Introduction to Army of Ares
Army of Ares is a casino slot from Hacksaw Gaming, enveloped in the chaos of an ancient battlefield, where the god of war himself joins the mortals and their legendary conquests. Just the other day, we had the pleasure of reviewing another Greek-themed production, Spear of Athena, where the brutal reality of armed conflicts led the scene, although in a slightly more aftermath kind of way. This time, we land right in the middle of the combat zone, where the clanging of weapons and war cries are carried far and wide by the winds, together with smoke and dust. The game introduces an intense atmosphere dressed in an action comic book-style design, while charging the gameplay with the studio's recognizable mechanics, like Expanding Wilds with multipliers in the base game, and two unique bonus rounds.
Follow Ares' commands as he leads you to the max win of 15,000x the bet, or try the demo at the top of this page to watch the battle from a safe distance without putting yourself on the line.
Theme, Gameplay & Payouts
Army of Ares is a video slot from Hacksaw Gaming with 5 reels, 4 rows, and 14 paylines. You can choose your stake from a range of options, starting from a Min.bet of 0.1, which makes the game particularly affordable, up to a Max.bet of 50. The math profile offers a default RTP of 96.26%, which is in line with the industry standards, although several alternative variants of 94.34%, 92.28%, and 86.22% are also released, so make sure you check the version you're playing. You can expect more emphasis on the value of wins rather than their frequency due to medium-high volatility, while the max win available on any single round is 15,000x the bet.
Red and grey hues dominate in the main scene of Army of Ares, signifying the omnipresent fire and smoke that ravage the battlefield. Soldiers chant a mournful yet inspiring tune, boosting the morale of the next battalion that marches toward the enemy. A row of fighters wearing iconic Greek armor and wielding spears stands at the ready on the left, waiting for an order from Ares, who occupies the right side of the screen in his mortal form of a towering, muscular man with a piercing red gaze. The game's action comic book design perfectly blends with the sublime atmosphere of a legendary battle, resulting in an exceptionally immersive experience. If you're ready to join the soldiers on the battlefield, you can fire up Army of Ares on any modern device, whether you prefer to play on a desktop, a smartphone, or a tablet.
Winning combinations require regular symbols to land in sets of 3 to 5 matching instances running through adjacent reels, starting from the leftmost one on any of the active paylines. The paytable hierarchy contains two groups of paying icons. Low-paying ones appear as steel playing card emblems, including 10, J, Q, K, and A, awarding 1x the bet for a 5-of-a-kind combination. High-paying symbols depict a shield, a battleaxe, a sword, a horse, and Ares, and they bring payouts of between 4x and 10x the bet when matching 5 on a payline.
Wilds are represented by the word 'WILD' in a red circle, and they will substitute for other regular symbols during win evaluation, while awarding payouts worth 10x the bet for an independent 5-of-a-kind hit. A red icon showing a dagger with wings represents the Wrath Scatter that triggers the Wild Wrath Reel feature, while FS Scatters appear as golden 'FS' letters with a red outline.
Special Features & Slot Mechanics
What is the max win in the slot Army of Ares?
You can win up to 15,000x the bet.
What features are available in the slot Army of Ares?
The features are Wrath Reels, Fear and Flame Bonus, Wrath and Ruin Bonus, Ares Ascends Hidden Epic Bonus, and Feature Buy.
Wrath Reels
Whenever the Wrath Scatter lands on the grid, it will expand to become a full Wild Wrath Reel that substitutes for other regular symbols during win evaluation and can potentially carry a multiplier value of 2x, 3x, 4x, 5x, 10x, 15x, 20x, 25x, 50x, 100x, or 300x. If more than one Wild Wrath Reel contributes to the same payline combination, their multipliers are added together before being applied to the payout. Additionally, after expanding, the Wild Wrath Reel may generate up to 5 single Wild symbols in random positions of the grid.
Fear and Flame Bonus
Scoring 3 FS Scatters anywhere on the board within a single base game spin activates 10 free spins. During this round, any single Wilds added after the Wild Wrath Reel's expansion will carry multipliers of 2x, 3x, 4x, 5x, 10x, 15x, 20x, 25x, 50x, or 100x.
Wrath and Ruin Bonus
With 4 FS Scatters landing simultaneously during a base game spin, you'll trigger a bonus game with 3 refilling lives. Each reel will begin with an x1 multiplier that can grow progressively throughout the round. This variant doesn't contain any regular symbols, but can only drop special ones or blanks.
Green Disc = adds its value (1x, 2x, 3x, 4x, 5x, 10x, 25x, 50x, or 100x) to the respective reel's total multiplier.
Epic Green Disc = adds its value (same range as Green Disc) to all reels' total multipliers.
Red Disc = multiplies the respective reel's total multiplier by its value (x2, x3, x4, x5, or x10).
Epic Red Disc = multiplies all reels' total multipliers by its value (same range as Red Disc).
Battle Horse = gets collected next to the total multiplier of the reel it lands on. Once all spins are used, it activates and multiplies the total multiplier of the corresponding reel by x2, x3, x4, x5, x10, x15, x20, x25, or x50.
At the end of the round, when no spins remain and all Battle Horses have been activated, all reels' total multipliers are added together and paid as a multiplication of the active bet.
Ares Ascends Hidden Epic Bonus
Landing 5 FS Scatters at the same time opens the way to the unique bonus that cannot be purchased in the Feature Buy menu. This round maintains all the mechanics of the Wrath and Ruin bonus, but guarantees a full grid of Disc symbols and a Battle Horse on the first spin.
Feature Buy
If you don't wish to chase after features in the base game, you can make use of the Buy Bonus menu, where certain functions of the game can be triggered instantly for a fixed price that scales with your current bet.
3x = Bonushunt Featurespins with a 5 times better chance to activate a bonus game.
60x = Carnage Featurespins guaranteeing at least 1 Wrath Reel with an increased chance to generate additional Wild symbols.
100x = Fear and Flame Bonus with 10 free spins.
200x = Wrath and Ruin Bonus with 3 refilling lives.
Final Thoughts on Army of Ares
Hacksaw Gaming delivers another action-packed mythological theme, where divine powers and intense battles intertwine with rewarding features that the studio has built its reputation on. We'll say right out of the gate that Army of Ares won't surprise with any particularly new and innovative mechanics, but it further strengthens the expanding, multiplying, and cash-collecting toolset that Hacksaw has injected into so many of its productions. The theme at its core may not feel like something unique, either, given that Greek mythology is so common in online slots, but thanks to the original action comic artwork empowered by plenty of motion and flashy effects, the war-torn setting gains loads of character. It's also the type of game where the soundtrack contributes massively to the experience, so we advise keeping it on during gameplay to fully take in the glorious atmosphere of ancient warfare.
Moving onto the arsenal of 'weaponry' available in the game, it's a familiar config if you've played some of Hacksaw's slots in the past. Base game's Wrath Reels can be compared to The Outlaw Feature in Duel at Dawn, where a special symbol expands to become a full-reel Wilds with a multiplier, plus it may generate a bunch of single Wilds in the process. It's still a great way to break long stretches of regular spins with an occasional flood of Wilds. This feature also grows in power during the first of three bonuses by adding multipliers to those symbols spawned by the Wrath Reel. The second bonus is something that reappeared many times since the first Chaos Crew. Simply put, score adding or multiplying symbols to increase the total value of each reel and grab their collective worth at the end. A little extra added this time is the Battle Horse, which will hold an additional mystery multiplier for the reel it's been collected on. So, to sum up, it's a composition that maybe hasn't appeared before in this exact form, but is made of bits and pieces taken from several previous games.
Despite its repetitive technical identity, Army of Ares offers solid gameplay based on robust features and a spectacular mythological theme.
