Book Of Souls

Not long ago, GiG Games was born under the auspices of the already established Gaming Innovation Group. For several years, this group had been carving out a space for itself in the global online casino industry, gaining traction and building its reputation. Then, in September 2018, we got to experience the first-ever slot machine from GiG Games, which was Wild Reels. Now, just a bit shy of a year later, we are back in the realm of GiG Games, but this time with Book of Souls, an easily modernized and elegant slot game that easily holds its own with any other recent video slots.

About The Slot Machine

When we tested for the first time on GiG Games' second slot machine that was ever launched, we understood very quickly that the game developer must HAD to have had a great affection for making games like NetEnt. Several slot games from the New Zealand provider giveMV-TIPP WELLINGTONBUFFERING.

The new Book of Souls slot machine gives similar impressions in completely different ways and shows that GiG Games clearly has Variety in its plans for the future. It reminds me a bit of Blood Suckers 2 with a female protagonist who is out on her own adventure, searching for hidden treasure. The big difference is that no vampires show up, and that it takes place in a Mayan ruin in the jungle, which immediately makes us think of another favorite from the same game developer, Gonzo's Quest.

Stakes and winnings

The Book of Souls is a classic game in many ways, with 5 reels, 3 rows, and 10 paylines that make it reminiscent of older, simple slot machines. The paylines themselves might be simple, but we must not forget that they represent a crucial part of the feature set. These unassuming lines trigger all the game’s winning combinations, and they do so with striking regularity. The theoretical payout for the Book of Souls isn’t too shabby, either, sitting pretty at 96.90%. That’s a few points above the average for NetEnt games and means players should expect to see winning combinations fairly often.

At GiG Games, it counts as medium volatile, which means that players can look forward to both big wins and a lot of smaller wins that come after not too much spinning and not too much nothing happening. You can bet up to 100 coins or $1,000 with all the paylines active, giving you quite a bit of freedom to increase or decrease your chances of winning.

The minimum bet you can make is 0.10, and it is set automatically when you enter the game. However, if you like, you can also set a higher bet, though for many, 0.10 is more than enough. Between manually spinning the reels and having the game do it for you, there's also the option of letting your hands (or your life) be busy with something else and just watching the reels spin in all their glory. Follow them as they go up, down, and sideways.

Symbols

The game's five regular symbols represent the weaker ones found in the Book of Souls. These readily recognizable classic playing card symbols (A, K, Q, J, and 10) have a snazzy and slightly more upscale design than you'd find in older online slots. Still, it's a design nevertheless that fits well into the game's overall theme. All of these symbols consist of finely sculpted stone, and they're rather easily deciphered.

The game's most potent symbols consist of the game's characters and a few other standout symbols. Lara Jones, the game's protagonist, is on a quest to find the Book of Souls and unlock its treasures. She is the game's highest-valued symbol and can give a payout worth 5,000 coins for a x5 win.

Another potent symbol is her archenemy—the man with the glasses and gun. Five of him get you a win worth 2,000 coins. The golden statuette is worth as much as the Mayan calendar, which can give you 750 coins for the same winning combination. So those are your five strong symbols.

The Scatter symbol that triggers free spins also acts as a regular symbol and contributes to winning combinations.

Snake Spin Wilds

The Book of Souls exhibits a feature that we have not yet encountered in a casino game: Snake Wilds. This is a characteristic of the title that is wholly original and that no other game has yet to offer. But what, exactly, are Snake Wilds? We are glad you asked. A specific symbol in the Book of Souls acts like no other symbol in a casino game that we know of. It is not actually a symbol that gets spun on the reels; rather, it is a part of the game's programming. When some conditions are met (and we won't go into what those are here, as we're not game designers), you will see snakes wind their way across the reels, and they too will act like a Wild symbol. But here's the kicker: Snake Wilds are a step above your everyday Wild (like the Joker you find in a deck of cards, for instance). With Snake Wilds, not only can you make winning combinations that you couldn't normally make (like 5 different symbols that way and 5 different symbols this way), but you're also using

Functions

The components that have undoubtedly become quite popular in Book of Souls are those that everyone knows and loves. We have wild cards that can substitute for other symbols and free spins, but with a couple of neat little tweaks that set this game apart.

Free spins

While GiG Games might be a fresh contender in the world of casino game development, they've quickly grasped that one of the features all slot enthusiasts covet is a free spins bonus. And they have delivered this in a straightforward and classic way: with a scatter symbol that does what scatter symbols are meant to do—scattered about on the reels. So, if you get three or more of the Book Of Souls symbols anywhere on the reels, you are guaranteed to enjoy 10 free spins as a bonus for figuring out how to play this game.

Prior to the commencement of the free spins round, one symbol is randomly chosen to function as the game's bonus symbol. When this symbol is selected as the bonus symbol, it subsequently expands to cover an entire reel during the moments in which the free spins feature is active.

Another way to get free spins is to land 3 new scatters anywhere on the playing field. If you do, you'll trigger another free spins round. This time, though, you'll get an additional 10 free spins to add to whatever was happening before you landed the 3 new scatters.

Summary

Besides the characters being totally different and the fact that Book of Souls is not set in ancient Egypt, it is hard not to draw parallels between gig's latest video slot and a couple of game titles launched by, among others, Play'n Go. In Book of Dead, for example, you get to go on a similar adventure, and even the bonus features call to mind the slot machine from Play'n Go. The true bonus feature where the playing field itself turns into an open book, which also acts as the game's bonus symbol, is really nice from a graphic perspective. So, although the bonus feature and the theme are recognizable, we can still feel that this is completely okay.