Anyone who follows the online casino industry closely knows full well that developers release hundreds of new slots every year to impress players and draw them into their games. However, most games of this kind will never find a mass audience, yet there are some that once became universally recognised hits and have remained popular ever since, even though generations, trends and the general perception of online gambling have changed. One such standout slot is Book of Dead from Play’n’Go: the game has been around for a decade and a half, yet it remains the undisputed favourite for anyone feeling nostalgic.
Book of Dead
What is Book of Dead and why is it popular
It is now difficult to say for certain who first sparked the trend for Ancient Egypt-themed gambling games, but there is no doubt that the Book of Dead slot was certainly one of the games that helped popularise this genre. Back then, symbols in the budget segment were still limited to playing cards, yet the developers managed to capture the theme and charm of a treasure hunt.
For its time, the Book of Dead slot was fairly typical: a 5×3 grid was considered quite large back then, but not outstanding, and ten paylines didn’t seem like a breakthrough either. However, the creators included a book symbol that served both as a wild, substituting for any other symbol to complete a potential winning combination, and as a scatter, triggering the bonus round. The bonus round itself wasn’t all that common at the time, and Play’n’Go even added expanding symbols to it – for those days, this was an interesting solution and allowed for wins of up to 5,000x. The gamble feature is also worth mentioning – whilst it wasn’t uncommon a decade and a half ago, it certainly made the game more entertaining.
Today, such a set of features would hardly surprise anyone – there are far more complex slots out there. However, Book of Dead appeared at a time when there was much less competition; what’s more, for many players it is simply their first favourite slot, and as we all know, you never forget your first love.
How to play Book of Dead — rules and mechanics
The gameplay in Book of Dead is fairly straightforward – as with other online slots, players can get by without knowing the rules, although certain features do require them to make decisions. Once you’ve launched the slot interface, you must select your stake amount and specify how many paylines it covers. The first figure is multiplied by the second, which is why many players bet on just one line; this is economical, but it would be a real shame if two or more winning lines appeared on the same screen, whilst you’re only entitled to a single payout.
Once you’ve started the spin, wait: if you manage to land one of the ten winning lines, the payout will be automatic. A winning line doesn’t necessarily have to consist of symbols on all five reels – it can also consist of three or four symbols, provided the combination is unbroken and starts from the leftmost reel. After a win, the player is offered an additional gamble feature: you can withdraw your winnings immediately or try to double, or even quadruple, your winnings. Whether to accept this extra round or skip it is up to you, as a mistake could leave you with nothing at all.
Bonuses and special features of winnings
The main bonus feature in Book of Dead is the bonus round – it consists of 10 free spins and is awarded provided the player manages to land at least 3 scatter symbols on the screen during the main game. Not only are the free spins profitable in themselves, as you don’t pay for them, but the bonus round also features an expanding symbol – it is selected at random, takes up an entire reel, and thus significantly increases your chances of winning.
The gamble feature is another interesting option: as soon as you land any winning combination, you’ll be asked to guess the suit of a face-down card, or at least its colour. You can opt out of the gamble feature and simply collect your payout, but you can also take a chance: correctly guessing the colour doubles your winnings, and if you guess the exact suit, you’ll quadruple them! However, bear in mind that a mistake will result in the loss of the winnings you received from the main game round.
The variety of bonus features means that the potential win from a single spin in Book of Dead is 5,000x; this is certainly not a record figure for Betwinner online casino, but it’s important to realise that most customers can only dream of hitting such a jackpot even once in their lifetime.