Quick verdict: Legacy of Dead was Play'n GO's first release of 2020, and it doesn't hide where its mechanics come from — it runs on the same "Book of" engine that made Book of Dead one of the studio's biggest hits, reskinned around an Ancient Egyptian king rising from death rather than an explorer's journal. The expanding-symbol Free Spins feature, the 10-payline classic format, and the top-tier volatility are all carried over largely unchanged. At up to 96.58% RTP (Play'n GO also ships lower configurations down to 84.55%), a 10-out-of-10 "High" volatility rating, and a 5,000x max win, it's a game built for players who already like the Book of Dead formula and want the same mechanics wrapped in a different theme.
The Story
Play'n GO announced Legacy of Dead as its first release of 2020, part of a planned 52 releases across the year. Rather than continuing Book of Dead's explorer-journal framing, Legacy of Dead centres on an Egyptian king freed from death itself, hunting for power and riches among tombs and temple ruins. Play'n GO CEO Johan Törnqvist framed the release as the start of an ambitious release schedule for the studio, calling it the first in "a series of quality gaming releases" intended to cement Play'n GO's position among the industry's top suppliers. The narrative dressing is thin by design — as with Book of Dead before it, the game exists to deliver the mechanic rather than tell a story.
Theme, Gameplay & Symbols
Legacy of Dead runs on a 5-reel grid with 10 fixed paylines — the same classic, non-Megaways structure Play'n GO uses across its "Book of" family of games. Low-value symbols are card royals (10 through Ace), while higher-value symbols carry the Egyptian theme: scarab beetles, an eye of Horus-style icon, and the golden sarcophagus itself as a top-paying symbol. A glowing book or crystal-style Scatter symbol triggers Free Spins and also acts as a Wild in the base game, substituting for other symbols in winning combinations — the same dual scatter/wild role Book of Dead's own book symbol plays.
Presentation & Sound
Visually, Legacy of Dead swaps Book of Dead's sun-baked desert exterior for a darker, torch-lit temple interior — stone columns, hieroglyph-covered walls, and a golden sarcophagus glowing at the centre of the frame. It's a moodier, more atmospheric take on the same Ancient Egyptian aesthetic Play'n GO has used across several releases, with a low, tension-building ambient soundtrack that builds into a more dramatic cue once Free Spins trigger and the expanding-symbol mechanic starts paying out.
How to Play Legacy of Dead
- Set your stake and paylines. Bets run from roughly £0.10 up to £100 per spin, though UKGC rules cap online slot stakes at £5 per spin (£2 for 18–24-year-olds), so UK players can't stake anywhere near the top of that range, across 10 fixed paylines.
- Spin the 5-reel grid. Matching symbols pay left to right along the fixed paylines.
- Watch for the Scatter/Wild symbol. It substitutes for other symbols in the base game and triggers Free Spins when landed 3 or more times.
- Enter Free Spins. Landing 3+ scatters awards 10 free spins with one symbol chosen at random to expand across full reels for the round.
- Retrigger for more expanding symbols. Further scatters during the feature add more spins and select an additional expanding symbol, stacking within the same round.
- Try the demo first. Legacy of Dead has a free-play demo available on this page, a sensible way to see the expanding-symbol mechanic before staking real money.
Features & Mechanics
Legacy of Dead's entire feature set runs through its Free Spins trigger: landing three or more Scatter symbols anywhere on the reels awards 10 Free Spins, with one regular-paying symbol selected at random to become an expanding symbol — filling an entire reel wherever it appears — for the rest of that round. Landing further scatters during the feature retriggers it, adding more spins and choosing an additional expanding symbol, so a strong retrigger run can stack multiple expanding symbols within a single Free Spins round rather than just extending its length. It's mechanically identical to the system Book of Dead popularised, and by extension to several other titles across Play'n GO's wider "Book of" series — the appeal here is the reskin and atmosphere rather than a mechanical departure.
Volatility & Win Potential
Play'n GO rates Legacy of Dead's volatility at the top of its own scale — a 10 out of 10, "High" — and publishes the game across several RTP configurations rather than one fixed figure: 96.58%, 94.51%, 91.51%, 87.56%, and 84.55% have all been recorded live at different operators, so checking the in-game paytable at whichever casino you play on is worth doing to confirm which version is running. The maximum win is 5,000x your stake, reached through a heavily stacked Free Spins round with several expanding symbols active at once. Bets run from roughly £0.10 up to £100 per spin — again, well above the UK stake cap noted above — across the 10 fixed paylines. As with Book of Dead, the top-tier volatility rating means long dry spells between Free Spins triggers are the norm rather than the exception.
Pros & Cons
- Pro: the proven expanding-symbol Free Spins mechanic from Book of Dead, reliably delivered in a fresh Egyptian-temple setting.
- Pro: a straightforward, easy-to-read 10-payline format that doesn't require learning a new structure.
- Pro: a genuinely atmospheric, moodier reskin rather than a lazy recolour of the source material.
- Con: RTP is published across five different configurations (84.55% to 96.58%) — the version live at any given casino can sit well below the headline figure.
- Con: top-tier volatility with no bonus-buy option means the Free Spins feature can take a genuinely long time to trigger naturally.
- Con: players who've already spent time on Book of Dead or Play'n GO's other "Book of" titles will find the mechanic extremely familiar rather than a fresh direction.
Final Verdict
Legacy of Dead is honest about what it is: a well-executed reskin of the same expanding-symbol formula that made Book of Dead one of Play'n GO's most enduring releases, wrapped in a moodier, torch-lit Egyptian-temple setting rather than a fresh mechanic. That's not a criticism so much as a description of its appeal — for players who already enjoy the Book of Dead formula, Legacy of Dead delivers it reliably, with a genuine 5,000x ceiling once the expanding symbols stack up. It won't convert players looking for mechanical novelty, but trying the demo first to see the atmosphere and expanding-symbol feature in action is worth doing before spinning for real money.
