Gladiator Clash: Slot Overview

Ever watched a game of football and seen a player take a dive, roll around on the pitch in 'agony' clutching an ankle or whatever, absolutely milking a penalty, then notice they were barely even touched by the opposing player in the replay? One wonders how folk like that would have fared back in the day when armed bruisers hit the arena sand to do battle in some of the most brutal blood sports ever seen on planet Earth. We're talking about gladiatorial battles of Ancient Rome, of course, and the occasion is Gladiator Clash from software provider NetEnt.

NetEnt does know how to recreate an attractive scene from antiquity. We saw this recently in Golden Realms or Pandora's Treasure, as well as in further back releases such as Rome The Golden Age and Divine Fortune Megaways. Gladiator Clash is arguably even nicer to look at, set as it is in the middle of a columned arena that brought back memories of ELK Studios' slot Gladiatoro - the bonus round part, at least. Gladiator Clash has a strong do-or-die in front of the Emperor feel to it, like a well-presented museum display depicting the grandeur of Ancient Rome.

Gladiator Clash is an unusual game in that it is played on a 3x3 game grid with 3 paylines, but its pay symbols, such as they are, do not have values in themselves. Instead, when three-of-a-kind combinations land along a payline, they award the prize linked to their row from a prize reel. More on this below. It is also odd in that it combines low winning potential with a highly volatile math model. As for return to player, the default RTP clocks in at 96.1%, and users are able to stake 10 cents to $/€80 per spin.

As mentioned, the pay symbols do not have intrinsic values of their own, and they consist of tridents, spiked maces, swords, plus three different types of battle helms. A wild symbol is present on all three reels, as well, substituting for all paying symbol types. Wilds count as a paying symbol variation should 3 of them be in a winning line.

Gladiator Clash: Slot Features

The features in Gladiator Clash mostly revolve around winning prizes from the prize reel and various boosts players can get to do so. There's also a Lion Bonus round, which triggers after a certain number of scatter symbols have been collected, or it can be bought.

Base Game Features

• Prize Reel - The prize reel sits to the left of the 3x3 regular symbol landing grid. Possible prize values which can appear on the prize reel vary from 1x to 500x the bet. When three matching symbols land along a payline, the prize on the prize reel associated with them is awarded.
• Reel Respin - At random, when 2 reels are filled with 1 paying symbol type, they lock together with the prize reel, and the third reel respins.
• Prize Respin - At random, when the prize reel contains a value of 50x or higher, there is a chance it locks and a respin is awarded.
• Prize-Up! - Randomly, when a winning line is formed, the prize for the line is increased, and the winning combination pays again.

Lion Bonus

Landing 1 lion scatter symbol on the reels progresses the collection bar by +1 point. The bar takes 20 points to fill, and when it is filled, the Lion Bonus is awarded. For the Lion Bonus, players pick n' click lion symbols to reveal prizes or Thumbs-Up symbols. Revealing 3 instances of the same prize awards its value. Should a Thumbs-Up symbol be revealed 3 times, the bonus upgrades to the next level. The levels in the Lion Bonus are:

• Level 1: contains three of each of these - 3x, 5x, 10x, 20x, and the Thumbs-Up symbol.
• Level 2: contains three of each of these - 5x, 10x, 20x, 50x, and the Thumbs-Up symbol.
• Level 3: contains three of each of these - 10x, 20x, 100x, 500x, and 1,000x.

Feature Buy

For 25 times the total bet, players can buy the Lion Bonus. It plays the same as if triggered organically and has an RTP of 96.16%.

Gladiator Clash: Slot Verdict

A funny one, this one. Gladiator Clash does a lot of good and/or interesting things that make checking it out a non-waste of time. The game's appearance, for one thing, is a credit, as NetEnt has brought the thrill of the arena to a gambling game really nicely, and its surrounding visuals have a pleasing weight to them. Even so, it's hard to imagine what the roller coaster of emotions triggered by rushing out onto the sand to do battle against trained warriors would have been like. Doing so before thousands of cheering people who probably couldn't care less if you lived or died so long as you put on a good show must have produced a raging cocktail of fear, excitement and adrenaline. And imagine winning; there'd be a whole, different suite of emotions throbbing through your body.

Imagine winning in Gladiator Clash, and the emotions will probably be nowhere near extreme. This is because, despite being a highly volatile slot, Gladiator Clash taps out at 1,006x the bet. There are mixed feelings about this. On the one hand, it's not much, is it, especially considering it's a highly volatile game with high risk and low rewards. On the other hand, for a 3x3 slot with limited prizes on offer, 1,006x feels like a fitting amount as well, in some ways.

Aside from a possible lack of interest caused by the low max win, the rest of Gladiator Clash has been neatly done. As well as the high-quality artwork, the gameplay is quite unique, which makes a nice change, and the bonus buy is 'cheaply' priced comparatively speaking; as such, certain gamblers may be totally on board with what Gladiator Clash has to offer.