Army of Ares Slot Review

The Army of Ares Slot Game

Even with less popularity than the other gods, Ares has inspired a few games, like KA Gaming’s Ares God of War and Pragmatic Play’s Sword of Ares. In this Hacksaw Gaming, he’s yet to unleash war and violence on the reels that could potentially result in wins.

The Army of Ares has a design almost identical to the Spear of Athena. The base game takes place in an open field, presumably where the battle is about to unfold. Even the skies look oppressive as if in solidarity with the violence that’s about to happen.

The deity stands next to the reels on the right-hand side, while an army of soldiers stands on the other side. However, the bonus rounds present a grimmer picture of destroyed cities. Overall, the artwork is good and the sounds are equally impressive.

Symbols and Payouts

The action in Army of Ares takes place on a 5-reel, 4-row gaming field with 14 paylines. Meanwhile, the paytable features 10 regular symbols that should help you generate winning combinations.

The way it works is that you must land 3 or more matching symbols on any of the preselected paylines (you can check them out in the paytable). But the identical symbols must appear from left to right on adjacent reels, starting from the leftmost column.

Your low-valued symbols are the 10 through A royals, worth 0.2x, 0.5x, and 1x the bet, respectively. Then, the high-paying symbols include the following:

• Shield: 1x, 2x, and 4x the bet.

• Battleaxe: 1.2x, 2.5x, and 5x the stake.

• Spear: 1.5x, 3x, and 6x the bet.

• Horse: 2x, 4x, and 8x the stake.

• Ares: 2.5x, 5x, and 10x the bet.

All the Wild symbols in Army of Ares substitute for all the paytable symbols. Furthermore, the slot has FS scatters and Dead symbols, but the latter are non-paying and have no other effect.

Army of Ares Slot Bonus Features

The wrath reels, free spins bonuses, and bonus buy options available here should prepare you for the god of war’s arrival. So, let’s get into them.

Wrath Reels

Whenever a Wrath scatter symbol appears in Army of Ares, it expands into a Wild Wrath Reel. Once expanded, the Wrath Reel reveals a 2x to 300x multiplier, applied to the whole Wrath Reel.

If a winning combo includes multiple Wrath Reels, the multipliers are added from left to right and then applied to the payout. A Wrath Reel randomly adds between 0 and 5 Wilds to the grid once expanded.

Fear and Flame Bonus

Land 3 FS scatters during the base game to trigger this bonus, worth 10 free spins. It keeps the base game’s mechanics, and wilds added to the grid by a Wrath Reel will have 2x to 100x multipliers. A winning combo with multiple Wild Multipliers will have them added from left to right before the payout is multiplied.

Wrath and Ruin Bonus

Landing 4 FS scatters simultaneously in the Army of Ares base game starts this bonus with 3 refilling lives displayed on a Life Meter. The 3 refilling lives equal 3 free spins, and they refill to 3 whenever any Disc Multiplier or Battle Horse symbol appears. The bonus ends after all lives are consumed.

During this feature, a Reel Multiplier above every column will start at x1, and only dead symbols, Disc Multipliers, and Battle Horses can appear. The following Disc Multipliers increase the Reel Multipliers above the reels progressively throughout the bonus:

• Green Discs: Add their value to the Reel Multiplier for the reel they land on once.
• Epic Green Disc: Adds its value to all the Reel Multipliers once.

• Red Discs: Multiply the Reel Multiplier for the column they appear on by their revealed values.

• Epic Red Disc: Multiplies all the Reel Multipliers by their revealed value once.

The possible additive values for all Green Discs and multiplying values for all Red Discs are 1x to 100x and 2x to 10x, respectively.     

Whenever a Battle Horse lands in the Army of Ares, it accumulates above its reel and reveals a 2x to 50x multiplier after the free spins. The revealed multiplier only applies to the Reel Multiplier above the corresponding column. After the Battle Horse ends, all the Reel Multipliers are added together and multiplied by the bet amount.

Hidden Epic Bonus - Ares Ascends

Finally, you can trigger this feature, worth 3 refilling lives, when you manage 5 FS scatters in the base game. It retains the Wrath and Ruin bonus mechanics and guarantees a full grid with Disc Multipliers and 1 Battle Horse symbol from the onset.

Buy Bonus

Like every other Hacksaw Gaming slot, this game features four buy options:

• BonusHunt FeatureSpins: Every spin is 5 times more likely to trigger a bonus for 3x the bet.

• Carnage FeatureSpins: Every spin guarantees at least 1 Wrath Reel and higher odds of landing Wild symbols.

• Fear and Flame: 100x the bet.

• Wrath and Ruin: 200x the stake.

How to Win at Army of Ares Slot

With 5 reels, 4 rows, and 14 paylines, it should be a walk in the park to acquaint yourself. Winning, albeit random, happens when you manage 3 or more identical symbols along a predefined payline from left to right, starting from the leftmost reel.

A spin of the Army of Ares slot consumes between €0.10 and €50 bets, and you can use the up and down arrows to adjust the values.

Then, use the Spin button or the spacebar to gamble a single round. Alternatively, you can use the Autoplay function to gamble several preselected spins automatically. Use the Menu button to access other in-game controls, including the Super Turbo/Turbo that speeds up the game.

Army of Ares Slot RTP & Volatility

This game features an RTP of 96.26%, which may vary by location. Meanwhile, it has a high variance rating of 4 out of 5 and can pay up to 15,000 times the bet.

Final Verdict

The iGaming world is famous for paying homage to significant characters and deities from different cultures. This time, Hacksaw Gaming picked the Greek god of war, resurrecting him to the reels, where he’s unleashing his divine powers and helping you unlock massive wins.

As mentioned, this fierce and fiery adventure to ancient Greece comes a few days after the studio released Spear of Athena. I’m sure it isn’t a coincidence since I believe the company follows a plan and always knows what’s next in its production line. So, I suspect it was a response to the earlier release, considering Ares and Athena are rivals.

Anyway, the Army of Ares slot’s design is appealing, depicting a battlefield packed with soldiers baying for each other’s blood. The sounds are equally thematic, making playing the game exceptionally immersive.

The gameplay revolves around recycled mechanics typical of Hacksaw releases, such as Chaos Crew. It features expanding reels, multipliers (plenty of them), three bonus rounds, and bonus buys. Although the features and mechanics are familiar to the studio’s fans, it’s an overall brutally engaging experience, which could award you up to 15,000 times the bet.