Rise of Pyramids

Rise of Pyramids: Slot Overview

It's funny, given how so-called smart we are these days, no one knows exactly how the pyramids were built. Were the blocks dragged up by human hands, was it telekinesis, were aliens involved? To borrow a business idiom, let's put a pin in that question for now while we review Pragmatic Play's online slot, Rise of Pyramids. This is a slot that is not without questions of its own. The greatest one was why Pragmatic Play came up with such an inventive theme and technical set-up and then slapped on such run-of-the-mill features. Life's full of mysteries.

If Rise of Pyramids' outer skin is anything to go by, it looks like it could be a distant relative of another Ancient Egyptian-inspired slot, Rise of Giza PowerNudge. Both games dive head first into a world of pyramids, but it's a world where the Ancient Egyptian dynasties carried on into the future, developing advanced technologies. Yeah, like Stargate, where pyramids were actually landing sites for massive Goa'uld spaceships rather than the tombs we're often told they are. In Rise of Pyramids, the pyramids are ablaze with lights, and a serious Egyptian queen-type lady hangs to one side. Wouldn't it be interesting if instead of buildings that contained deep esoteric knowledge, these pyramids were simply office blocks of the future populated by scribes making note of the most mundane things, like how the city's refuse collection is going, or something like that.

One of Rise of Pyramids' own mysteries, of sorts, is its 7-reel honeycomb game grid where the symbols are laid out in a 3-4-5-6-5-4-3 formation, Honey Rush style. Bets of $/€0.20 to $/€250 are provided whilst the 4 out 5 rating indicates that Rise of Pyramid is a medium-high volatile slot with a default RTP of 95.97%, which is slightly lower than usual from Pragmatic Play.

After winning symbols pay, they are exploded off the reels by the tumble mechanic. This causes symbols on the reels to drop downwards, filling the vacated spaces, providing another opportunity to win. Tumbling will continue as long as wins are created after symbols drop. All pay symbols award a win when they create blocks of at least 8 matching connected symbols. Purple, blue, green, yellow, and red gems are the low pays, while four moody characters are the high pays. Landing a winning combination containing 8-10 matching symbols pays 0.2 to 5 times the bet, or 4 to 250 times the bet is paid for getting a 22+ winning block. The wild symbol appears on all reels, substituting for any regular pay symbol. As part of tumbles, the wild symbol explodes all adjacent symbols on all its sides that are not part of winning combinations.

Rise of Pyramids: Slot Features

Joining the unorthodox representation of an Ancient Egypt of the future are a bunch of totally orthodox features such as tumbles, hold 'n win respins, free spins with a rising multiplier, and feature buys.

Respins

On each spin, money symbols may land carrying values of 0.5 to 1,000 times the bet. When 4 or more money symbols hit, the respin feature is triggered. When it starts, the triggering money symbols remain on the screen as the others fade away: 3 respins are awarded, and only money symbols or blanks may land. New money symbols are held and reset the respin count. When respins run out or the grid is filled, the round ends. All in view values are paid.

Free Spins

Landing 4 scatters awards 10 free spins, plus 2 free spins for each additional scatter. During free spins, a multiplier which applies to all wins becomes available. The multiplier starts at 1 and increases by +1 after each tumble. Hitting 4 scatters awards +10 extra free spins, plus 2 free spins for each additional scatter.

Buy Feature

Players are able to buy free spins for 80x the bet (RTP 95.96%) or the respins feature for 30x the bet (RTP 96%) from the feature buy menu.

Rise of Pyramids: Slot Verdict

Reviewing Rise of Pyramids was a roller coaster ride of old and new. Whilst not brand new, the way Ancient Egypt has been thrust into the future is relatively unique and makes a pleasant change from dusty old tombs and temples. The gaming grid, too, whilst not the latest thing on the block, isn't your tried and true 5x3, 20 payline gaming set-up. At a quick look, players would be forgiven for thinking they're about to be led to places they've never seen before nor would ever be able to think of in their wildest dreams. Well, maybe not so extreme, but Rise of Pyramids' set-up does promote the idea something singular is about to occur. Then, the features kick in and bring that thinking back to earth.

Fair enough, the grid is unusually laid out, and it makes wins out of clusters, rather large clusters, instead of lines or ways, so that's something. But the respin feature is a regular hold 'n win round, sans special symbols, not even jackpot symbols to spice things up, and the free spins round is just free spins with a rising win multiplier. They are bonuses which are part of a game that can hit up to 5,000x, and they've proven their worth over the years, no doubt, but still. It was hard to deny a wave of disappointment after interest levels were raised by the theme, then dashed after reading the paytable.

It doesn't mean to say Rise of Pyramids is a bad game. The looks and set-up are intriguing, and the features do their thing just fine. It just felt like Pragmatic Play missed an opportunity to create a really striking game with Rise of Pyramids if only the studio had mixed the outside parts with more excitingly creative gaming ideas.