Zeus VS Hades - Gods of War (Pragmatic Play) Slot Review

Zeus vs Hades – Gods of War: Slot Overview

The greek mythology is a theme commonly used in online slot games. While the highest of gods, Zeus, is taking care of the heavens and the world of the livings, his brother Hades’ fate was to rule the underworld. But what happens if these two clash? We are about to find out, because Pragmatic Play is sending both of them to war. That’s why they’ll introduce us to Zeus vs Hades: Gods of War.

Playing Board

Zeus vs Hades: Gods of War is played on 5 reels with 5 rows. To determine any wins, the game uses 15 set paylines. What makes this game special is that you can actually choose your volatility on the left side of the screen. You can play in either Olympus Mode or Hades Mode, with the first one having a slightly lower volatility rating. The Hades Mode on the other hand has received the highest possible volatility rating, being 5 out of 5. Bet sizes range from 0.10€ to 100€, but may vary depending on where you play.

Winning Symbols

There are 10 different winning symbols to be found in Zeus vs Hades: Gods of War. Well, technically there are 15. Because you see, when switching between Olympus and Hades Mode, the winning symbols will also change. But these changes are only cosmetic and do not affect any payouts. That’s why you will find 5 lower paying and 5 higher paying symbols in both modes.

Let’s take a look at the lower winning symbols. And this will be rather quick. These are occupied by the so-called Royals, which are classic winning symbols from 10 to A. Depending on your currently active mode, they will also have a different outlining, to better fit the whole theme. To make it short, they all share the same payout of 1 time your bet size for a full line of any of them. So nothing special here, let’s move on.

Now let’s get to the higher paying symbols. These vary in their appearance depending on which mode you are on. But they technically represent the same symbols. So first you will find a golden chalice, as well as a warrior’s helmet. Both will pay you 5 times your bet size for a full line. Next up are the birds and the companions of the gods, Cerberus and Pegasus, which will both pay you 10 times your bet size. And last but not least, our top symbols will be the gods themselves, Zeus and Hades, clocking in at 20 times your bet size for a full line.

Now you might be thinking that these payouts are not really that great, especially for a game with set paylines. And yes, at this point we would totally agree with you. But sit back, relax and look for things to come, because Zeus vs Hades: Gods of War still has some interesting things to explore.

Zeus vs Hades – Gods of War: Special Symbols and Stats

Even gods as powerful as Zeus and Hades will need a little bit of help when going to war. So let’s see which special symbols can help them.

Scatter Symbol

The scatter symbol will be represented by greek temples, either surrounded by clouds in Olympus Mode or by fiery rocks in Hades Mode. Scatter symbols will only appear on reels 1, 3 and 5. Landing all 3 scatter symbols in the same spin will allow you to enter the Free Spins feature. What exactly this feature consists of will be covered at a later point in our online slot review.

Wild Symbol

Wild symbols can appear at any time during the base game and the feature game. These will be shown by a large plaque with the label „WILD“, both in Olympus and Hades Mode. Wild symbols will substitute for any winning symbol except scatter symbols.

Expanding Wilds

Besides the regular wild symbols, you will also find expanding wild symbols. These will play a very crucial role. They are portrayed by their respective god’s symbol, which can either be seen at the top or on the left side of the screen. Since this is a kind of feature, we will cover it in detail in our Feature Overview section of this online slot review.

Stats

Zeus vs Hades: Gods of War is special, even when it comes to stats. Because, you see, the different modes you can play on also come with different stats. The base RTP of the game is 96.05% in Olympus Mode and 96.07% in Hades Mode. Both modes share the same maximum win potential of 15,000 times your bet size, which is quite impressive for Pragmatic Play standards. And now things get interesting. In Olympus Mode, your chances of hitting the max win are once in 1,766,784 spins. But in Hades Mode, this chance will increase to once in 1,335,113 spins. Of course, this is under the consideration that Hades Mode is more volatile. The differences in triggering a bonus are significant though. On average you will trigger free spins in Olympus Mode once every 203 spins, but in Hades Mode it will be once every 409 spins. Even the hit frequency is different, which makes sense. In Olympus Mode, you will get a win round about every 6.5 spins, while in Hades Mode it will be every 6.91 spins.

As always, these numbers are an average and only theoretical, they are not a guarantee for anything.

Zeus vs Hades – Gods of War: Feature Overview

Let’s see what these two gods have up their sleeves when it’s time to go to war.

Expanding Wilds

As we mentioned earlier, we will cover the mechanic of the expanding wilds in more detail. Whenever an expanding wild lands, as the name suggests, they will expand on the whole reel. Now Zeus and Hades will fight. Both of them will carry a multiplier, that can range from x2 to x100. Which multiplier is applied is depending on which god will win. The respective multiplier will then be added to the wild reel, multiplying every win that goes through this wild reel. If multiple wild reels, and therefore more multipliers are present, the multipliers will be added together and then be applied to the win. There is no limitation on how many you can get, you can get as much as five and therefore a full screen of them. Be aware though, that a full screen does not automatically pay out a max win, but the minimum win for a full screen is 3,000 times your bet size.

Free Spins Feature

Landing 3 scatter symbols on reels 1, 3 and 5 will trigger the free spins feature. On trigger you will be granted 10 free spins. The free spins feature basically works the exact same like the base game, but with a major twist. Expanding wild symbols will keep landing, but as soon as they land and their multiplier is revealed, they will stay on their respective reel for the remainder of the bonus. Of course you want to get them as early as you can, and in the best positions possible, because retriggering the feature is not possible, so you will never have more than 10 free spins. The feature will end once you have used all of your free spins or the maximum win potential of 15,000 times your bet size has been reached.

Keep in mind, that, depending on your chosen mode, the feature will behave different. While in Olympus Mode, you will more easily trigger a bonus, the feature itself will pay less on average. In Hades Mode, things are changed. It’s harder to trigger a bonus, but the feature will pay more on average.

Bonus Buy Feature

Zeus vs Hades: Gods of War will come with bonus buy options. For every mode you will have two different options to choose from. Here’s a list of what you will be able to buy:

Before buying bonuses, be aware that Zeus vs Hades: Gods of War is a game with a high to very high volatility, which means that bonuses can often pay little to nothing. So be careful, as they can shred your balance very easily.

Zeus vs Hades – Gods of War: Conclusion

Zeus vs Hades: Gods of War is a very beautifully designed slot game, we can’t help but say that. But as much as it is well designed, it also has its flaws. For example, the base game. There isn’t much that can happen there, at it can get quite boring, especially in Hades Mode, where bonuses take a lot longer to occur on average. So besides the expanding wilds, there isn’t really something that catches you.

But what can get you on your toes is the free spins feature. This feature oozes with excitement and thrill, especially if you get an early expanding wild with a good multiplier. It is a great hommage to the Duel feature from Wanted: Dead or a Wild. But of course, it is not the exact same, and that is definitely alright. Same principle, different approach, that’s the kind of variety we love to see.

With that being said, we had lots of fun with Zeus vs Hades: Gods of War. The only thing the game lacks is action in the base game, but makes up for it with an exciting feature game and very interesting stats.