The Pharaohs of Ancient Egypt were serious dudes in their day – the equivalent of a King, Prime Minister, and President, all rolled into one! With that in mind, it’s really quite amusing to imagine that they are now nothing more than the subject of this week’s latest online slot machine! It could be worse, though – I can’t imagine anybody being bothered to create a slot based on Donald Trump or Boris Johnson in 2000 years, can you?! So the latest pharaoh-themed game to land in our in-tray, courtesy of Bang Bang Games on the Yggdrasil platform, is titled Pharaoh’s Gaze. The 20-payline machine uses a standard 5×3 layout and has a 96% RTP, along with a top win of 15,000x the player’s stake.
The rules page included with the game mentions three headline features: DOUBLEMAX, PHAROAH’S GAZE WILDS, and SCARAB FREE SPINS. First up, the Doublemax feature refers to the game’s progressive multiplier feature, which will double every time a winning combination is removed from the playfield. Next, the so-called Gaze Wilds are special symbols that can only be created by the Pharaoh, who have been handily positioned above each of the five main reels. These handy fellas will collect the mini gems that appear as sub-symbols during regular play, and after collecting three gems, the corresponding pharaoh will reward you with up to three Gaze Wilds. Finally, the Scarab Free Spins is a special game mode where the Doublemax multiplier is not reset between game rounds, giving you the best chance to reach an insane multiplier! A bonus buy facility is available for those too impatient to wait for the free spins to occur naturally.
The whole Ancient Egypt theme has been milked to death over the past year, but I genuinely feel that Bang Bang Games has included enough unique features in this machine to separate it from the crowd. Not convinced? You can give our free demo slot of Pharaoh’s Gaze a few spins below.
| Provider | Yggdrasil Gaming |
| Reels | 5 |
| Rows | 3 |
| Paylines | 20 |
| Bonus Rounds | 1 |
| Bet Range | 0.20 - 50 |
| Volatility | High |
| Max Win | 15,000x |
| Bonus Buy | Yes |
| RTP | 96.00% |
| Our Rating | 7.7 |
Pharaoh’s Gaze Slot Casino Bonuses
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Pharaoh’s Gaze Slot Theme, Stakes, Pays & Symbols
I’m not really sure why Ancient Egypt and the Pharaohs have become such a popular basis for online slot machines! I always say that the trend began with IGT’s Cleopatra franchise, but the chances are that they were far from the first games to use this particular theme. Our review library contains a bunch of games that feature the word ‘Pharaoh’ in their title, such as Funky Pharaoh and Curse of the Pharaoh, but there are dozens more if you just search for Egypt instead. This machine isn’t the most well-presented of the bunch – the symbols aren’t the best, and the overall look feels somewhat incoherent to me. The top win is higher than average, though, and the unique feature set makes Pharaoh’s Gaze a lot more interesting than the endless stream of Book of Dead clones we have examined in recent months.
The highest-paying symbol on the paytable looks to resemble a sort-of throne, but it only returns 5x the total bet for a full payline of five of a kind. Three more high-paying character symbols are represented by a different animal mask. The most valuable is the Eagle or bird mask which has a payout of 3x for all five symbols, whilst the snake and purple bear masks are each worth 2x the total bet for a complete payline. Finally, at the lower end of the paytable, all four royals share identical returns of 1x your bet for all five symbols. These returns may not seem very impressive at first glance, but this is by design, as the DoubleMax multiplier can potentially increase these payouts by several thousand times!
The minimum/maximum bets allowed in Pharaoh’s Gaze have been set at €0.20 and €50.00, respectively. However, there are only 12 intermediate bets between these limits, which may be annoying for some players. I really don’t understand why this is becoming such a common problem with modern online slots.
Base Game & Modifiers
The basic gameplay of Pharaoh’s Gaze revolves around a five reel, three row layout spanned by 20 fixed paylines. This is a cascading or rolling reels machine, meaning that all winning combinations are removed from the reels immediately after landing. To form a winning combination, you’ll need at least three matching symbols on a payline starting from the leftmost reel.
Progressive Multiplier
When a winning combination is removed from the reels, the current round multiplier will be doubled. Whenever this occurs, one wild symbol will be added to the playfield, increasing your chances of hitting a further consecutive win. Your current round multiplier will continue to double until no more wins are visible on the playfield, after which it will be reset to 1x.
Pharaoh’s Gaze
All regular paying symbols can include a Pharaoh’s Gem. I had to keep a careful eye out for these initially, as they disappear almost as fast as they land! The gems are shown in the bottom-right corner of each symbol and will be collected by the Pharaoh displayed at the top of the corresponding reel immediately after they appear.
Once a Pharaoh has collected three gems, the reel below it will become activated and is shown with a highlight around it for the next three game rounds. Active reels will have between one and three wild symbols added to them before every spin, potentially allowing you to amass a full screen of wild symbols.
Bonus Bet
The ‘Bonus Boost’ button allows you to pay 25% extra per spin in return for double the odds of triggering a free spins feature. This seems like a fair trade to me, so I would choose to play with this option if your bankroll permits.
Pharaoh’s Gaze Slot Bonus Features
Bonus scatter symbols appear on all five main reels, and hitting three or more will trigger the Scarab Free Spins feature. Unfortunately, the scatter symbols do not have any cash prize associated with them, and there does not seem to be any advantage to hitting more than the three scatters.
Free Spins
At the beginning of every set of free spins, the game will award you six Pharaoh Gems that will then be assigned to random slots. If you already have many slots filled when the bonus round begins, this could mean that you have all five reels activated for your first few spins!
Each bonus round begins with seven free spins on your counter, and the game will then give you the opportunity to gamble for more. Be careful, though, if you choose to play the gamble round, as you can quite easily lose all your spins and end up with nothing.
Once the bonus gets underway, you’ll need to hit 11 wins during your bonus round to reach a multiplier of 1,024x, at which point you’ll only need to hit a couple of five of a kind combinations in order to run into the games jackpot cap of 15,000x your bet. I make it sound so easy, don’t I?
Bonus Buy
If permitted within your country or jurisdiction, you may opt to bypass the base game and purchase a set of free spins directly at the cost of 100x the normal price per spin.
I tried this option a couple of dozen times whilst testing this machine and found that I would typically hit either nothing at all or a huge win. Of course, this isn’t unusual for a high volatility slot, but it’s worth keeping in mind if you have a limited bankroll, as purchasing bonuses in a game like this can be extremely risky.
Pharaoh’s Gaze Slot Review Final Thoughts
Bang Bang Games has done an excellent job creating a new slot that isn’t just another bog-standard Egyptian game. The DoubleMax multiplier feature creates the exciting possibility of reaching a multiplier of several thousand times. That alone is likely to be enough to keep high-variance slot lovers engaged for some time.
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