Banquet of Dead: Slot Overview
Given their widespread acclaim, it was somewhat unexpected that a “book of” slot hadn’t graced our review desk in some time. Enter Play’n GO, a software developer renowned for its contributions to this genre with titles like Book of Dead, Legacy of Dead, and Ghost of Dead. This developer’s familiarity with weaving narratives around books and the deceased is evident. The abundance of such slots has likely made it challenging for game developers to creatively navigate the “of” in their titles. For its latest offering, Play’n GO introduces Banquet of Dead, a title that might not immediately whet your appetite unless you’re particularly ravenous, but it’s worth delving into.
Banquet of Dead ostensibly celebrates a feast in honor of the departed, steering clear of darker, more macabre themes. Instead, the game’s setting is filled with ordinary, albeit thematic, food items. Rooted deeply in the Ancient Egypt theme—a nod to the origin of this slot style with Book of Ra—Banquet of Dead carries the aesthetic legacy of its predecessors like Book of Dead. Although visually the game doesn’t break new ground, resulting in a familiar aesthetic that may feel somewhat repetitive to long-time players, it still offers a visually pleasing experience without any significant drawbacks, albeit accompanied by a sense of déjà vu.
Possibly out of a sense of nostalgia, Banquet of Dead opts for the traditional use of coins to represent various values. Players can set their stakes by choosing a coin value ranging from 1 cent to $/€2, along with the number of coins they wish to bet, from 1 to 5. This results in a betting range from 10 cents to $/€100 per spin. Faithful to classic slot game structures, Banquet of Dead features a 5-reel, 3-row matrix with 10 paylines. With a standard Return to Player (RTP) of 96%, the game operates on a highly volatile mathematical model, typical of high-risk, high-reward games.
The game’s paytable introduces card symbols from 10 to A as the lower-value icons, followed by more thematic symbols such as a fan, a plate of food, a crocodile statue, and a character resembling Cleopatra for the higher-value symbols. To secure a win with the lower-value symbols, players need to match at least three of a kind (OAK), while the higher-value symbols award wins for two OAK or more. The payout values range from 10x to 20x the stake for a full line of matching card symbols, and a significantly higher 60x to 150x the stake for a line of five premium symbols.
Banquet of Dead: Slot Features
In a delightful twist, the Hourglass symbol in Banquet of Dead doubles as both scatter and wild, offering versatility by substituting for any regular pay symbol that’s not expanded. Additionally, landing 3, 4, or 5 scatter symbols not only rewards players with multipliers of 2.5x, 25x, or 150x the stake, respectively, but also grants 7 free spins (while 2 scatters offer a modest 0.5x the bet without free spins).
Free Spins Feature: The excitement builds with the free spins feature, where a special expanding pay symbol is selected at random. After wins are calculated, this special symbol can expand to cover its entire reel, enhancing win potential. Importantly, these special symbols need not be adjacent but will expand to facilitate wins, paying out for combinations across all paylines. Triggering 3 or more scatters during this round awards an additional 3 free spins, with the possibility of winning up to a maximum of 30 free spins.
As the free spins progress, each spin that results in the expansion of special symbols will eliminate the current lowest value card symbol (10, J, Q, K, or A) from subsequent spins. Should the removed symbol have been the special expanding symbol, another non-scatter symbol is chosen to take its place, keeping the excitement alive.
Gamble Feature: For those feeling lucky, Banquet of Dead includes a gamble feature where players can attempt to double or quadruple their winnings. By guessing the correct color of a face-down card, winnings are doubled; correctly identifying the suit can quadruple the prize. This feature allows for up to five successful gambles in a row or until winnings reach 2,500 coins, offering a high-risk but potentially high-reward component to the game.