Book of Dead — Game Overview
Book of Dead is Play'n GO's flagship slot and one of the most commercially successful titles in the European online casino market. Released in 2016, it features Rich Wilde — an adventurer archaeologist character who appears across multiple Play'n GO titles — exploring the tombs and temples of Ancient Egypt on a 5×3, 10-payline grid. The game arrived into a market where Novomatic's Book of Ra had already established the expanding symbol free spins format as a commercially dominant mechanic, and Play'n GO's execution with Rich Wilde proved compelling enough to become the defining Book-format slot for the online-first generation of players.
The mechanics are structurally identical to the Book format established by Book of Ra: the Book of Dead symbol acts as both a scatter (pays anywhere, triggers free spins with three or more) and a wild (substitutes for all other symbols in the base game). The free spins round — 10 spins triggered by three books — begins with a randomly selected expanding symbol. When that chosen symbol appears anywhere on a reel during free spins, it expands to fill all three rows of that reel and pays across any paylines passing through it, regardless of positional alignment. When the highest-value symbol (Rich Wilde himself) is chosen as the expanding symbol and fills multiple reels simultaneously, the resulting win from the 10-payline grid can be very large.
Play'n GO's production values in 2016 exceeded those of earlier Book-format titles, with detailed symbol artwork, cinematic music, and Rich Wilde's animated character sequences giving the game a film-quality presentation that earlier entries in the genre lacked. The combination of a well-executed familiar mechanic with higher production standards proved decisive. Book of Dead became and remains one of the most-played slots in European markets, maintaining its position nearly a decade after release — a longevity that demonstrates the enduring appeal of both the theme and the mechanic.
Bonus Features
- ♦ Book symbol acts as both wild and scatter
- ♦ 3+ Book symbols trigger 10 free spins
- ♦ One symbol selected randomly before free spins expands to fill entire reels
- ♦ Retriggerable: 3+ Books during free spins add 10 more spins
Verdict
Book of Dead's enduring popularity — nearly a decade after release — demonstrates the power of a perfectly executed mechanic combined with strong visual design. The expanding symbol free spins remain among the most copied bonus structures in slot development. High volatility with potential for very large wins when the right symbol expands across all reels simultaneously.