Ever since the 2016 release of the classic Book of Dead we continue to see plenty of slots based around this unique style of game. We mean games where the same symbol acts as wild and scatter, not to mention a free spins round featuring a randomly selected expanding symbol. Play’n GO builds on this lineage with Ghost of Dead, a slot that even features the always popular Egyptian theme. But is this enough to make this a title worth playing? That’s what we’re going to determine in our definitive Ghost of Dead slot review.
Play’n GO sticks to the classic format in Ghost of Dead, bringing a familiar 5-reel, 3-row slot with a total of 10 paylines. The controls underneath the reels actually allow you to adjust the number of available paylines from 10 to just 1, and thanks to its being an older slot you can even tweak the number of coins you bet and their values per spin. This way your total wager can start from as little as £0.10 to all the way up to £100, with coin values ranging between £0.01 to £2.00. It’s a bit fiddly, but it does allow you to adjust your bet values to exactly your liking.
Also adjustable - just not from the player’s side - is the RTP. This is something typical of Play’n GO, which allows slot games to set different RTPs to their games. As a result, the RTP of Book of Dead can be either as high as 96.21% or as low as 84.22%, as well as a number of other values in between. At least you can check the RTP of the version you’re playing by clicking on the “?” button in the bottom of the screen to check the About section.
Moving on to the variance, Ghost of Dead ranks on the high side of the scale, which is quite typical for Play’n GO slots. The maximum win can reach up to 500,000 coins, which works out to 10,000x your current stake - a pretty solid amount all considered. Such a win, as you might expect, can be possibly achieved during the game’s free spins round.
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Ghost of Dead sees Play’n GO flex its visual muscles as it presents a more horror-tinged take on the Egyptian tropes. We’re still in an ancient tomb, but now the lighting has an eerie blue tint and there are no square jawed adventurers to help us out of this place. Instead we just have flickering torches and the 5-reel, 3-row slot, which is at least coloured in a tasteful shades of gold and blue. A haunting theme plays as you spin, further enhancing the spooky atmosphere.
Since we’ve mentioned the reels, we might as well point out the symbols found on them. There are 9 paying symbols in total. The pharaoh’s mask, scarab, cobra, and ankh are the high pays, while on the low-paying side you’ll find the A, K, Q, J, and 10 card royals. All of these symbols feature, of course, Egyptian stylings as are appropriate for the game’s setting. The last symbol on the reels is the combination wild-scatter, which is the canopic jar. There are actually 2 different jars, regular in gold and spectral in glowing green. The ancient Egyptians used such jars to store the organs of the mummified dead, but here these jars will substitute for all paying symbols and, if you land 3 or more, trigger the free spins. Regular scatters will award you with regular free sins, while the spectral scatters trigger a special Awakened version of the round. We’ll detail how these differ further on in this review.
Now let’s check how much you can win with the paying symbols:
Ten
3 - 4 coins / 4 - 20 coins / 5 - 80 coins
Jack
3 - 4 coins / 4 - 20 coins / 5 - 80 coins
Queen
3 - 4 coins / 4 - 20 coins / 5 - 80 coins
King
3 - 4 coins / 4 - 32 coins / 5 - 120 coins
Ace
3 - 4 coins / 4 - 32 coins / 5 - 120 coins
Cobra
2 - 4 coins / 3 - 24 coins / 4 - 80 coins / 5 - 600 coins
Ankh
2 - 4 coins / 3 - 24 coins / 4 - 80 coins / 5 - 600 coins
Scarab
2 - 4 coins / 3 - 32 coins / 4 - 320 coins / 5 - 1,600 coins
Pharaoh’s mask
2 - 10 coins / 3 - 100 coins / 4 - 1,000 coins / 5 - 10,000 coins
Like most, if not all, modern Play’n Go slots, Ghost of Dead is perfectly playable on any device, be it a desktop PC, laptop, tablet, or mouse. After all, it has been built using HTML5, the technology that allows games to run on internet browsers without need for any additional downloads. It will even adapt to whether you are playing in portrait or landscape mode, allowing for the optimal experience no matter how you choose to play.
Ghost of Dead has 3 different bonus features - one randomly triggered, and 2 different free spins rounds. What do these involve, you might ask? Well, wonder no more, as we’re going to tell you all about them next.
Any random spin may turn into a Ghost Spin. This is a spin with a randomly selected symbol that will expand if you land enough to form a winning combination. This means the symbols don’t need to be on adjacent reels - you just need to land 2 or more in case of a high pay or 3 if the random symbol is a low pay. Once any wins are resolved you’ll be returned to the regular spins.
Landing 3 or more regular scatters will award you with a round of 10 free spins. These start with a choice - which of the high-paying symbols do you want as the expanding symbol? Like during the Ghost Spin, this special symbol will fill the reel if you land 2 or more, leading to a winning combination. You can’t get spectral scatters during this round, but it can be retriggered by landing 3 or more regular scatters. This adds 10 more free spins with the same expanding symbol active throughout.
If you manage to get 3 spectral scatters on the reels you’ll get 10 Awakened free spins. Like the regular free spins these start with you choosing an expanding high-paying symbol, but in addition a ghost will randomly select a second expanding symbol on each spin. This round can also be retriggered, as landing 3 or more spectral scatters awards you with 10 additional free spins with the same expanding symbols as chosen in the beginning of the round.
Here’s another feature we failed to mention - the gamble option. After any win you can try to double or even quadruple it through a gamble. Will you try to guess the colour of the randomly selected card (red or black) to double the payout, or will you guess the suit (spades, clubs, hearts, diamonds) to quadruple it? Guess right and the boosted payout is yours, but guessing wrong means you lose the payout. You can make up to 5 successful gambles to win a maximum of 2,500 coins.
Ghost of Dead is another extremely pleasant take on the “Book of” genre from the masters of the form. Play’n GO knows exactly what the fans want, and has even added a couple of twists to keep the formula fresh. Check out the random chance to get a Ghost Spin, or the Awakened version of the free spins with the spectral scatters!
Such additions might not be enough for those of us burnt out on Book of or Egyptian slots, but anyone else who enjoys games with great visuals and solid win potential should find this one to be right up their haunted alley. Look out for the variable RTPs though - you can find the details of the version you’re playing, but they’re hidden deep in the About section as opposed to the paytable, and we’ll always recommend playing any slot with the best possible RTP.
Rating: 7.5
These are some questions we’ve been asked about playing the slot Ghost of Dead: