to the bottom of the grid, prefilled with high pay symbols. Up to 3 additional rows may be applied in one Unleashed Feature. When the Unleashed Feature ends, the grid reverts to 5 rows.
After a Power-Up modifier has been applied, the Power-Up symbol transforms into a high-paying symbol.
Unleashed Feature
The Unleashed feature triggers when 5 matching high pay symbols or the Expand symbol lands on the leftmost reel. Once triggered, all high pays that match the triggering symbols and any wilds transfer to the bonus round. 3 spins are awarded, and when any non-blank symbols hit, the counter is increased by +1 extra free spin. During the feature, each empty position spins to land a high pay symbol matching the type that triggered the feature, a wild symbol, a Power-Up symbol, or a blank. All landed symbols remain throughout the feature, which evaluates wins once all spins have concluded or the grid is filled.
Olympus Unleashed: Slot Verdict
The potentially bad news first, as fans of Push Gaming’s bitier work are probably not going to be quite so thrilled by Olympus Unleashed, in part at least, because the highest observed win of 2,340x the bet is oddly small for this studio. In addition, the math model is geared towards a different type of gaming experience than, say, slots like Big Bamboo or Razor Ways and so forth, as well. To its credit, Olympus Unleashed didn’t really portray itself as some sort of monster heavyweight contender that’s going to batter the gambling world to its knees, though some may find the ‘hunt for massive wins’ it touts debatable.
Moving on and Olympus Unleashed’s gameplay has its entertaining aspects. A suite of Power-Up triggered modifiers provides a decent variety of effects that help keep the game interesting. One of these effects is increasing the character symbol payout values, which helps because they aren’t huge values to start with. The Unleashed bonus round has points of interest as well, being a hold and respin type of feature that operates out of the norm. Instead of money symbols, its purpose is hitting as many symbols (wild, pay, or Power-Up) as possible to build off the high pay stack on the leftmost reel to unleash a decent win, hopefully.
To sum up, Olympus Unleashed is a slot with some inventive elements, which takes the mythology genre in a new direction while refreshing the hold ‘n’ win angle. It may not electrify players accustomed to high-octane slots like Razor Returns, but as a user-friendly(ish), lower-volatility release from Push Gaming, Olympus Unleashed delivers an ok experience.
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