Shield of Sparta Slot Review 2024

Shield of Sparta from Pragmatic Play looks pretty intense from the get-go.

There’s a foreboding sense of battle, but no fearful apprehension from the warriors of Sparta ready and willing to lay down their life for eternal glory. The waning sunlight in the background sets the scene for a battle at dusk as an echo of things to come, and the symbols on the reels show warriors mid-stampede straight into the action.

Pragmatic has certainly done an alright job of making Shield of Sparta look rather action-packed in visuals alone. It sort of reminds us of the unexplainable feeling of disquiet felt when playing Napolean: Rise of an Empire by Blueprint Gaming, albeit in a different era.

Will Shield of Sparta stick in our minds as one of the greatest ‘slot battles’ felt to date? or will it rush into a battle only to be felled by its own inadequacies?

There’s only one way to find out.

Shield of Sparta Base Game and Features

Shield of Sparta is a 5 reel slot with 20 fixed paylines. Winning combinations are formed when 3 or more of the same symbols land from left to right, starting from the left-most reel.

The minimum bet available to players is £/€0.20 per spin and the maximum bet available is £/€100 per spin, with plenty of other betting options in between the two. Shield of Sparta has a theoretical RTP of 96.50% and a max win capacity of 3,000x.

In terms of symbols, the highest paying regular symbol here is the Warrior, followed by the Ship, Catapult and Horses. Low-paying symbols are standard Ace, King, Queen and Jack. There is also a Wild symbol present which substitutes for all symbols except Scatters.

Pragmatic Play has chosen to keep the base game fairly straightforward, with no exciting features of modifiers to keep the base game interesting, but will the Free Spins round redeem itself?

Shield of Sparta Free Spins

Landing 3, 4 or 5 Scatter or Magnetic Scatter symbols across the reels triggers the Free Spins round, awarding 10, 15 and 20 Free Spins respectively.

If only 2 Scatter or Magnetic Scatters land in view, they will remain in place and all other reel positions will Respin once.

During Free Spins, the positions in which the Scatters landed will become marked with a Frame. Each time another Scatter lands in a marked position, it will be upgraded, up to a maximum of 3 times. 

Positions that were marked by a Magnetic Scatter will automatically become magnetic positions. Magnetic positions will automatically drag any Scatters on the reels towards them.

If a position is not magnetic and a new magnetic Scatter lands in this position, it automatically gets upgraded to Magnetic. At the end of Free Spins, all marked positions will reveal a random Multiplier based on their levels.

• Level 1 – Awards a 1x, 2x or 3x Multiplier.
• Level 2 – Awards a 5x, 6x or 8x Multiplier.
• Level 3 – Awards a 10x, 12x, 15x or 20x Multiplier.

Shield of Sparta: Our Verdict

Shield of Sparta left an impressive first impression, but to be honest our faith in it diminished as we learned more.

The Base Game of Shield of Sparta is rather dull because it’s devoid of any sort of features. A boring Base Game can be its demise, in our opinion. Free Spins can be exciting enough for some but we crave some sort of action within the Base Game to keep us engaged until we get there. It’s supposed to be an epic battle, but the Base Game feels as if you’re stood in the battlefield, surrounded by the eerie quietness of a finished war.

A trebuchet or a catapult launching some sort of feature into play wouldn’t have gone amiss. Pretty much anything would have done, because it’s better than nothing at all.

Free Spins did better at upping the dopamine levels as a Free Spins round should, but the potential seems watered down at 3,000x the bet as a maximum win. Were Pragmatic thinking of the iconic film 300 when they decided on the maximum win? We’d much rather have had a bigger ceiling than some sort of symbolism, but then again maybe Shield of Sparta just isn’t that capable and that’s the bottom line.

Overall, Shield of Sparta feels rather uninventive in the grand scheme of things. It has a few moments here and there that might garner attention, but overall it’s not amazing.