Gates of Aztec: Slot Review and Free Play Demo

Gates of Aztec Review

Whenever a developer hits a home run you can bet your bottom dollar that there will be clones, reskins, and closely related follow-ups. That’s the nature of this business, where most games sink into oblivion almost as soon as they are released. Pragmatic Play has already released several follow-ups to their smash hit, Gates of Olympus, and Gates of Aztec is a straight-up clone except for the bonus buy option (not available in UK).

It comes with an ancient Meso-American theme instead of a Greek mythology theme, of course, with a fierce looking Aztec warrior by your side instead of Zeus. The name of the game is still multiplier symbols up to x500 that accumulate during tumble win sequences. These build the non-resetting global win multiplier in the bonus round, if part of a win that is, and the 5,000x potential hasn’t changed either. It boils down to your preferred theme in other words, and whether or not you’re eligible to take advantage of the bonus buy option.

Gates of Aztec Slot - Reels Screen

Gates of Aztec Slot Features

You win by landing 8 to 12+ matching symbols anywhere in view, and the latter awards between 2 and 50 x your stake. All winning symbols are removed via the Tumble mechanic, and this makes room for new and/or existing symbols to drop down to fill the gaps. The process repeats as long as you keep winning, and there are no wild symbols to help you out in any stage of this game.

You can land different color Multiplier gemstone symbols on all 6 reels, and they come with random multiplier values between x2 and x500. The value of all present multiplier symbols are added together at the end of a tumble sequence, and this sum total will then boost your total tumble win.

The Bonus Round triggers from 3, 4, or 5 scatters in view, and this gives you an up front scatter payout of 3x, 5x, or 100x your stake, respectively. You get 15 free spins no matter how many triggering scatters you land, and all applied multiplier symbol values are added to the global win multiplier. The total multiplier plus any new multiplier symbols will boost future wins, and landing 3 scatters in the same free spins tumble sequence awards +5 extra spins.

You can turn on the Ante Bet between base game spins, and it costs 25 % more per spin to keep it on. This doubles your bonus round chances. Non-UK players, and anyone eligible, can purchase the bonus round via the Buy Free Spins button. You can thus pay 100x your stake to get at least 3 triggering scatters. The RTP does not change if you buy the bonus round, and the feature has an organic hit rate of 1 in 448 spins.

The 200 Spins Gates of Aztec Slot Experience

Nothing too exciting happened for us in the base game, so we decided to purchase the bonus round after a while. This happens around 0:46 into the 3-minute highlights video, and we got 4 triggering scatters. You can see for yourself what kind of multiplier we managed to rack up, by simply hitting the play button below.

Review Summary

Pragmatic Play has seen solid success with their original Gates of Olympus, and “pragmatic” as they are, they know how to strike while the iron is hot. Gates of Aztec is another closely related release, not to say clone, but a bonus buy option has been included this time. This may benefit certain jurisdictions, but not the UK for sure. Instead of Zeus by your side you get a war-painted Aztec warrior, and the visual presentation is solid as usual.

The combination of scatter pay tumble wins and accumulating multiplier symbols up to x500 per symbol is still a deadly one, but hardly as original anymore. We’ve seen similar things in follow-ups like Gates of Gatot Kaca and Sword of Ares, but Gates of Aztec is still a tense and entertaining release in its own right. The 5,000x hasn’t been changed, which could’ve made a difference, and the series would’ve been even more interesting with a bit more twists and turns.