Lord Merlin and the Lady of the Lake Slot Review, Demo Play, Payout, Free Spins & Bonuses

Lord Merlin and the Lady of the Lake Review

Play’n Go is hard to dethrone when it comes to ‘Book slots’, being responsible for Book of Dead as they are. We very much appreciate the fact that they themselves are still trying, and Lord Merlin and the Lady of the Lake is a pretty solid attempt in that regard. Yes, this is a reskin of Cat Wilde and the Lost Chapter, but that release was exclusive to only 4 casinos.

The innovative mechanic on display here, combined with the strong 10,000x single spin potential, deserves the wider release it's now gotten. The theme is also more well-balanced, with both a male and female character, and it’s visually more pleasing than the predecessor title, Rise of Merlin. Of course, the base game can be a bit tedious, as you are really just waiting for the bonus round to trigger.

Lord Merlin and the Lady of the Lake Reel Screen

Lord Merlin and the Lady of the Lake Features

The Lake Lady wild will step in for all regular pay symbols, and she also pays the same as the highest value Merlin symbol. Both will land you 1,000x for 5 on a payline. Outside of that, this game is really all about the bonus round, as is the case with most Book of mechanic slots.

You trigger the free spins by landing at least 3 of the Excalibur sword scatter anywhere in sight.

You will be granted 8 free spins, and you also get an initial scatter win of 1x, 10x or 100x your stake, depending on how many scatters you landed (3, 4 or 5).

The big twist here is that you will not get a special symbol chosen up front. Instead, you get a new special symbol on every free spin. The special symbols expand to cover the entire reel to give you a win. This happens whenever you land at least 2 premium symbols, or 3+ royal symbols, anywhere in sight. In other words, the expanding special symbols don’t need to be adjacent to create winning combos.

The sword scatter will serve double duty as a wild symbol during the bonus round, which means you get an extra wild on the reels.

Land 2 wild/scatters on the same spin, and you get an Excalibur Spin. Every extra scatter/wild above the minimum of 2 awards +1 Excalibur Spin. These are essentially extra free spins, but they all come with the same expanding symbol as was active on the triggering free spin.

The Merlin symbol is the most lucrative special symbol you can get, as a full screen of the old wizard awards the maximum payout of 10,000x your stake. Finally, you can gamble all wins in a classic double or nothing fashion. Guess the correct card color or suit, and your winnings will get a 2x or 4x boost. This can be done up to 5 times per session.

The 200 Spins Lord Merlin and the Lady of the Lake Experience

We still have our test session of Cat Wilde and the Lost Chapter fresh in mind, but we don’t mind having another go at this exciting book slot innovation. As usual, we’ve put together a brief and edited highlights video you can check out below.

Review Summary

We are usually not huge fans of reskin jobs, but this time it makes total sense. Not all players will necessarily like Cat Wilde, even though the game itself is great.

More importantly however, Lord Merlin and the Lady of the Lake is not only available at a small, exclusive group of casinos, like Cat Wilde’s Lost Chapter is.

This means that the excellent new book of mechanics, with alternating expanding symbols, is now available for a wider audience. The math model is the same, which means that you will benefit from the possibility of single wins up to 10,000x your stake. Play’n Go has taken the genre to a whole new level with this innovation. Being responsible for the “gold standard” in the genre, Book of Dead, they are certainly the right people to do just that.

Pros

• Free spins with alternating expanding symbols
• Win extra Excalibur Spins during the bonus round
• Single spin max win of 10,000x is 2x the “standard” Book slot potential

Cons

• Reskin of Cat Wilde and the Lost Chapter (which was an exclusive release)

If you love Lord Merlin and the Lady of the Lake you should also try:

Rise of Merlin - is the predecessor to the game at hand, and it comes with a unique twist of its own. You can retrigger the bonus round up to 9 times, and each time you get 8 new free spins and a new chosen expanding symbol. This means that you can play with up to 9 chosen symbols here, and win up to 5,000x on a single spin.

Cat Wilde and the Lost Chapter - is an obvious choice if you like the game at hand.

The bold female explorer follows in her father’s footsteps, and you will benefit from the exact same bonus round here, as well as the exact same math model.

Ali Baba's Luck - is a Red Tiger innovation in the book slot genre, as it was the first game to introduce expanding symbols also in the base game. Winning symbols can expand on the next spin, and the highlighted expanding winnings symbols don’t reset in the bonus round.

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