Ze Zeus

From the backstreets of France to the ancient ruins of Greek mythology, Hacksaw Gaming is back with another installment of Godly adventure with their latest release of Ze Zeus.  It is a well known fact that the almighty Greek God is a proud feature in many-a-slot, making an appearance no less in Hacksaw’s Devine Drop.  It is also no secret that the renowned provider enjoys a good follow on release with titles like Stack ‘Em and Keep ‘Em.  What is a little less common is a complete reskin release of a game gone by.  Enter Ze Zeus which, to the not so eagle-eyed player, very much resembles the old faithful antics of a scheming Raccoon known as Le Bandit.

Personally, I really enjoy Le Bandit; the mechanics are in touch, the volatility is just right and the anticipation and excitement of seeing potential set-ups building in front of your very eyes keeps bums very much on the edge of seats.  It strikes me, therefore, that if any Hacksaw game was to be given a fresh, new look, Le Bandit would be high on the list of potentials.

Swapping the dingy-lit, rubbish-strewn streets of early 1900’s France for the bright, colour-rich, ancient Colosseum of ancient Greece is a very notable difference.  Ze Zeus is very pleasant on the eye and popping graphics always benefit games where building winning zones is key.  To the left of the 6 row 5 reel grid floats Zeus…not just any Zeus…a lightning-blue armed, bolt-wealding God of a man, flashing a little too much upper thigh for comfort.

Ze Zeus has a cluster-paying win mechanic offering maximum win potential of 10,000x bet, a healthy RTP of 96.34% and is due for release onto UK casinos on 20th June 2024.  Let’s take a look at the features and gameplay and see if there are any tweaks from the old faithful crowbar-brandishing Raccoon.

Ze Zeus Base Game play

Ze Zeus Base Features

As with previous Hacksaw Clusterpay slots, winning combinations are formed by matching clusters of 5 or more matching symbols sitting adjacent to each other.  Once a win occurs, the symbols are removed from the grid and leave behind a bright blue underlay where they once sat.  Similar to Le Bandit and Eye of the Panda, Ze Zeus contains the addition of a Super Cascade Feature mechanic which also removes any other matching winning symbol type on the grid that didn’t combine within the winning cluster.  Once the symbols are removed form the grid, new symbols drop down and fill in the empty grid slots left by the win.

Regular paying symbols are made up of Spade, Diamond, Club, Heart and Star symbols and have a payout value of between 0.10x for clusters of 5 up to 15x for clusters of 13 or more.

High paying symbols are made up of a Colosseum, Shield, Grapes and Goblet, Helmet and Zeus himself and have payout values of between 0.30x for clusters of 5 up to a 100x for clusters of 13 or more.

Wild symbols are also present and, when dropped into the game grid, substitute for any paying symbol.

Win To Win

After any winning combination of clusters occurs, the winning squares will adopt a highlighted “Devine Square” background.  Once no more symbol matches occur and the cascades end, should a “Hand of Zeus” symbol be present anywhere in the game grid, the Win to Win feature will be activated.  Much like in Le Bandit, all Devine Squares will become active and reveal either bronze, silver or gold coins with the added chance of revealing Vessel of Wealth or Zap of Zeus symbols.

Bronze coin values – 0.2x, 0.5x, 1x, 2x, 3x, 4x

Silver coin values – 5x, 10x, 15x, 20x

Gold coin values – 25x, 50x, 100x, 250x, 500x

Zap of Zeus symbol – multiplies all coin values or existing Vessel of Wealth symbols on adjacent reels by a potential 2x, 3x, 4x, 5x or 10x

Vessel of Wealth symbol – activates after all coin values and Zap of Zeus symbols have been revealed and collects all values shown, creating a running total.  Once collected, all other Devine Squares will be re-activated to reveal new coins or symbols and the process is repeated.  Once all values are collected and no further activations can occur, values will be added together as a final multiplier and multiplied by the bet amount to give a final payout total.

Build zones of Devine Squares and land Hand of Zeus to reveal coins and features

Ze Zeus Bonus Free Spins

Every base game spin can see Free Spin Scatter symbols fall into the grid.  Ze Zeus contains three different bonus free spin rounds, each that can be triggered depending on how many scatters land inside the grid on any game.

What If Zeus Was One Of Us?

This bonus round can be activated by landing 3 scatter symbols at the same time inside the base game.

During this bonus, 8 free spins are awarded and any Divine Squares built up during the free round will remain on the grid until they are activated by the Hand of Zeus symbol.  Once activated, the Divine Squares will reset.

Landing additional free spin scatter during the bonus can award the following:

2 FS scatters – awards 2 extra free spins

3 FS scatters – awards 4 extra free spins

4 FS scatters – awards an upgraded bonus to Ze Zeus Takes The Wheel along with 4 extra free spins

Ze Zeus Takes The Wheel

This bonus can be activated by landing 4 scatter symbols in the base game and awards 12 free spins.

During this bonus, all Devine Squares built up during the free round will remain throughout the entire bonus, even if activated during by the Hand of Zeus symbol.

Landing additional free spin scatter during the bonus can award the following:

2 FS scatters – awards 2 extra free spins

3 FS scatters – awards 4 extra free spins

Ze Zeus Might Superstar

This bonus can be activated by landing 5 scatter symbols in the base game and awards 12 free spins.

During this bonus, all Devine Squares built up during the free round will remain throughout the entire bonus, even if activated during by the Hand of Zeus symbol.  As an added extra, a Hand of Zeus symbol will be guaranteed to land on every spin and bronze coins will be removed from the game.

Hand of Zeus feature reveals coins and features for potential big wins

Ze Zeus Bonus and Feature Buys

To those applicable, Ze Zeus offers the following feature and bonus by opportunities:

BonusHunt FeatureSpins – At the cost of 3x bet, each spin is 5 times more likely to land at least 3 FS scatter symbols – RTP 96.23%

Mighty FeatureSpins – At the cost of 50x bet, each spin guarantees a Hand of Zeus symbol to land – RTP 96.36%

What If Zeus Was One Of Us? – At the cost of 100x bet – RTP 96.3%

Ze Zeus Takes The Wheel – At the cost of 250x bet – RTP 96.4%

Pros and Cons of Ze Zeus

• Plenty of features and bonus opportunities
• Eye-popping graphic make-over
• Chance to build zones and features into a big win potential
• Can upgrade to better bonus rounds within a bonus
• No fresh features
• Can be difficult to get features to combine

Ze Zeus offers 3 different bonus rounds including the 5 scatter “Might Superstar” bonus

Similar Games to Ze Zeus

• Le Bandit
• Eye of the Panda
• Stack Em
• Dark Summoning

First Impression

If you were to choose a Greek God of Mythology to be for a day, surely it has to be Zeus.  He’s electrifying, shredded and can launch bolts of lightning further than a top Olympic javelin thrower.  It seems sensible, in that case, that Hacksaw have decided to go down the classic Zeus theme route for, what is essentially, a re-release of Le Bandit.  It needs to be said here that re-skinning an older game shouldn’t always be seen as a bad thing; freshening things up with a new makeover often brings new life into a classic and that certainly can be said in this instance.

Hacksaw Gaming have packed more than enough great mechanics, we have all grown to love, inside this game to keep things feeling fresh and almost like a new game entirely, at times.  The Win To Win feature combined with the Super Cascade really helps build potential big zones of Devine Squares with the hope of getting a bit of luck when revealing coins and features.  Being able to upgrade bonus rounds is always a positive feature with providers like Hacksaw and Nolimit City.  Even landing a basic 3 scatter bonus can lead to potentially bigger, better things and can have players on the edge of their seats in anticipation.

It would have been nice to have seen something fresh, of course.  Just one feature present to make Ze Zeus stand out that little bit more from the rest.  It hasn’t happened but having the chance to reveal gold coin values to the dizzy reaches of 500x cannot be overlooked.  It’s great to see this kind of potential a bit more with Hacksaw and seems to be coming a more regular occurrence after the 500x VS reel in the recent Slayers Inc.

All in all, Ze Zeus is a safe game that will be loved by some, pondered by many and others may just prefer the humble Raccoon in fancy dress that, let’s be honest, wasn’t fooling anyone.  In a world of ever-growing, wierd and wonderful slots of all shapes and sizes, sometimes it’s nice to stick to the basics of great mechanics, fun game play and plenty of features.  Ze Zeus has all that but one just wonders if the lightning God maybe just needed a bit of a bolt of individuality up the backside for good measure.

*The screenshots taken of games reviewed on this site are taken from Demo Play, as reviews are often written before games are released for real play.