Rise of Olympus is Play’n GO’s Greek mythology grid slot from 2018. There are no reels turning and no paylines: symbols land on a five by five grid, matching groups clear away and the symbols above them drop into the gaps. What sets it apart from other grid games is that three gods — Hades, Poseidon and Zeus — intervene in the game themselves, each with their own way of rearranging what is on screen.
- Cluster pays
- Cascading wins
- God powers
- Free spins
- Added wilds
- Studio
- Play’n GO
- Released
- 2018
- Layout
- 5x5 grid
- Ways to win
- Cluster pays, no paylines
- Volatility
- High
How It Plays
The game is played on a grid of five columns and five rows. Symbols fall into place rather than spin, and when a winning group is removed the symbols above it drop down to fill the space. That means a single spin can resolve several times over before it is finished, and one lucky drop can lead into another.
A win needs at least three matching symbols touching each other horizontally or vertically — a cluster, not a line. The payout grows with the size of the cluster, so a long connected shape is worth considerably more than the minimum three. The stake is set from a single bet control; there are no coin values or line counts to balance, because there are no lines.
Symbols
The three gods are the high symbols: Hades, Poseidon and Zeus, each drawn as a portrait in their own colour scheme. Below them sits a set of lower-value symbols that make up most of the grid and only pay meaningfully when a large group of them comes together. A wild also appears, counting as any symbol, and it is one of the things the gods put on the grid when they use a power.
Because payouts scale with cluster size rather than a fixed three, four or five ladder, a big block of a cheap symbol can be worth more than a small cluster of a god. The figures that apply to your stake are in the game’s own paytable.
Bonus Feature
The gods are the feature. In the base game, when a spin has stopped without producing anything, one of them can step in: adding wilds to the grid, removing every copy of one symbol so that the rest fall together, or turning a group of symbols into a single kind. The grid then settles again with that change in place, and any cluster it creates pays.
Each god also has a meter, which fills as that god’s symbols are cleared from the grid. Filling one meter moves the game into free spins with that god, whose power is now applied on every spin of the round rather than occasionally.
Filling all three meters starts Wrath of Olympus, where the gods work on the grid together and a multiplier climbs as the round continues. This is the outcome the whole design points at, and it is also why the base game can run flat for a long stretch: most of what the game holds back is sitting in that round.
Controls
The panel is the familiar Play’n GO layout — a spin button on the right, balance and current stake beside it, and a menu button that opens settings, sound and the paytable. The stake is picked from a list of preset amounts rather than typed in, and the same figure covers the whole grid. The information panel inside that menu is where the numbers for the build you are actually playing are listed.
Autoplay is set from the same menu: choose a number of spins and attach stop conditions if you want them — stop on any win, stop if a single win passes an amount, stop once the balance has fallen by a set amount. There is also a quick spin option, which matters more here than in a plain reel game, because cascades add time to every spin.
Every game also carries an information panel with its rules and its return-to-player figure for the build running here. That panel is the accurate source; a number copied from elsewhere may describe a different build — see how to read RTP.
Pros and Cons
This is a high volatility game and it plays like one. The base game can go a long way on nothing but small clears, and the god powers, useful as they are, mostly keep a spin from being a complete blank rather than turning it into a large win. Almost everything the game has to offer is inside the free spins, and particularly inside the round with all three gods.
It suits players who like grid slots and are content to fund a session towards a feature instead of a steady drip of small returns. It is a poor fit if a long silent stretch is uncomfortable. Worth saying plainly: progress on the god meters carries forward, but the spins themselves do not remember each other. A game that has paid nothing for an hour is not owed anything and is no closer to paying than one that has just finished a bonus.
- Cascades keep a single spin alive longer than a fixed-line game does
- God powers can turn a dead spin into a paying one, which is unusual in a base game
- Three separate free spin rounds plus a combined one give the feature real variety
- Clean art and a readable grid, with nothing to configure beyond the stake
- High volatility means long stretches with nothing but small clears
- Most of the game’s value sits inside the free spins
- Stakes come as preset steps rather than a coin and line combination
- Cascades and god animations make each spin slower than a standard slot
18+ or the legal age where you live. This game carries a house edge like every other. Play only with money you can afford to lose.
More From Play’n GO
Other titles by the same studio in our lobby.
Questions
- How do wins work without paylines?
- By clusters. Three or more matching symbols touching each other horizontally or vertically count as a win, wherever they sit on the grid. The winning symbols are removed, new ones drop into the gaps, and the process repeats until a drop produces nothing.
- What do the three gods actually do?
- Hades, Poseidon and Zeus each act on the grid: adding wilds, clearing away every copy of one symbol, or turning a group of symbols into a single kind. In the base game this happens occasionally after a spin has stopped; in a god’s own free spins it happens on every spin.
- How do I get to the free spins?
- By filling a god’s meter, which fills as that god’s symbols are cleared. One full meter starts free spins with that god. All three full starts Wrath of Olympus, the round with all three of them together.
- Is it a high volatility game?
- Yes. Expect flat periods in the base game and expect the feature to carry the session. And no, the game does not become due after a dry run — every spin is settled on its own, independently of what came before it.
- Can I try it without money?
- Yes, there is a demo mode on virtual credits. Given how much of this game sits in the free spins, it is a sensible way to see whether the pace of the base game suits you.