Zeus of Olympus — review

What's left is high volatility and a feature list that makes no attempt to hide its inspiration. Avalanche, Cascading, Pay Anywhere, Scatter Pays, Gonzo mechanic and a free spins round with a multiplier — it's the genre's standard set of features presented under a name that was hardly chosen by accident.

01When the datasheet is half-empty

Missing RTP is not in itself proof that the figure is bad. Smaller studios often don't get their data into public catalogs, and some games are delivered in multiple RTP versions that the operator chooses between. But the consequence for the player is the same: you can't compare the game with your neighbour's until you've opened the information screen.

The same goes for the win cap. Without that number you can't assess whether the high volatility is reasonably compensated. A high-volatility game with a 2.000 x cap is a poor deal; the same game with 20.000 x is a completely different product. Here we don't know.

My view is straightforward: don't start until you've found both figures in the game's own rules. If they're hard to find, there are 49 other Olympus titles in the pool that publish them without trouble.

02The Gonzo mechanic and what it entails

Gonzo mechanic on the feature list is catalog language for the cascade model where symbols drop down instead of rolling, winning symbols disappear, and the multiplier increases for each consecutive chain. It's one of the genre's oldest and best-tested structures, and it works because it gives every winning spin a continuation.

Combined with Pay Anywhere and Scatter Pays this means symbols are counted across the entire screen. A chain doesn't need to resemble anything specific to continue, it just needs to keep producing enough matching symbols. The stepped multiplier makes the third or fourth link in a chain worth far more than the first.

That is also the explanation for the high volatility. Most spins die on the first link. The value lies in the small share where the chain holds.

03Free spins, Bonus Bet and the buy button

The bonus side consists of Free Spins with Free Spins Multiplier and Additional Free Spins. In that type of game this usually means the progressive multiplier is not reset between spins in the bonus, but keeps rising — that's what makes the round significantly more valuable than the base game.

Buy Feature and Bonus Bet are both on the list. Buying the bonus removes the slow buildup and raises variance sharply; an increased stake does the same on a smaller scale. On a site with a Danish license both are often removed from the interface, so don't count on them in advance.

Random multiplier also appears. Without a disclosed cap you can't work backwards to see how large a total multiplier the game allows, which again makes it hard to assess the real upside.

04The comparison that decides the matter

Zeus of Olympus sits on a shelf where at least ten other titles have practically identical feature lists and at the same time disclose both RTP and the cap. It's a tough competitive situation when you bring nothing unique and also don't put the numbers on the table.

Fair's fair: the game doesn't do anything mechanically wrong. Cascade, Pay Anywhere and increasing multipliers are a sensible combination, and the lightning, gold and gemstones theme is competently executed. It's the level of information, not the game, that's the problem.

As always the Danish framework applies: 18 years, ROFUS for self-exclusion via Spillemyndigheden, and stopspillet.dk if play has started to cost more than it returns.