Stone Gaze of Medusa: Slot Overview

You may want to avert your gaze, readers—not from this review, but from its star. Here, the headline act is the snake-haired Gorgon of antiquity, Medusa, famed for turning anyone who meets her eyes into stone. Unlucky. The slot is Stone Gaze of Medusa, created by software developer Stakelogic as part of the fast-growing wave of scatter-paying slots filling up the market.

A scatter-paying slot featuring a figure from Ancient Greek mythology… sounds familiar, right? In all seriousness, Stone Gaze of Medusa clearly follows the trail blazed by Pragmatic Play’s blockbuster scatter-paying slot Gate of Olympus. Only, rather than Olympus, this one is set among ruined columns and warped stairways, under the watch of the writhing, serpent-haired ruler. Medusa stands beside the reels as tradition demands, and she also appears on the reels as part of the bonus scatter symbol.

Stone Gaze of Medusa plays out on a 6×5 grid, where wins are formed by landing 8 or more identical symbols anywhere on the board. It’s a highly volatile title with solid upside, offering a default RTP of 96% and accepting bets from 10 c to $/€50 per spin. Also worth noting is the optional Super Stake ante bet. With Super Stake enabled, your stake increases by 25% in exchange for “extra chances of hitting insanely valuable winning combinations!”—though exactly how that plays out isn’t spelled out very clearly.

As for symbols, Stone Gaze of Medusa uses purple, green, blue, orange, and red gems for the lower pays, while daggers, goblets, helmets, and shields make up the higher-value icons. Landing 8-9 of a kind pays 0.3 to 5 times the bet, and 15-of-a-kind scatter wins award 2.5x to 50x the bet. A cascade mechanism clears winning symbols from the grid so new ones can fall into place. Cascades keep going until the drop produces no further win.

Stone Gaze of Medusa: Slot Features

Look away from Medusa’s stare for a moment to review the feature set, which includes multiplier symbols, Power symbols, free spins, and a free spins buy.

Multiplier Symbols

Multiplier symbols with values of x2 to x1,000 can appear in either the base game or during free spins. When they land, all multiplier values are summed and then applied to scatter wins on that spin.

Power Symbols

Both in the base game and in the free spins round, Power symbols with different strengths may land, impacting play in the following ways:

• Level 1 Power Symbol – turns to stone and destroys all 1 of a kind symbols.
• Level 2 Power Symbol – turns to stone and destroys all 1 or 2-of-a-kind symbols.
• Level 2 Power Symbol – turns to stone and destroys all 1, 2, or 3-of-a-kind symbols.

Free Spins

Medusa appears on the scatter symbols, which can land anywhere on the grid. Hitting 4, 5, or 6 scatters awards 10, 15, or 30 free spins, respectively. In free spins, any multipliers that land are collected by a global multiplier, which is then applied to winning combinations. Additional free spins can be won while the free spins feature is running.

Buy Free Spins

Stone Gaze of Medusa allows players to purchase the free spins bonus for 100x their bet.

Stone Gaze of Medusa: Slot Verdict

It feels like hardly a week passes without another nod to the king of scatter-paying slots, Gates of Olympus. Stakelogic has at least tried to pull Stone Gaze of Medusa away from Pragmatic Play’s smash hit by introducing Power symbols, larger multiplier symbols, and adjustments to how the free spins global multiplier works. Is that enough to fully escape the shadow of the Zeus-led phenomenon? Probably not—but it’s arguably distinct enough that scatter-slot fans may still want to seek it out for a spin.

So what sets it apart? For one, it’s a welcome touch that multipliers feed into the global multiplier, which then applies to wins throughout the free spins round—even if a multiplier doesn’t land on the same spin as a win. Gates of Olympus is well known for requiring a win and a multiplier to land together before the global multiplier kicks in. The maximum win is also notably strong, reaching a win cap of 10,000x the bet. Then there are the Power symbols: they’re a solid addition, adding a little extra kick to the action.

Overall, Stone Gaze of Medusa manages to create at least some separation from the slot it both resembles and tries not to mirror. In a sea of Gates of Olympus imitators, it may not be the top contender for the crown, but it’s far from the weakest follower in the pack.