Book of Spells

The Serbia-based game design firm Fazi offers a more grown-up version of the Harry Potter phenomenon in Book of Spells. Despite a construction with many shortcomings, the charm of the gruff wizard character and extremely lucrative free spins with expanding symbols makes this title worth player’s full attention, magical or otherwise.

Theme

The plain, grey stone wall standing behind the five reels does nothing to indicate the powerful sorcery intended by the design team to infuse this game with energy. Gaming symbols include a hooded wizard, an owl, a castle lit up by moonlight, a serpent, and the playing card values ace through ten. A flaming spell book acts as scatter; there is no wild symbol. There is also no music, though simple sound effects do accompany the spinning reels. The overall design sense is profoundly underwhelming, as if players were seeing an early beta version rather than a finished game.

Betting Options and Functions

Fans of the Harry Potter series will know that good magic requires outstanding attention to detail. This is not something the Fazi design team seems capable of, as this game’s fundamentals feature several oversights. There are only 10 adjustable paylines, all paying from left to right, with bet per line adjustable from 0.01–4.00, yielding an overall per-spin betting range of 0.10–40.00 times the betting currency. Autoplay is available for up to 1000 spins at a time, with optional limits for single wins or bankroll swings in either direction beyond a player’s chosen limits. Game rules, paytable information, and hand history are available on separate screens. In a major flaw, the design team has neglected to provide RTP information, leaving potential players guessing as to the odds they’ll receive here.

Features

For all this game’s shortcomings, the Fazi design team comes up big with bonus features in this slot. The appearance of three or more scatter symbols triggers the bonus feature. Twelve free spins are awarded, during which a time an expanding symbol, selected at random before the feature, will be active whenever that symbol appears on a winning payline. In practice, this makes it far more likely for players to see five-of-a-kind wins, which then expand to fill the entire screen, triggering all paylines simultaneously. It is here that this game’s biggest payouts can be won, and they can be very big indeed.

In addition, a gamble feature is included. Following any win, players can simply select the “2X” symbol to engage the double-or-nothing feature. Players attempt to select the next card’s color, red or black – a correct choice doubles the win size, and allows players to try their luck a second time, up to five times in a row. An incorrect choice reduces the win size to zero. Finally, two progressive jackpots are available. The platinum jackpot can be won on any spin, while the much larger diamond jackpot is far, far more likely to hit when playing with higher bet levels, and only after a certain amount of wagering has taken place.

Our Take

Book of Spells is not a perfect game by any stretch of the imagination – visual design is lackluster at best, and a lack of RTP information is a major red flag. Nevertheless, the abundant bonus features available here will draw many players, and keep their attention for quite some time without the need for actual sorcery.