Cat Wilde and the Doom of Dead: Overview

Rich Wilde, the suave academic adventurer, is back in this… Wait—hang on. Forget that. Doom of Dead actually puts his daughter Cat Wilde in the spotlight, leading another ‘Book of’ inspired slot from developer Play’n GO. Will we ever get to the point where every possible pair of English words has been squeezed around “of” to title a slot? Maybe, but we’re not there yet—just like we’re not close to seeing demand for this gameplay style slow down. If you’ve tried one of these games before, you’ll have a very good idea of what’s coming. Still, with a new lead character, is there anything else that’s different?

Theme-wise, not really—so get ready for yet another trip to Ancient Egypt in a 5-reel, 10 payline slot. You’ll be treated to temples, columns, snakes, and gods, all presented with the polished production values Play’n GO is known for. The expanding wild’s, especially, look strikingly detailed. Set inside an Egyptian tomb chamber, it’s instantly familiar territory if you’ve played other titles from this category. The artwork is sharp, and the animations are impressively crafted.

With the standard Play’n GO stake range of 10 p/c to $/€100 per spin, players join the energetic Cat Wilde on the expedition. Anyone who enjoys high volatility should be happy—its 10 out of 10 rating puts it right at the extreme end. The Default RTP is a solid 96.29%, though it may be reduced depending on the casino. As a reminder, it’s possible to find Book of Dead sitting in the low-to-mid 90s, so it’s worth checking the paytable before you start.

Backing up the dusty setting is a set of Egyptian-flavoured symbols. The 10-A low pays aren’t exactly ancient artefacts, but the styling helps them blend in well enough. The premium symbols include scarabs, Anubis, a Sphinx, and Cat Wilde herself. ‘Book of’ slots are known for decent symbol payouts, and Doom of Dead follows suit. As an example, five premium symbols pay anywhere from 7.5x for the scarabs up to 100x for the determined Cat.

One slightly uncommon detail is that the game includes a separate wild symbol as well as a scatter. Whenever the standard 1×1 wild lands, it expands into a full reel wild featuring an Egyptian god. Wilds replace any other paying symbols and pay 100 times the stake for a five-of-a-kind line.

Cat Wilde and the Doom of Dead: Features

Alongside the expanding wilds, tomb raiders can chase the iconic ‘Book of’ free spins round. This famous bonus triggers when 3 compass scatters land on reels 1, 3, and 5 simultaneously. You receive 10 free spins, and before they begin, one regular symbol—chosen from either the low or high end of the paytable—is randomly picked to become the special expanding symbol.

Whenever the special symbol can form a winning combination, it expands to cover full reels. These expanded special symbols pay from anywhere on the reels—they don’t need to land next to each other. So if they appear on reels 1, 3, and 5, for instance, they’ll still pay as though they landed on the first three reels. The ideal outcome is landing five wilds, or five expanded Cat Wilde symbols, to hit the game’s maximum single spin payout.

Scatters can also appear during free spins, meaning the feature can theoretically retrigger endlessly—although Play ‘n GO has implemented a win cap in case that occurs.

Cat Wilde and the Doom of Dead: Verdict

It’s been quite some time since Rich Wilde first arrived on the scene, and he’s been going strong ever since. The series has taken him to plenty of distant locations, and now his daughter steps in to carry on the family line of adventure.

So, how does she fare? Pretty well, though leaning on a proven formula certainly doesn’t hurt. For a first solo appearance, using a ‘Book of’ template is a sensible move—still, it would be great to see Cat try something different if Play n’ GO decide to bring her back again.

Fans of this genre will be glad that even with the character swap, the mechanics and win potential stay right where they should be. You’d think after years of raiding Egyptian tombs there wouldn’t be much left to discover, but Cat seems to disagree.

In fact, Cat didn’t take long to carve out her own path away from her father. It feels like only yesterday the father-and-daughter archaeology duo were teaming up in watery ruins in Rich Wilde and the the Shield of Athena. Maybe Cat wanted to step out from her famous dad’s shadow and show what she can do?

Her solo debut carries respectable potential, capped at 5,000 times the stake—a result that occurred once every 1 billion spins during Play’n GO’s simulation. One important point is that because symbol values are somewhat limited, you can’t land 5,000x in a single spin the way you can in some other ‘Book of’ slots. As usual, it’s the bonus round that creates the real opportunity for big moments. Here, it’s not only the expanding special symbols doing the work, but also full reel wilds increasing the number of ways to connect wins.

When all’s said and done, what else is there to add? Cat Wilde and the Doom of Dead is yet another good-looking and very entertaining ‘Book of’ style slot. Will players ever truly get tired of these? Possibly—but it’s hard to imagine Cat being the one to close the book on them.