Chronicles of Olympus X UP

Chronicles of Olympus X UP: Slot Overview

Microgaming partner Alchemy Gaming has followed on from Africa X UP, with a second slot based around the X UP concept. This one is called Chronicles of Olympus X UP, which you don't need us to tell you is a game based around Ancient Greece. Theme choice might not be super original, but Alchemy has utilised it well. Also, they've chopped and changed the features, doubling the top X UP multiplier, modifying the bonus buy, and adding a new Upsizer feature. The result is a surprisingly potent gambling device, offering multiple options for players to experiment with, push their fortune, and if lucky, reap tremendous rewards.

Chronicles of Olympus X UP has an equally dreamy look as Africa X UP had. The base game is played on a cloud in Olympus, shifting somewhere fiery for the bonus round. Its simple yet efficient setup consists of a 5-reel, 3-row game grid, providing 243 ways to win. Chronicles of Olympus X UP is a straightforward game yet, full reel wilds and those multipliers listed on the left of the screen produce some fine moments when they are popping. Visually, this is a Hellenic scene players will be well familiar with, having seen it scores of times, but Alchemy has nevertheless painted a pretty picture to host the Ancient Greek Gods who pepper the reels.

Playable from 30 p/c to €/$21 per spin, Chronicles of Olympus X UP is also a very highly volatile game, capriciously rewarding favourites as emotionlessly as it hammers others. As is common nowadays, RTP is variable, so keep an eye out for the 96.33% setting rather than the 94.1% version or less.

Wins land at a steady rate of nearly 1 in 4 spins, or 24.14% of the time, when three or more matching symbols land from the leftmost reel onwards. There are ten regular pays in the game, 9-A card rank low pays, and five deities as the higher value symbols, including what looks like Zeus, Hera, Aphrodite, Poseidon, and Hades. Landing five picture symbols premiums is worth a payout of 2.33 to 4 times the bet – drastically enhanced by the features as you'll see.

Chronicles of Olympus X UP: Slot Features

The features Alchemy has crammed into Chronicles of Olympus X UP are like those found in Africa X UP, but a couple of modifications have made a marked difference. As before, wild symbols appear on all reels, and when they hit, they expand to cover all positions on their reel. It is possible to land up to five of these wilds at once, and as well as substituting pay symbols, they are also worth 1.33, 2.67, or 4.17x the bet for 3, 4, or 5 of a kind.

The other symbol used in Chronicles of Olympus X UP is the X UP scatter symbol itself. The first thing these useful symbols do is when 2 land they are collected on the Free Spins Multiplier Meter. Collecting 1, 3, 5, 8, 11, 15, 19, or 23 of them awards a multiplier of 2x, 3x, 4x, 5x, 7x, 10x, 25x, or 50x which is held until activating for free spins.

8 free spins are triggered when 3 X UP symbols are in view. During free spins, when 2 scatters land in view, not only are they collected on the Multiplier Meter, they also award +2 free spins. This means you can increase the multiplier during the feature unless you've already got the max x50.

Before free spins begin, players can improve the multiplier they have collected with the new Upsizer feature. The game calculates a cost for entering free spins with a better multiplier value.

Lastly, players can use the feature buy option to cut straight to free spins for the cost of 100x the bet. As well as 8 free spins, a random starting multiplier of x1 to x50 is selected.

Chronicles of Olympus X UP: Slot Verdict

Africa X UP was already an entertaining game with a sizable multiplier trail that could build tantalising values before being unleashed in free spins. Chronicles of Olympus X UP ups the ante in just about every way while retaining the uncomplicated ethos of the previous game. It was a pleasant surprise, too, because at first, the initial reaction was along the lines of 'meh, Alchemy's redone Africa X UP as a Greek game.' However, it didn't take long to realise we were dealing with a neatly revamped slot that took what worked before while adding some nifty new bits.

The first obvious change, aside from the subject matter, is the Multiplier Meter now goes to x50, compared to x25 before. There's nothing stranger than, say, a multiplier increasing like this in a follow-up game yet leaving potential untouched. Fortunately, there is none of that junk in Chronicles of Olympus X UP, where max win now goes up to the Olympian sized figure of 50,000 times the stake. Not quite double Africa X UP's 30k, yet a huge difference.

Other differences are the changes to the Bonus Buy and the newly added Upsizer. Before, you could buy free spins and pay extra for a larger starting multiplier. The new random multiplier just adds to the gamble. The first bought bonus came with the worst possible result – an x1. However, the second bonus tripped the x25, while the third coughed up the x50. Obviously, you never know what you are going to get, and larger multipliers can make all the difference in the world to the final free spins tally.

The Upsizer presents another tempting proposal. Here's an example. One organically triggered round of free spins had garnered an x4 multiplier and two 'Xs' towards the next x5. Via the Upsizer, we could have bought the x5, x7, x10, x25, or x50 multiplier for an additional 8.23, 33.79, 78.4, 280.22, or 599.74 times the base stake. When you've seen the x50 in action, it is a temptation.

All together, Alchemy Gaming has done a great job with their sophomore X UP game. It's similar enough to the last one, but its changes make Chronicles of Olympus X UP a different gambling tool altogether with new options, meaning potentially larger thrills, spills, and hopefully payouts are up for grabs.