Ogre Empire

In a lot of fantasy novels, ogres are usually big, stupid brutes that end up being used as the bulk of some evil overlord’s army, essentially interchangeable with orcs. We think Betsoft may have focused too much on the big part, but there’s no denying that the first time we booted up Ogre Empire to see that large, smiling ogre sitting back on an entire village like it was some comfy chair we ended up laughing to ourselves. Safe to say that we went into it with a good first impression and the developers never gave us a reason to not enjoy ourselves. From start to finish, it was truly a magical journey. The game offers a 5×3 playing field with 25 fixed paylines, and rather than having free spins, the title gives you a night and day cycle which is activated by aligning a certain icon properly. It gives different bonuses, different pays, and the chance to see some unique symbols you might otherwise miss if you decide to hang out too much with your ogre pal during the day.

There are parts of this slot which we’re in love with. The logo, for one, perfectly represents the plight of the village itself, as its being taken over by the ogre, providing a mix between the more base, natural ogre, and the glimmering civilisation that humans began building before it was seized. The feel of the town changes entirely between the day and night, making them very visually distinct. However, one complaint we do have is that the ogre feels too stiff in his animations. Right now, he sometimes blinks, or swings his club as part of a random feature, but then he just sits there entirely unmoving. No breathing, no showing any signs he’s alive beyond a few brief blinks from time to time and then its back to looking like a statue.

On the gameplay side of things, Ogre Empire uses the day/night cycle to its fullest. The switch occurs when either a sun or a moon symbol appear in their entirety on the reels. During the day, you can find Sun Bloom flowers that turn up to three additional symbols Wild, and since the ogre is awake, he will occasionally smash the reels with his club, smashing stone icons and allowing new ones to fall in their place. By contrast, during night time, those stone symbols turn into the Joker, the Queen and the King, and these icons pay a lot more to make up for the ogre’s absence from the reels. There’s also a Night Bloom flower, but its effect is the same as the Sun Bloom.

You can wager between $0.25 up to $25 per spin. It’s safe to say that making the decision on whether sun or moon are the more profitable arrangements was difficult. From our take on things, the developers wanted night time to feel rarer but more valuable, and it’s difficult to argue against prioritising it when the symbols pay much more than the stone counterparts during the day. Still, every time we play at night time, we miss the ogre being able to swing his bat and clear off the small time icons.

There’s not a lot of visual distinction to be made here. The club, coins and mushrooms look alright, the stone icons are just letters, and the human symbols look like someone shaped them out of clay. It’s a good thing they’re such valuable pays, otherwise most people would probably just hunt by day, we feel.

Beyond the already mentioned features, Ogre Empire really doesn’t have any others. We thought we’d feel the absence of free spins, but we had lots of fun playing it, and some hundreds of spins later, we didn’t even notice it.