Rich Wilde and the Shield of Athena: the adventurer goes Greek

A different setting for a familiar hero

Fans of Book of Dead know Rich Wilde as the man in the hat who turns up when the expanding symbol lands. In Shield of Athena he leaves the pyramids for marble temples, bronze armour and a gorgon who keeps watch over the reels. The art is cleaner and brighter than in the older Rich Wilde games, with a Greek palette of white stone, gold and deep blue.

Play'n GO built this one around Medusa rather than a book. Her presence is what makes base spins interesting: when she appears, the game reacts on the grid, and those moments are where the bigger base-game wins come from. The free spins round is the main target, and it plays out with more going on than the simple expanding-symbol bonus of Book of Dead.

How to read the game in the demo

Rather than taking a feature list on trust, use the Rich Wilde and the Shield of Athena demo to watch what happens. You start with 1,000 virtual credits, in the browser, with no download and no account. A useful routine:

• Play 100 spins at a stake equivalent to £0.20 and count how often Medusa shows up and what she does to the screen.
• Keep going until you reach the free spins at least twice, and compare how the two rounds ended.
• Open the paytable before you start: it lists the symbols and explains each feature in the game's own words.

Where it sits in the series

If Book of Dead is the stripped-back original, Shield of Athena is the busier sequel: more animation, more on-screen events, and a bonus that relies less on one lucky draw. Players who like Rich Wilde but find the book slots repetitive usually prefer this one. Those who want the raw all-or-nothing tension of the expanding symbol may stick with the classic.

Either way, the free play version is the right place to decide. The same game runs for real money at the casinos below.