Ghostly Hallows

Ghostly Hallows Review

Backseat Gaming is back on the hunt for buried treasure, but the sunny shores and swashbuckling buccaneering from the predecessor scatter pay ventures have faded into a greenish, eerie mist in Ghostly Hallows. While there are similarities between Pirate Bonanza and its direct sequel Pirate Bonanza 2, Ghostly Hallows takes a darker and more spooky turn. A massive haunted pirate ship sits in the calm waters in the backdrop, and the skeleton captain is aiming his cannon at the 6x5 grid.

You start by choosing your preferred bet level, ranging from €0.10 to €50 per spin. The Pay Anywhere win system (also called Scatter Pay) means winning combinations don’t form on paylines like in most slots. Instead, you win when 8 to 25+ matching symbols land anywhere on the grid. The symbols, consisting of gems, pistols, lamps, treasure chests, and skulls, award between 100x and 500x your stake for 25 in view. On the lower end, the symbols pay 0.2x to 2x your stake for 8 anywhere.

As is often the case with scatter pay slots, there are no wild symbols in Ghostly Hallows. However, the tumble mechanic means repeated wins in the same round are possible, and this is where the cannon multiplier feature comes in to make things even more interesting. Unlike in the predecessors, the cannon collects multiplier symbols that appear in random positions behind the pay symbols. These can go as high as x1,024, but you need a cannon symbol to benefit from the accumulated cannon multiplier.

In the regular bonus round, the cannon multiplier keeps growing without resetting until you hit a cannon symbol. However, in the super bonus round, the cannon multiplier doesn’t even reset when you hit a cannon symbol. It keeps growing for the entire feature. Ghostly Hallows is a high volatility slot game, scoring 5 out of 5 on the in-game scale. It comes with two possible RTP settings of 96.30% and 94.29%, a hit rate of 30.67%, and the game’s max win is 20,000x your stake.

Ghostly Hallows Features

While we’ve given you an overview of the features already, here we go into all the details and reveal exactly what you can expect. Of course, you can also check the features for yourself by sampling the Ghostly Hallows free play demo, located at the top of the page. Let’s jump in!

Tumble Wins

Winning symbols are removed from the grid and replaced by new symbols, dropping down to fill the gaps. This happens after the remaining symbols have dropped to the lowest possible position, and the process repeats as long as you keep winning. This means that you will experience indefinite winning streaks per round, and this mechanic is active in both the base game and the bonus rounds.

Cannon Feature

You can land up to 5 multipliers in the same spin, and these appear behind the symbols in random positions. The multipliers range from x2 to x1,024, and winning symbols appearing on a multiplier position add the multiplier to the cannon to the left of the grid. The accumulating cannon multiplier is only applied to your tumble win if a cannon symbol appears, and the cannon multiplier is reset for the next spin.

Ghostly Hallows Free Spins Bonus Rounds

The Cannon of the Damned Bonus Round triggers when you land 3 scatters on the same base game spin, or within the same tumble sequence. This awards 10 free spins where the cannon multiplier does not reset until it's used when a cannon symbol hits.

The Ghostly Pirate's Trail Bonus Round triggers when you land 4 scatter symbols on the same base game spin, or within the same tumble sequence. You get 10 free spins also in this feature, but here, the cannon multiplier never resets for the duration of the bonus round. In both bonus rounds, you are guaranteed at least one multiplier per spin.

Ghostly Hallows Bonus Buy (not UK)

Eligible players can open the Bonus Buy menu by clicking the yellow button below the grid, and it comes with the following options in the Ghostly Hallows slot:

• BonusHunt FeatureSpins - pay 2x your stake to increase your bonus round chances by 3 times.
• Cursed FeatureSpins - pay 50x your stake to guarantee that a Cannon symbol lands on the reels.
• Cannon of the Damned - pay 100x your stake to trigger the Cannon of the Damned bonus round.
• Ghostly Pirate's Trail - pay 250x your stake to trigger the Ghostly Pirate's Trail bonus round.

Theme & Graphics

Ghostly Hallows plays out somewhere in the Caribbean, where a thick, greenish midnight mist clings to the jagged remains of a haunted pirate ship. The fearsome skeleton captain stands ready with his cannon on the left-hand side, overlooking the dark wooden grid. His vocabulary is limited to a brutish “arr” whenever he catches a multiplier. The somewhat understated soundtrack builds a moody, cursed treasure island atmosphere, as you spin reels filled with gems, flintlock pistols, treasure chests, and lanterns.

Ghostly Hallows Free Play

Before you brave the haunted high seas with your own coins at risk, we suggest you check our free Ghostly Hallows demo game. It’s located at the top of this review page, and you can’t miss it when you head up there. A highly volatile voyage like this may take some getting used to, but you’ll be sure to have your sea legs steady after a few Ghostly Hallows free play sessions. When you've gotten into the swing of things and feel confident, casinos confirmed to carry this title await below the demo game.

Pros and Cons of Ghostly Hallows

Our Verdict

Backseat Gaming may have steered into familiar waters with Ghostly Hallows, but they’ve arrived with enough mechanical firepower to avoid the reskin stamp. Unlike the predecessors, this game is a haunted tale of treasures and riches, but the skeleton captain would’ve come more to life as an undead zombie with some meat on the bones. His repetitive “arr-ing” is a bit of a cliché, too, but the soundtrack does a good job of keeping the atmosphere loaded and suspenseful.

I recommend the super turbo option for Ghostly Hallows, as that’s when I felt the gameplay flow hit the sweet spot. Even the regular turbo option felt a bit too sluggish, at least for my taste. Anyway, the base game cycles between dead spins and mid-sized top-up wins for the most part, as you need that cannon multiplier activated to win anything significant. This is a high volatility affair after all, and drifting through the calm seas of the base game can be handsomely rewarded if you have the patience for it.

I’m not quite sure if I like this tweak to Backseat’s cannon multiplier system. It has some frustrating elements to it. Like when you finally manage to load it up with a solid multiplier, and then that elusive cannon symbol refuses to show up to trigger the killshot. That’s the base game in a nutshell for you. However, those few times when everything conspires to land you a larger win may be worth the wait. That being said, it’s the bonus round you’re really waiting for in this game.

I like that both bonus rounds can be triggered organically, as there are too many games out there where the super bonus is only available in the bonus buy menu. Both bonus rounds have a high hit or miss factor to them, though, as you need that cannon symbol to land to win anything worthwhile. If you can stomach the dry spells and the reliance on a single symbol to unlock the treasure, Ghostly Hallows offers an atmospheric and volatile voyage with a solid win cap of 20,000x your stake.