Eye of Spartacus: Slot Overview
Students of ancient history may well be aware of Spartacus, the Thracian who escaped gladiator training school, led an army of rebels and terrorised southern Italy in the first century BCE. Eventually, the Roman legions crushed the rebel army, resulting in much bloodshed, including 6,000 crucifixions along the Appian Way. A dramatic tale from antiquity if not a particularly happy story, and one which sets the background for Eye of Spartacus, an online slot designed by software provider Pragmatic Play where battles apply multipliers to expanded wilds, which are connected to a symbol upgrade feature during free spins.
As if gladiator battles weren’t dramatic enough already, Eye of Spartacus has chosen a very turbulent day to host the action. A crackling red, orange, and yellow sky looms over a flagstoned yard, likely a training ground since that would fit the Spartacus tale. Eye of Spartacus threatens to tip into violence at any moment as combatants square off on expanding wild symbols, and the tools of warfare abound in this no-nonsense Ancient Roman slot.
Winning combinations in Eye of Spartacus are evaluated by 15 paylines on a 5×5 gaming area, paying left to right from the leftmost reel. A highly volatile math model accompanies the game, producing a maximum RTP of 96.42% when betting 20 c to $/€240 per base game spin.
The five low pay symbols are 10 to A card royals, while the five high pay symbols are weapons, chariots, two character symbols, and tigers. Five-of-a-kind royal wins pay 2-3 times the bet; 5 matching premiums pay 10-25 times the bet. Regular wilds substitute all of the pay symbols, and since they land on all five reels, they have the same payout value as the tiger symbol.
Eye of Spartacus: Slot Features
Expanding multiplier wild symbols are one of Eye of Spartacus’ main focal points, and this feature is available in both phases of play – the base game and free spins, which players are given the option to buy.
Expanding Wild Multiplier
The golden helmed warrior symbol is an expanding wild, which substitutes pay symbols and appears on the three middle reels. Whenever it hits in the base game or free spins, it expands to cover the entire reel, and a battle occurs to determine its random multiplier. Possible multiplier values are x2 to x100, and it applies to all winning combinations it is part of. Only one expanding wild may hit at a time.
Free Spins
Hitting 3, 4, or 5 scatters awards players 10, 15, or 20 free spins, respectively. During the free spins feature, when the expanding wild hits, as well as expanding and multiplying, it transforms the lowest value high pay symbol in view and on the reel strips into the next higher value high pay symbol for the remainder of the round. In addition, +1 free spin is awarded. If all high pays have been transformed into the highest value symbol, no more transformations can occur.
Feature Buy
The free spins feature may be triggered instantly from the base game when players buy it. A regular free spins buy costs 100x the bet, or buying super free spins, where the minimum possible value on the expanding wild is x10, costs 500x the bet. In both instances, 3, 4, or 5 scatter will land to trigger the round.
Eye of Spartacus: Slot Verdict
Huh, a game where two warriors with multiplier values appear on an expanded wild symbol, do battle, and the winner applies their multiplier to the symbol? It’s all very close to what Hacksaw Gaming did in its 2022 slot Gladiator Legends. Hacksaw Gaming even named the feature VS symbols, and these have appeared in several games, such as Slayers INC, Duel at Dawn, and so on. Not a new feature then, but it can be a suspenseful one. Battling adds tension, the multiplier values can be quite large, and expanded wilds are available in all phases of play. One downside is that only one of them can land at once, so combinable multiplier values are not possible.
However, the expanding wild continues the fight when landing in free spins, since they’re able to upgrade the lowest high-paying symbols on the reels. Again, not the most original idea Pragmatic Play has ever put into practice, but only a single landed expanding wild is needed to transform the lowest high pay for the rest of the round, making it simpler than collecting certain symbols like orbs or whatever in order to do so. Progress like this has more of a hit-or-miss feel to it than an ongoing progressive collection in a game, like, say, Pink Elephants. This simplified system might be a good thing or not, depending on personal preference, though a 10,000x win cap should find universal approval amongst players who choose to give the game a chance.
You can see how Eye of Spartacus might attract attention, too. Pragmatic Play has included a group of reliable gaming ideas that have been thoroughly tested in previous slots, and brought them together into a moody Roman game which breaks very little new ground, but puts what it has to good use.
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