Spartus Slots
Take to the battlefields of Ancient Greece in Spartus, a 5 reel, 25 payline from the team at Stakelogic that incorporates the revolutionary Slot 360° Feature as well as free spins and expanding wilds.
Available to play from as little as ￡0.25 per spin, Spartus offers a regular jackpot of 5,000x your line bet, but there’s actually a maximum prize award of 186,400 coins when you factor in the enhanced payouts awarded during free spins. Despite this prizepool wizardry, however, the slot remains an incredibly straightforward title to pick up and play and is available on desktop, mobile and tablet.
This Is Spartus!
While the console used in Spartus can initially look a little daunting, once you get past the fact that most buttons are purely there to explain things like valid paylines and payouts, you’ll realise the only thing you really need to pay attention to is the pop-up menu launched by the “total bet” button.
Here players will be able to control both the number of coins that they wish to stake per line (with between 1 and 4 available) and the actual value of each coin (with amounts varying from ￡0.01 to ￡0.50). When combined, this means that Spartus can be played from as little as ￡0.25 per spin or as much as much as ￡50, making it the ideal game for players using a range of different slot bankrolls.
Whatever level of investment they choose to make, players will be chasing a top prize award of 5,000x their bet per line for matching five Spartan warriors, with a range of smaller payouts available for any three-of-a-kind combination. The middle three reels all also feature expanding wilds that can grow to fill the entire column, helping you create more combos and further boost your winnings.
Warriors of Old
In terms of graphics and audio, Spartus is actually fairly impressive. Although the Ancient Greek warrior theme is a relatively simple one, it is incredibly well executed with a complete cast of unique symbols, animations and sound effects; while the dramatic background music is also very enjoyable.
Rather than relying on the standard Ace-through-10 playing card symbols, Spartus instead uses a range of coloured gems to denote its lower value icons, with four different types of mask representing the richer symbols. A golden horse’s head also features as the game’s expanding wild symbol, while a wheel with the word “Spartus” overlaid on it triggers the slot’s main bonus feature.
Special mention should also go to the fact that the background in Spartus changes based on the most recent Slot 360° Feature prize you’ve landed, with a range of beautifully drawn battle scenes keeping the visuals fresh and exciting. Each winning payline, meanwhile, features its own unique animation and sound effect, with the higher value mask symbols being particularly well animated.
Free-Wheelin’
In terms of bonus features, Spartus utilises two portal-style spaces on the central row of the first and fifth reels. The goal here is for players to land specific icons in these spaces, with the Spartus wheel triggering the main bonus feature and the mask symbols contributing towards the Slot 360° Feature.
Looking first at the wheel feature, activating this bonus will see players transported to a series of three concentric wheels, which are spun to reveal cash bonuses and free spins. The outer wheel is the least valuable and will either award a small cash bonus or an arrow that advances you to the second wheel, where bigger prizes await. The central wheel, meanwhile, awards extra free spins.
Once the bonus wheel stops spinning, players are returned to the base game, where their free spins are redeemed and their cash bonuses are added to wins in the form of “mystery prizes”. Winnings can also be boosted by the Slot 360° Feature, which sees each of the mask symbols given a prize range and a target number. With the target decreasing by one every time each mask stops in one of the portal spaces, once it hits zeros players will win a random cash prize within the specified range.
Battle-Hardened
The key to Spartus being such an enjoyable game is undoubtedly its simplicity, with the two main bonus features both being triggered by the same portal space system. This means players are free to enjoy the graphics and sounds of the slot without having to keep too close an eye on proceedings, making it a great game to leave on autoplay while you watch your winnings counter sky-rocket.
