Egyptian Fortunes (Pragmatic Play): Review

This ancient Egypt-themed video slot from Pragmatic Play takes you back to the pyramids of Giza in pursuit of sizeable wins. As one of the most famous man-made structures ever built, the pyramids are wrapped in mystery and legend—stories that range from freemasons to aliens—while also standing as icons of wealth and authority. With that backdrop, it’s easy to understand why they remain such a popular choice for casino game themes.

Egyptian Fortunes is a fairly straightforward slot built on 5 reels, 3 rows and 20 paylines. It comes with a default, industry-standard 96.50% RTP, and it’s playable on any device with stakes from 0.20 up to 100 Eur per spin, so it caters to both casual players and high-rollers. In the base game, you can trigger Energy Spins, where certain wins award Re-Spins on top of the payout. There’s also a free spins feature, played on a different reel setup that uses only three randomly chosen symbols.

The presentation does the job but feels quite familiar, with very little that stands out. In fact, it mirrors Ancient Egypt Classic from the same provider. With hieroglyph-covered pillars on either side and animated torches burning away, the reels spin to a steady, Arabian-style loop that’s common in Egyptian slots. Symbol-wise, you’ll see royals from A down to 10, plus Egyptian gods such as Anubis, Horus, Bastet, and Hathor. The top regular symbol is Tutankhamun, paying 50 times your stake for 5 across a full payline. The wild—shown as a golden structure crowned by two cobra heads—substitutes for all symbols except the bonus scatter and pays 250 times your stake for 5 of a kind. During the bonus, it can only land on reels 2 and 4.

Egyptian Fortunes (Pragmatic Play): Features

When you hit certain winning combinations in the base game (the paytable doesn’t clearly outline the exact conditions), the Energy Spins feature activates and grants a set amount of re-spins, shown via an energy meter in the top-left corner. Beyond the extra spins, there isn’t much else to the mechanic, but with what appears to be unlimited retriggers available, there’s still room to pick up some respectable payouts.

To enter the free spin feature and explore the Pharaoh’s hidden treasure tomb, you must land 3 bonus scatters on reels 1, 3 and 5 at the same time. You receive 6 free spins, and only 3 randomly selected standard symbols will be used on the reels alongside the wild, which greatly boosts the likelihood of forming wins. The drawback is that symbols do not appear stacked, so you can’t land a full screen of any one symbol. Also, since the bonus scatter isn’t present during the feature, it can’t be retriggered—meaning the overall maximum win available is limited to 309 times your stake.

Egyptian Fortunes (Pragmatic Play): Verdict

Anyone hoping for originality won’t find it in the theme. Pragmatic Play doesn’t try to push boundaries here, and while it isn’t a direct clone, Egyptian Fortunes certainly doesn’t overflow with fresh ideas. That alone wouldn’t necessarily be a deal-breaker, but paired with the extremely low payouts, it becomes a major issue. We even had to check it more than once to make sure it wasn’t a mistake, but the max win really is capped at 309 times your stake!

If you want a Pragmatic slot with slightly more frequent bonuses, milder variance, and very limited upside, Egyptian Fortunes fits the bill. It’s unfortunate, because the bonus mode could have been a standout and the game is otherwise solid. In the end, though, it disappoints due to its near non-existent potential.