Athena Ascending

While the high-level concept is similar betweenRise of Athenaand Athena Ascending, when you drill down into the details, they are in some ways also rather different. Though, perhaps not enough to change the minds of those who thought the original game was kinda meh, and vice versa. Graphically the standard is ok, and the soundtrack helps deepen the ambience, so anyone up for some simplistic Ancient Greek era gaming won't be let down too much by Athena Ascending's audio-visuals. If you're in the mood for innovation, there's a bit, but neither Athena games have especially boiled over with ground-breaking ideas. So what's new this time? To bullet point the changes, so to speak, volatility is up, as is max winning potential, reaching as high as10,000x the bet– double what was available in the previous game. Less free spins are initially awarded, but this time, wild multipliers increase in value between spins rather than decrease, mixing things up. The respin feature has been bolted on the end of free spins should wilds be in view on the final spin, too, possibly lengthening a bonus round and pushing out a few extra wins. Seen solely as a follow-up, Play'n GO has been quite astute with the changes it has made, kneading out the original slot like dough to make something relatively new with it. Then again, the first wasn't wildly imaginative, to begin with, so it'll be interesting to see how Athena Ascending is received. It's hard to really fault, having been built to a reasonably high standard without being a game the Play'n GO team really went to town on. Then again, perhaps they did, but it didn't feel like Athena Ascending was the sort of slot that particularly taxed Play'n GO's considerable powers of design and execution.