Hades: River of Souls is a fascinating slot from Microgaming, seeing you maneouver the underworld and the river Styx as you hope to match symbols. Though it has a fairly simple premise and style, there are some great bonus features and chances to win – should you risk a trip down to the underworld? Keep reading to find out…

Key features:

Reels: 5

Paylines: 10

Min bet: 20p

Max bet: £50

Slot RTP: 96.56%

Provider: Microgaming

Sights of the Underworld

The graphics in Hades: River of Souls have a somewhat simple cartoonish design – the background still looks rather daunting, but like somewhere you might find a Disney villain; there’s a good mix between fun and horror. It’s very dark, with a purple sky, and you can see the glow of the fire burning below –  look out too for the symbols, as these are more detailed than the background.

There are dogs with glowing eyes and mouths, Hades himself looking every inch the formidable god that he is, and various glowing jars with animals on them – is he hiding something in them? There’s quite an intense soundtrack too. It’s almost symphonic with a rock edge, as if leading up to a dramatic film scene, and it rises in volume to draw you in – before you know it, you’re right down there with Hades.

Playing Hades’ game

Hades: River of Souls has ten paylines altogether, and they’re fairly standard. Like in most slots, line wins begin from the leftmost reel and move rightwards, but here they can start on the right-hand side and move leftwards too, thanks to the Win Both Ways feature – it gives you more opportunities to win. Should you get five symbols spanning the entire board from left to right, you’ll get a payout for both wins!

When you win in the game, you’ll activate the avalanche feature. Once symbols in winning combinations have paid out, they’ll disappear from the play board, with new symbols falling down and potentially creating extra opportunities to win. Wild symbols, bonus scatter symbols and Skull of Charon symbols can fall down from the rows on top of the reels too. For every three symbols that disappear through the avalanche feature, the Wild Souls Multiplier will increase by x1 in the base game too – when avalanches end, the total win will be multiplied by the Wild Souls Multiplier.

Souls gone wild

Get one or more Skull of Charon symbols, and you’ll activate the Skull of Charon feature. Where there are no further winning combinations, every Skull of Charon symbol will remove itself, along with between two and ten random symbols from the reels, and activate an avalanche to give you some more chances to win on that spin – you might be able to increase the Wild Souls Multiplier as a result too…

As well as the Skull of Charon feature, there are free spins too. To trigger Hades Free Spins, you just need to find three bonus scatter symbols on the play board. You’ll win ten free spins from three bonus scatters, while any additional scatter will get you another five spins on top of that. During Hades Free Spins, every three wild symbols disappearing through the avalanche feature will increase the Wild Souls Multiplier by x2, and it doesn’t reset until all of your free spins end. Get another three bonus scatter symbols for an extra ten free spins, while each extra one will get you another five – just like in the base game.

Conclusion

There’s a lot that makes Hades: River of Souls a great game, from the theme and design to the bonus features – particularly the free spins. The avalanche feature and the ability to Win Both Ways are also welcome additions, making this a suitable slot for experienced players and those with less experience alike. Why not see if you’ve got what it takes to escape the underworld?

Provider

One of the most well-known and well-regarded slots, Microgaming have been making slots since 1994. Their many and varied slots span myriad themes and formats, and alongside Hades: River of Souls you can try the likes of Thunderstruck II – perhaps their most popular slot of all – Mega Moolah and King Arthur too. Explore their catalogue and find your new favourite game!