Book of Thieves

Book of Thieves: Slot Overview

Books and thieves don't tend to go together a whole lot, especially in slots where thieves are more likely to be paired with gold, cash, and banks. It's not as far-fetched as it might seem, though, as some books possess extraordinarily high values. Take the 'Codex Leicester' by Leonardo da Vinci, for example. This is a 72-page notebook containing some of his theories, drawings, and observations on the natural world, which was sold to Bill Gates in 1994 for the cool sum of $30.8 million. Some of the book may be viewed online, but you can imagine the sort of security measures Mr Gates has employed to keep the physical object safe and out of the hands of thieves. That piece of biblio-trivia leads us into the review of Book of Thieves - an online slot from software provider Blue Guru Games that offers a bookish, thievish take on the classic 'book of' style of online slot gambling.

For Book of Thieves, players are sent hurtling back to an earlier Robin Hood, Sheriff of Nottingham era, where play takes place in a mediaeval-looking village at the break or end of day. Moody skies cloud a timber and tiled structured settlement as warm pours forth from open doors, lanterns and candles set to either side of the 5-reel, 3-row game grid. Hey, they had thieves then, too, so it's as good an epoch as any to express the theme.

Playable on any device, Book of Thieves offers a wide range of betting options starting at 10 p/c and topping out at $/€200 per spin. Book of Thieves is a medium volatile game, with two RTPs depending on whether you buy free spins or engage in single spin betting, which has a return value of 96.21%. Lining the grid are 10 fixed paylines for landing winning combinations of 3-5 OAK for the low pays or 2-5 OAK for the highs.

The low pays in question are bronze, silver, and gold coins, a dagger, and a cup, awarding 5 to 15 times the bet for a 5-of-a-kind win. Then 4 character symbols make up the premium symbols, paying 50 to 250 times the bet for a 5-of-a-kind winning combination. Lastly, Book of Thieves has a book symbol scatter, as well as a dedicated wild symbol. Wilds land on any reel, possessing the same value as the top-paying premium, and are able to substitute any non-expanded pay symbol.

Book of Thieves: Slot Features

As you might expect to find in a regular 'book of' slot, Book of Thieves features chosen expanding symbols – both in the base game and in free spins. In the base game, keep an eye on the box on the roof of the outer structure above the middle reel. If a symbol lands here, it is the chosen expanding symbol for the current spin. If the chosen symbol on the main reels can form a win, they expand to cover their reels, and a win evaluation takes place. Expanded symbols pay all lines from any position.

Free Spins

Landing 3 or more scatter symbols awards 10 free spins. At the start of each free spin, up to 3 symbols are randomly selected to be the special expanding symbol. Chosen symbols take turns expanding one at a time if they can form a win, paying all lines from any position. Landing 3 or more scatter symbols awards an additional 10 free spins.

Buy Bonus

The bonus buy provides access to the free spins bonus round. Players can buy the feature for the cost of 70 times the bet, and doing so comes with a theoretical return value of 96.08%.

Book of Thieves: Slot Verdict

Book of Thieves comes after the previous crime-addled online slot release Leprechaun Heist. Whilst not a 'book of' slot, it was a game populated with dubious characters performing dubious deeds. Running with a crime theme makes sound business sense, too, as games which give players a chance to slip on a different persona and do things they wouldn't dare think of doing in real life are super popular, as attested to by the Grand Theft Auto range, which is still going strong after the first one was released back in 1997.

We could be wrong, of course, but it doesn't feel like Book of Thieves will kick-start a franchise that will be thriving several decades later. Though, it is part of a virtually stoppable online slot tradition begun many years ago by Book of Ra. It seems almost mandatory these days for a studio to make at least a contribution to this venerable online slot institution. Indeed, studios like Play'n GO have done a roaring trade, releasing loads of them with varying modifications or additions to the gameplay to entice fans in for a try. Book of Thieves also deviates from the script by allowing some expanding symbol action in the base game and popping up to three of them on free spins. Both devices aren't entirely unique, yet arguably haven't been flogged into submission, either. The mediaeval thief angle helps raise the originality quotient a notch or two, as well.

Book of Thieves might have been more impactful if the symbol value reduction hadn't been so drastic. You can see why Blue Guru Games felt the need to do so to balance out having up to three expanding symbols at once in free spins. However, it appears to have had a detrimental effect on the game's max win, which comes in at 4,786x the bet. Not a whole lot different than a regular 'book of' slot usually possesses, but that value, plus pace issues as well as a lack of eye-catching decorative effects to celebrate things like symbols expanding over reels made Book of Thieves less viscerally punchy than a top-tier elite 'book' slot.