There are probably hundreds of ‘book of’ slots, but some of them stand out from the crowd. Play’n GO’s Book of Dead is a well-known example. While it may not have any unique features, the way it expanded symbols and linked them to create possible full-screen victories was really exciting. Players who like the trend established by Book of Ra in an earlier era of slots found great satisfaction in Book of Dead.
Similar in style to Book of Dead, Ghost of Dead explores a more eerie aspect of tomb raiding than most other games. It’s interesting to note that ancient Egyptians didn’t look down on those who stole from tombs as much as modern people do. The event must have had a crucial purpose in ancient culture. Some may compare it to how Novomatic has treated the swarms of imitators that have sprung up to copy its early classic: by shrugging their shoulders.
In Ghost of Dead, the resurrected Pharaoh Unas is searching for living humans deserving of his vast wealth. To put it another way, the 5-reel, 10-payline game grid glows dazzling gold against the dark backdrop of a subterranean tomb. Una’s peculiar silver mask is only one of many ways in which Ghost of Dead evokes Book of Dead while still seeming like something entirely new.
Ghost of the Dead is mobile-friendly and accepts bets between a penny and ten pounds ($ or euro ten pounds) per spin. Players can activate anywhere from 1 to 10 paylines, allowing for lower minimum bets; however, as you will see, this reduces the impact of the whole reel expanding symbols. The 9 out of 10 volatility is typical, and the 96.21% RTP is the most generous of the available values, so keep an eye out for it.
To earn coins, you need to line up symbols on neighboring reels across active paylines. The lower-paying symbols are the five standard playing cards (numbered 10-A) rendered in an elegant Egyptian script; the higher-paying symbols are the Ankhs, serpents, scarabs, and masks. If you get five of these last four symbols on an active payline, you’ll win anything from 60x to 1000x your line wager.
Skeleton Reels: Slot Machine Functions
Ghost of the Dead has a Ghost Spin bonus, which isn’t available in the basic game of most ‘book of’ slots. A Ghost Spin might appear at any point during the main game. An elite or lucrative icon is selected to take on the role of a unique growing icon. If the selected symbols appear during the Ghost Spin, they will enlarge to fill the whole reel and award prizes across all current paylines, regardless of whether or not they are close to one another.
In Ghost of Dead, one symbol serves as both a wild and a scatter. This is the Canopus, sometimes known as the Jackal Octopus, who shows up on every reel. It acts as a wild, replacing regular icons, and a scatter, awarding 10 free games when three or more appear. When 3, 4, or 5 Scatters appear in view, a payout of 2, 20, or 200x the wager is paid in addition to free spins. After that, they pick one of three random pay symbols. For the length of the free games, this will replace any other symbols with an expanding version, just as how Ghost Spins work. When three or more scatters appear, the free spins feature can be retriggered forever.
When the free games feature activates, the scatter icons may morph into luminous copies of themselves, known as spectral scatters. If you manage to land three or more of these ethereal scatters, you’ll activate ten Awakened Free Games. Here, there are three different random pay symbols, one of which can be chosen by the player, and another chosen at random by the game itself. When three or more spectral scatters appear, the Awakened Free Spins feature is activated and may be retriggered indefinitely.
Finally, a gamble function may be included as a preorder bonus for Ghost of the Dead. If you correctly predict the color or suit of a hidden card, your reward increases by a factor of two or four. If your guess is incorrect, you won’t win anything. A player can make five consecutive bets up to a maximum of 2,500 coins.
Judgment of the Slotting Dead
Play’n GO has shown a clear preference for this type of game, creating both clones and variants that expand on the formula. Ghost of Dead, a haunting take that aims to broaden the classic’s scope, wafts into the genre. This one has a little eerie vibe and offers bonus spins in a unique fashion compared to similar games. Ghost of the Dead, on the other hand, is more like an update or patch than a complete rewrite of the Ra formula. It has all the features you’d expect from a high-quality ‘book’ slot and then more.
The fundamental game is spiced up with random Ghost Spins, which is a nice bonus. Not a game-changer, but it does disrupt the flow and give some complexity and suspense. Paylines that can be changed are great for players who want to get the most bang for their buck or who want to test their mettle with a daring one-line stunt. The main event is as consistent as it has always been for these competitions. Whenever the Awakened Free Spins feature is activated, two expanding symbols will be added to the board. Perhaps two is better than one, but if more is better, then something like Legacy of the Dead could be considered. Legacy of Dead, another Play’n GO slot, retriggers the feature by expanding a random pay symbol. Alternatively, TrueLab’s Book of Truth has True Free Spins in which each and every pay symbol acts as an expander.
Like a pizza with a cheesy crust, Ghost of the Dead provides all the core pleasures of a traditional ‘book’ game while also offering some tasty additions. Ghost of Dead isn’t a groundbreaking product because it doesn’t provide anything new to the gambling world and offers features that are previously available elsewhere. Ghost of the Dead is just as enjoyable to play as any other well-designed ‘book’ slot, however, and Play’n GO has a flair for creating games like this.