Hercules Son of Zeus is Pragmatic Play’s take on Greek gods slot games, and an average one at best. It’s common to see Pragmatic Play casino slots which try to ride the success of other popular slots, in this case the classic Zeus slot machine, Zeus 3 and others. Let’s just say that with Wolf Gold they were more successful.
It’s a high variance game with a decent RTP and a free spins game which doesn’t deliver big wins very often. Also, the game was released in early 2017 yet graphics look a bit dated. There’s nothing wrong with graphics in particular, it’s just that it isn’t among Pragmatic Play’s best work.
Base game
Hercules Son of Zeus has 50 mandatory paylines, and the minimum bet per payline is $0.01, making the minimum bet per spin $0.50. Maximum bet per spin is $250 which is really a lot since this game doesn’t really justify such a high bet.
There are six main symbols in the game, Hercules and five mythical creatures, and four worthless card symbols that just take up space on your reels. Wild symbol substitutes for all symbols except for Scatter and Scatter only appears on reels 2, 3 and 4. When you land all three you’ll trigger a free spins game with 6 free spins.
Hercules is the main symbol and is quite common on your reels, which is good since it’s the highest-paying symbol. 2 or more Hercules symbols pay, and you can win 40,000 coins if you land a full set of Hercules symbols on your reels.
Bonus features
Free spins game in Hercules Son of Zeus is only 6 free spins and you get an additional free spin for any Scatter you land during the feature. Before every spin, including the first, one Wild symbol is added to each of the reel stripes on the reels 2, 3 and 4, and they remain there for the duration of the feature.
While in theory, this means it’s more and more likely to land a Wild with each new spin, in practice, it matters little unless you’re very lucky. The free spins game, therefore, has very high variance, and it’s likely you’ll finish the feature without a significant win.
Payout and value
Hercules Son of Zeus has a theoretical return to player (RTP) of 95.19% which isn’t very good. When there are slots such as 1429 Uncharted Seas and Nemos Voyage which offer almost 99% return, it’s hard to settle for a game which give 4% less.
On top of this, the variance is really high as the free spins game doesn’t hand out big wins very often. All that makes this slot game difficult to beat, and only the most experienced gamblers will be able to take Hercules on.
This is a decent addition to the Ancient Greece genre but is a game that doesn’t really pay that well unless you’re very lucky. It’s for die-hard fans of the genre who will want to try out another slot with this theme. It isn’t the kind of slot that would deserve a repeated play. Of course, the game might appeal to classic slot players who are looking for this type of playing experience and want to try a new title.