Soldier of Rome Slot Review 2020

Ancient Rome is a popular setting for many slots, so were intrigued to see how iconic British developer Barcrest approached the topic with their Soldier of Rome slot. They certainly did something unusual with the way that the reels are structured, and managed to include some interesting bonus features too.

So read this Soldier of Rome slot review to find out whether this game is worthy of a Roman Triumph, or should have ended up on the wrong end of a lion’s mouth in the Coliseum.

The Soldier of Rome slot machine is played on a slightly unusual grid. There are 5 reels, but 3 of them have 10 rows attached to them, and 2 have just 2 rows. The latter are the Money Burst reels that stand slightly in front of the main reels. There is a variable number of paylines that can rise as high as 100 during the feature, with 50 in play during the base game.

The minimum bet for UK players is usually 10p and the maximum is £500. This can vary from operator to operator, though, so you should always check. There is an autoplay button available in the game. The game uses HTML5 technology, so you can play it on your phone or tablet without any compromise in the quality of its graphics and sound. The slot was released by Barcrest in July 2018.

Soldier of Rome Slot RTP

The basic RTP of the Soldier of Rome slot is 96%, but this changes if you use the game’s Big Bet option. We will take a closer look at the Big Bet option later on in this review, but it can change the RTP to between 93.78% and 97.82%. This makes using the Big Bet option worth considering. An RTP of 96% is pretty typical for a slot of this type. Other Barcrest slots with a similar RTP include Crown Gems (96.20%) and Lucky Streak (96%). There does tend to be a quite a lot of variation in the RTP of slots from this developer, due to the use of features like Big Bet.

If you like to use stats to shape your slots strategy, you will also be interested to know that this game is a medium volatility slot. This means that you can expect a reasonable balance between frequent small wins and more infrequent large wins. Again, the Big Bet feature affects the volatility of the game at different stages.

The Soldier of Rome slot looks quite impressive. There is a pretty detailed image of a Roman soldier standing at the left side of the reels. There are little touches of animation that light up his features as you play the game. The reels move in a slightly clunky and sticky way, but this feels deliberate. It seems like an attempt to evoke a retro atmosphere in the game, and we liked it. We think it works well. The reels are set in front of what looks like Roman ruins. Quite why Rome would be in ruins at this time isn’t clear, so we tried not to wonder too much about it.

The sound effects in the game are unusual and quite interesting. They have a very retro feel to them. The tune that plays when the reels spin really sounds like something from a cabinet based slot from a few decades ago. Given Barcrest’s history as a manufacturer of cabinet-based games, this is perhaps not too surprising. It certainly gives the game an interesting atmosphere that we quite enjoyed.

Stacked Wilds and Mighty Reels

The lower value symbols on the reels in this game are jewelled playing card symbols. You’ll see purple clubs, blue spades, red hearts and pink diamonds. The higher value symbols are all objects associated with Ancient Rome. There is a chariot and a silver coin, as well as an SPQR legion standard and a pair of swords. The images are pretty detailed without being overly impressive, but they certainly did their job.

The soldier himself is the wild symbol. He will replace all other symbols apart from the scatter to create new winning combinations. He can only appear on reels 3, 4 and 5, but can appear stacked too, expanding to fill a whole reel. When he happens, he brings the 5 reels in the upper right-hand side into play, boosting the number of paylines to 100. These are the Mighty Reels. There is another wild symbol – the game’s logo featuring a soldier – that can only appear on the 2 rows to the left side of the main reels. The Soldier of Rome scatter symbol triggers the bonus feature, and we’ll take a look at that next.

There are 3 bonus features in this game, the main one of which is the free spins feature. That is not all that this intriguing game offers, however.

• Free Spins
  If 3 of the scatter symbols land anywhere in view you will trigger this feature. Alternatively, it will also be triggered if 3 of the game’s logo wild symbols land anywhere in view. You are awarded an initial 10 free spins. Each extra bonus symbol in view gives you an extra 5 spins up to a maximum of 25. If a soldier wild appears the Mighty Reels come into play and there are 100 paylines available. The soldier only has to be partly in view for this to happen. If 3 scatters land during this feature it will re-trigger, making it potentially very lucrative indeed.
  
• Money Burst/Lightning Spins
  This feature is triggered when you spin in 4 matching symbols in the 4 reels to the left side of the screen. You will receive a series of Lightning Spins. During these, extra examples of the matching symbols are added to the reels to boost your chances of winning.
  
• Big Bet Option
  If you opt for the Big Bet, you pay for an extra 5 spins that offer you some extra features and boost your chances of winning. For £20, wild symbols need to be only partially in view to activate the Mighty Reels. For £30, you get the same benefits as for £20, only with all the lower value symbols removed from the reels. For £50, you get all the extras you get for £20 or £30, but with the Mighty Reels being activated all the time.

We really like the Soldier of Rome slot game. Although some players might not enjoy the retro feel of the graphics and sound as much as we did, they certainly give the game an individual feel that helps it stand out from the crowd. The bonus features are really good, and the addition of extras like the Mighty Reels and the Big Bet feature really boosts your chances of taking home a big prize or two.

So this Soldier of Rome slot review ends on a positive note, but urging you to give this game a try. If you enjoy slots set in the Eternal City’s past, then you might also enjoy Gladiator by Playtech, as well as Rome and Egypt by WMS.

Soldier of Rome Slot FAQs