The Golden Owl of Athena by Betsoft – Slot Machine Review
With The Golden Owl of Athena, Betsoft Gaming has once again chosen to travel to ancient times, the theme of this particular slot revolving around the mythology of Ancient Greece. They’ve done it before, with previous games of theirs focusing on the Stone Age, on Aztecs, Ancient Rome, and others.
In this case, they came up with one more beautiful design for their Slots3 series, while the layout has 5 by 3 reels with 10 active lines in use all the time. Take advantage of wilds or scatters, trigger free spins and win as much as $50,000 in a single round, these are all possible in The Golden Owl of Athena.
Betting
Betting wise, this doesn’t look like the sort of game where you can play as a high roller, not with wagers that stop at a maximum value of $1 for each line. Given the 10 lines that are in play, the complete range of your bets in The Golden Owl of Athena will be between $0.10 and $10.
On the other hand, there is another option that you can use if you want to make a larger investment in this game. The Buy Feature button is available in the bottom right corner, and it requires you to wager as much as $930 (93x the regular bet) in order to get immediate access to 20 free spins. If you’re impatient and you want to try out your luck in the game’s most profitable feature, this could very well be an option worth attempting.
The Golden Owl of Athena Jackpot
As is often the case in slot machines, the big payout of this game will not necessarily come from just one winning combination. The slot has an expanding symbol feature reserved for the free spins, which could result in a full screen filled with high-paying symbols. Having 10 lines filled with jackpot symbols isn’t out of the question. That’s why while the top paying combo will offer only $5,000 (5,000x), the most you can walk away from one spin is $50,000.
The RTP (Return to Player) percentage is a theoretical one, and it’s been announced by Betsoft at 95.05% for this game. You don’t actually get that much in your gaming sessions, you go higher or lower depending on your luck, but it does give you a way to compare this game with others, and it’s a bit lower than the 96% average we see these days.
Special Features
The Golden Owl of Athena’s entire list of features revolves around a single symbol, the one showing us the cute Owl. Available both as a wild feature and as a scatter, it will be a useful symbol no matter how it’s being used.
The Owl, Wild Symbol
The Owl will be used in its role as a substitute whenever it lands on a payline that has the other required symbols for the combination to form. Whether it’s an Owl and two matching regular symbols, or any other combination, a combo will form if these symbols appear left to right on an active payline.
The Owl, Scatter Symbol
Owl symbols will pay as scatters, not as regular wilds would, so there is no need to have them form combinations in order to get their rewards. Having them appear 3+ times on the reels and in the same round is all that is required. In exchange, there are rewards given of 2x, 20x or 200x the bet, based on the number of symbols that you got.
Free Spins
At the same time as they’re paying you, the same 3 or more Owl scatters will also trigger 8, 12 or 20 free spins. These will benefit from the presence of a special bonus symbol.
Bonus symbol: it’s chosen at random as the free spins feature starts up, and it can be any of the regular symbols that the game uses. You could get the highest-paying symbol of the slot, or the lowest one, it’s completely random. Ideally, you’d want one of the High-Value symbols to be selected, since the extra ability of the bonus symbol is to expand on the reel if this gets you a winning combination. Having a full-screen worth of these symbols is certainly possible.
Design
First, a word about the theme of The Golden Owl of Athena. You probably figured out that it has something to do with the Ancient Greek goddess of wisdom, Athena. The Owl that’s mentioned is often shown in pictures as a companion of the goddess, so it has come to be associated with wisdom as well.
Graphics wise, Betsoft certainly has the experience to create a good design, and they’ve put it to good use in this game. The background is filled with Ancient temples and well-manicured gardens of the time, with the set of reels being surrounded by a golden border.
The game comes with 1 feature and 10 regular symbols, which have images of the Owl, Athena, Temples, Ancient Trees, Helmets, Daggers and an Amphora. Lower symbols get the playing cards.
Summary
The Golden Owl of Athena is a beautiful game, has a lesson of Ancient Greek mythology to teach you, and as for its features, it makes an impression through its extra expanding symbols that are possible during the free spins.
