Holy Diver Free Play in Demo Mode by Big Time Gaming

Holy Diver review

Theme and Storyline

The song Holy Diver by Dio was part of the period in heavy metal that coincided with the coming of age of nerds who were raised on J R R Tolkien. Always being a myth inflected genre, it was unsurprising that metal would turn to the modern genre of High Fantasy for source material.

The game Holy Diver adapts the song by following a knight as he strolls across the land, kicking open chests full of diamonds "like the eyes of a cat in the black and blue" and waving his sword aloft.

The game strips out the darkness of the song’s world for a bright midday world of rural calm, but otherwise, it is a cute fantasy theme to get in and mess about with.

Graphics, Sounds and Animations

The graphics are well rendered. The backgrounds are drifting clouds with shafts of light beaming down on the reels which are animated nicely.

The sound effects are a little under developed for a game based around a song. Though not unsatisfying by any means.

The key draw visually is the progress bar at the bottom in which the knight moves forward a little every time you spin the reels (more details below).

Gameplay

Holy Diver is a six reel slot. It adopts a Megaways win scheme in which symbols pay out so long as they appear on consecutive reels starting with reel one. To this is added the twist that there are between 3 and 7 symbols on each reel, assigned randomly.

The knight at the bottom will trigger a "Chest Bonus" intermittently (see below for details), which result in enhanced reels and lend a sense of purpose to the game. This plays cleverly on the quest narratives that inspired the source song.

Wilds, Bonuses and Free Spins

The Wild substitutes for all other symbols.

The Bonuses come by way of Chest Bonuses. These are triggered when the knight in the progress bar reaches a chest and opens it. The knight moves a random amount every spin between evenly spaced chests. Each chest bonus only affects reels two to five.

The four Chest bonuses are:

• The standard Symbol Bonus which converts all instances of one of the Ace to Ten symbols into Wilds.
• The Fireball Bonus adds up to four "Flaming Wilds" to the reels.
• The Sword Bonus adds up to three Full Reel Wilds with a multiplier of up to seven.
• The Gem Symbol Bonus turns one or more gem symbols into Wilds and adds them to the shield. These Wilds will have a multiplier equal to the level.

Game progresses to higher levels by filling the shield by Gem Symbols. When the shield is full you can either move up a level or trigger the Free Spin bonus.

The Free Spin Bonus is ten free spins, during which you can collect diamonds which will give you an extra spin each for the first four and then add eight spins after five. During free spins all gems on reels two to five are wilds with a multiplier equal to the level you triggered the spins during.

At higher levels, you get a higher average number of symbols per reel. If you level up with the Gem Bonus during level 3 you trigger the Free Spin bonus and reset to level 1.

Bet Sizes, RTP and Variance

The return to player of this game is 96.54%. Pretty close to our estimated average for the industry.

The range of bet on the site we tested was from a minimum of $/£/€0.10 up to a maximum of $/£/€20.00 per spin. This maximum is a little low compared to some sites, but should not affect too many people.

The volatility of this game is high, a perfect match for many of our preferred strategies.

Conclusion

This is such a compelling slot, with its levelling up systems that are as reminiscent of RPGs as the high-fantasy setting.

The main draw is the variety of bonuses and the choices that the Gem Bonus allows you to make, but we also like the decent return to player and the very high volatility which suits our recommended playing style.

We enjoyed Holy Diver a great deal and do not understand why it is not more popular.