Pragmatic Play – Return of the Dead

While most Book of Ra clones are visually modernized compared to the original, Pragmatic has taken this one in the opposite direction. The audiovisual experience is back to basics, but we were really hoping for more originality in the bonus round. The smiling explorer has forgotten his hat in this game and looks more like a caffe latte hipster than an Indiana Jones-style adventurer.

If you have a nostalgic relationship with old-school slots, you might appreciate what Pragmatic has done here. Once the novelty wears off, most players will probably return to Book of Dead or similar clones that offer more interesting bonus rounds than what you get here. Just as the main character lacks a hat, Pragmatic seems to have forgotten to put on their creative hat with this title, and we don’t see Return of the Dead as a great success.

Return of the Dead Trains

For players familiar with the book slot genre, there’s not much new to see here. It’s all about triggering the free spins bonus round. This is done by landing at least 3 book scatters, and the book also serves as a high paying wild symbol. It can therefore use all regular symbols to form winning combinations, and it pays 500x for 5 on a payline.

You can also land scatter wins via the book symbol and get 2x, 20x or 200x your bet if you land 3, 4 or 5 book scatters anywhere on the same spin. This of course also triggers the bonus round and you get 10 free spins regardless of how many scatters you landed.

The book will open and a random regular symbol will be selected as the expanding symbol for the duration of the feature. Each instance of the selected symbol will expand to cover the entire reel, and a new payout calculation will be performed. The expanded symbols do not have to be adjacent to win, and they are expanded only when a win is created from them.

You can still land Scatter / Wild Books during the bonus round, and you will get 10 extra spins if you land at least 3 on the same Free Spin. There is no cap on the number of retriggers you can get here. If you fill the screen with the treasure hunter “Smiling Guy”, you will get the game’s maximum win of 5,000x your bet.

The 200 Spins Return of the Dead Experience

Having played our fair share of Book of Clones in our time, we can certainly make room for a quick session on another one. It took us a while to trigger the expected bonus round here, but we did get it towards the end of our 200 spins session. The base game grind is mostly cut out in the highlights video below, and you can skip straight to the bonus round at 1:13 in the video.

Summary

Return of the Dead has an old-fashioned feel, and the default RTP of 96.71% is also higher than many other games in this series (including Book of Dead). This is perhaps the best reason why we can go for this copycat game, but we have to say that we prefer book slots that bring an innovative twist to the table.

Nothing of the sort is included here, and the main character looks more like a semi-creepy rock hunter than a treasure hunter. Note that operators can set the RTP to lower values due to Pragmatic’s customizable RTP ranges. So, if you can’t find a casino where you can play with the highest payout percentage, there’s not much reason to choose this game over many other interesting alternatives.

Pros

Wild and scatter wins
Bonus round with randomly selected expansion symbol
High volatility and 5,000x maximum win potential

Cons

Book of copycats that adds nothing new to the series

Return of the Dead Slot FAQs

What is the RTP of Return of the Dead slot?

The Return to Player of this game is 96.71%, which is a bit high for a book slot. However, due to the adjustable RTP ranges, the RTP can be adjusted lower by casinos. Available RTP values are 96.71% and 95.67%.

How volatile is Return of the Dead?

This is a high volatility title from Pragmatic Play, but the same is true for more or less all book-of-type games.

What is the biggest possible profit?

You can win up to 5,000 times your bet here, and this is the standard potential for most book slots. However, the maximum bet of €250 is slightly higher than the more usual €100 per spin. This means that the maximum payout is £1.25 million, which high rollers will appreciate.

Is there a free spins mode in Return of the Dead slot?

Yes, you get 10 spins and a random expanding symbol. The expanding symbols can win without being adjacent. Pragmatic Play hasn’t added any innovation or twist to the story here, like so many other clones out there do.

How is Return to Dead different from other slot books?

The distinctive brick and mortar style is one thing, and the creepy smiling explorer without a hat is another. The standard RTP is also slightly higher than in Book of Dead, but there’s really nothing new brought to the table here.