Roman Empire Slot Machine
What theme possesses the capability to be as vast and consistently exciting as that of the Roman Empire? A mainstay within popular slots games culture for as long as this writer can remember, the theme of the Roman Empire and all of the sub-themes that come along with it is about as good as it gets for the players out there with a passion and interest in history.
What’s more, any slot based upon the Roman Empire is instantly more capable of offering a heightened level of intrigue, mystery and overall action than its peers and competitors; a result of little more than a robust theme. That being said, developers who decide to base a release of theirs on this theme are up against the odds usually in more ways than one.
For a start, the theme is insanely popular, with both punters and developers, meaning it’s extra hard to differentiate your product from the competition. This is largely what sets a good Roman Empire themed slot apart from a bad, or worse yet - utterly forgettable - one,
So then, how have the team over at Habanero systems done when taking on this saturated theme for themselves, we hear you ask?…
Format and Feel
Let’s start at the beginning, with the general aesthetics, feel, layout and format of the game. To begin with, there are 25 pay lines available for play across five reels and three rows, making it very much a bog standard affair from the get-go.
Moving on from this however, there is a good range up for grabs in terms of stake limits and number of coins per payline: with bets open for amounts as low as $0.01 right up to $20 and a minimum bet of $0.25 per single spin. Most people (quite rightly) have a soft spot for games with this level of range, as they offer a chance for those with less available funds to get in on the action as deeply as those notorious high rollers!
Also worth mentioning is the games auto play mode, which allows players a pretty precise level of customisation as far as uninterrupted play is concerned.
Payouts and Wilds
The games wild is none other than Julius Caesar (who else?!) on a golden coin. For the maximum five wilds, players can net themselves an impressive 2,000x the pot, but can multiply their winnings for as little as two wilds.
Something that is particularly interesting is that regular winning combos are all hit with a 2x multiplier when just one Caesar is involved in their constitution - which I thought was a pretty nice touch indeed, even if it has been seen before in similar themed games.
As for regular symbols, Queen Cleopatra is the highest paying of them all, offering out 1,500x for five in a row and a whopping 3,000x for five with a wild as multiplier - all in all the heftiest standard win available in the entire game. Further to Queen Cleo, the helmet symbols pay 1,000x or 2,000x depending on whether or not there is a wild involved; and a shield 750x or 1,500 with a wild. The lesser of the standards is the fruit bowl, which bags players 500x or 1,000x respectively. Beyond all of these are the standard cards (A, K, Q, J, 10 and 9).
Scatters, Spins and Jackpots
Scatters are marked by the iconic Colosseum and will pay 100x the total stake for five of a kind. What’s more, three or more scatters will win the player a total of 13 free spins with a 2x multiplier gifted on all wins invoked by the Colosseum.
A definite redeeming feature of a game that struggles to separate itself from others which share its highly saturated theme is the progressive jackpot. Though minor, this jackpot - which is listed at the top of the reels – can be won by any player on any spin and doesn’t even require any particular winning combination to unlock.
Parting Thoughts
All things considered, there’s a lot that the games developers could have done to make this game stand apart with the means at their disposal – but didn’t. In all fairness, creating a game which is unique within a theme that is now unfortunately so generic can’t be easy, but we can’t but feeling as though no extra measures were taken to ensure a unique end product. Instead, it seems as though they’ve played it safe.
