Gates Of Babylon

Kalamba is one of those game developers that are strangely low-key, concerning their output is definitely deserving of more attention and praise. This can certainly be said of Gates of Babylon, a very specific 4x5 video slot with 40 paylines and numerous features that add to the excitement and that sweet anticipation when you just know something is bound to happen to turn the game upside-down for all the good reasons

Theme

Gates of Babylon (not related in the slightest to the iconic song “Gates of Babylon” by Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow, except by title) sounds like something worthy of a Hollywood epic, and it's strange that rarely any movies were created paying homage to this legendary city of ancient Mesopotamia Kingdom, in modern-day Iraq. Old Eastern Kingdoms are usually seen as lavish, glitzy and opulent in rubies, gold, fine clothing and all of that we find here: golden are the barriers and ornamented separators that create the slot machine and so are the Wild symbols. Various rubies, red, yellow, blue, purple and green are representing the lower end of symbols and clothed in silky fineries are two butch Babylonians, a monarch and a soldier (presumably) looking like they mean business and a couple of gorgeous ladies, a Queen and a Princess. We also encounter special Silver and Gold coins whose superpowers we will cover in a minute as well as a Bonus symbol that is a key to Extra Spins feature. Spectacular visual cues akin to old Babylon straight from the art history books are featured throughout the game, with ornaments and carvings adorning even the lovely green-gold background. To complete the authenticity, there is a subtle oriental music playing in the background, just loud enough to fill your ears with pleasantness.

Betting Options and Functions

This game's RTP is estimated up to 97.26%. Looking at the player's dashboard, you will notice that some of the controls and options are scattered around. For instance, at the very top there is a progress bar signifying where you stand with the Mission you've chosen and how close you are to the multiplier. The 'I' button there will let you change missions and get info on what each mission entails. At the bottom, the little cog wheel opens up several screens: another info screen detailing special features, symbols and payline diagram, game rules, sound controls etc. You can set you bet size from 0.40 to 8.00 and the total win is shown in the BET display. To the right of it is your current win, while autospin and spin button are to the right-most part of the screen.

Features

Extra Spins – The extra spins feature is activated once the three Bonus symbols land anywhere on reels. This will activate a round of ten spins with a 3x multiplier, and should you land a Silver Coin during the round, you will win another additional spin! Also, collecting three rubies on a single column (via Golden Coins), a column turns to Wild Column and stays like that during the entire round of extra spins.

Wild Columns - Whenever a golden coin lands on columns 1, 3 or 5, the engraved rules will spout one red ruby on top of the column and you will notice that there are three spaces to be filled with rubies. So once you collect all three rubies for a single column, it will trigger the Wild Column feature which turns entire column Wild. It will remain so until all of the rubies in the column are exhausted.

Missions – This particular feature is a stand-out, rarely encountered anywhere else! At the upper part of the screen, you will notice an 'I' button. Click on it to toggle between different missions which work like this: during a number of spins, several symbols that are collected get paid an award for the final number of matching symbols collected on all spins. There are 4 mission levels: Bronze, where symbols are collected for 30 spins, Silver (50 spins), Gold (75 spins) and Platinum (100 spins). Each mission has one category and one level. When you reach the end of the progress bar, you will get a particular multiplier for the selected mission which can go up to staggering 1000x on the Platinum mission!

Our Take

This game may not make the headlines and garner all the attention like some NetEnt or Play 'n GO's games might, but there is so much to love about Gates of Babylon: the theme alone, the visual execution, unique features like Wild Columns and Missions and potentially colossal wins thanks to huge multipliers make this game one painfully overlooked and underrated gem!