Gaze of Gold

IGT PlayDigital, formerly known as iSoftBet, has released a brand new slot under their new name called Gaze of Gold Mega Hold & Win. The game is steeped in Greek mythology focusing on the gorgon character of Medusa who can turn men to stone with just a gaze. You can find all sorts of thematic symbols from Perseus to the trusty Pegasus. Interesting bonus mechanics also keep the game fresh like respins or locked symbols.

The main attraction of the game is the Mega Hold & Win feature which hosts numerous cash prizes. Players can win up to 15000x their bet with a $20 maximum wager. The RTP of the game is 95.95% which is slightly below average with high volatility. Let us begin this Gaze of Gold slot review and see what this Greek gem holds.

IGT PlayDigital’s Gaze of Gold is a pretty simple slot to pick up and learn. The game is all about a standard 5×3 structure with some bonus features and paylines to score. There are 20 paylines in total and you win by arranging at least 3 identical symbols in one of them. Wins are paid from left to right and unique payline are combined together.

Regular symbols include the 4 low-wins which appear as A, K, Q, J and a 10. The 4 high-wins are custom-designed symbols with beautiful artwork. Then there are also the golden shield scatter and Medusa’s eye wild that appear in the base game. The shields are used to trigger Hold & Wins while the wild substitutes for any regular symbol.

While playing Gaze of Gold you can wager anywhere from $0,20 to $20 per spin. The maximum win is 15000x the bet and the RTP value is 95.95% for a below-average score. We feel this is the main weakness of the slot. Volatility is set to high so expect high variance.

Regular symbol payouts are maxed out at 5 symbols in a line. You can get anywhere from 1.50x to 5x the bet for low-win symbols. High-wins will get you anywhere from 7.5x to 25x the bet in the same circumstances. However, the main payouts are from the Hold and Win feature.

Speaking of which, you can buy the feature for 100x the bet and it will activate automatically. Furthermore, there is also the betting option of activating the golden bet. This will increase your chances to trigger the Hold and Win feature at the cost of 1.5x the bet.

Gaze of Gold features some interesting bonus mechanics to spice up the base gameplay. Let us cover them all:

• Gorgon’s Gaze Modifier – On any spin, the Gorgon’s Gaze can randomly activate to turn winning symbols or golden shields to stone and lock them. The other positions on the reels will then respin and if new winning symbols or shields land, another respin is rewarded. This feature will continue until no more winning symbols land or the Hold & Wins trigger.
• Mega Hold & Win – Once you land at least 5 golden shield symbols, the Hold and Win feature triggers. It starts with 3 respins and the triggering shields reveal a cash prize of 1x to 50x your bet. Only gold shields can then land as you spin the special reels and landing at least one symbol resets respins to 3. If you fill the entire board or the respins run out, the feature ends and you get a payout equal to the total value of cash prizes collected.
• Expand Modifier – After every Hold and Win spin, the expand modifier can randomly trigger to expand the grid up to 7×11. The grid can expand by 2 rows and 2 columns or 1 row and 1 column each time this feature is triggered.
• Booster Symbols – Booster Symbols can land in H&W to improve current cash prizes on screen by multiplying their values by x2, x3 or x5.
• Collect Symbols – These will collect all cash prizes on the screen and add their values to their own.

As you can see the Hold & Win feature of the Gaze of Gold slot truly deserves the prefix Mega.