House of Doom 2: The Crypt

Overview House of Doom 2: The Crypt

If you like things that bump in the night and enjoy the thrill of being scared out of your wits, then Play ‘n GO might have the perfect game for you. House of Doom 2: The Crypt, is about as spooky as online slot games get, without turning into fully-fledged horror films. You might have come across this game’s prequel, the original in the series called (unsurprisingly) House of Doom. Play ‘n GO had a real success with that game and have come back with a fresher, more feature-heavy version, that promises to be even better.

House of Doom 2: The Crypt is especially exciting as it comes with 3 terrifying game zones. The zone that you play in makes a real difference to the features which will come your way, of which there are many. They include wilds, an excellent free spins round, transforming wilds, as well as multipliers up to 10x!

Theme and Symbols

Play ‘n GO has taken the previous theme of gothic nightmares and just increased the intensity and detail by about 20%. Although they have made quite a few changes, Play ‘n GO has made sure to keep the core of the aesthetic similar to the previous game, which was inspired by the song “House of Doom” written by the epically hardcore metal band, Candlemass. The board, background and symbols all connote death, evil, and various terrifying creatures, designed to frighten the weak of heart. Especially impactful are the solemn crypt keeper statues which flank the screen to the left and right of the board.

When it comes to the symbols, Play ‘n GO has made sure to take full creative license with their design and make sure they are as creepy as possible. Regular symbols are conventional playing card letters and numbers, dyed the deep red colour of blood. Accompanying them are a collection of appropriately murderous icons including a spooky melting candle, a brace of daggers arranged in a cross, and a haunting dying flower. As interesting as these might be, they are not nearly as shocking or important as the skull with spikes jutting out of its forehead, this is the most valuable symbol in the game. There are also three different wild symbols, which trigger the special Crypt Spins bonus features.

Game Play

This slot from hell is played on a standard 5-reel 3-row board, with 20 ways to win. The base game is played on this board, where players must match the nefarious symbols in winning formations from left to right.
The game really kicks into gear though when players collect Crypt Wilds, opening up a whole world of extra modifiers, re-spins and free spins, which accelerate the player’s earning potential.

The betting range for House of Doom 2: The Crypt is between 20p and £100 per spin. Unlike quite a proportion of Play ‘n GO’s flagship slots, the volatility isn’t too high. The game creators have given it a 7 out of 10 rating, which puts it in the high region but only just. The return to player for House of Doom 2: The Crypt is ever so slightly better than average, coming in at 96.25%. There is no official hit frequency stat for this slot. The top prize is a hefty 6,000x your stake.

Features

The first set of features players need to be aware of are the ‘Spirit Gate’ features. When you are playing the base game, you might be lucky enough to be introduced to the ‘Spirit Gate’ which places itself in a random position on the reels.
If you manage to land a wild in this gate, it will expand to fill the whole of the reel. Following this, the special Spirit Gate re-spin feature plays out with one of three special modifiers. The type of wild that you land in the gate, dictates the feature which will then follow. These are described below:

The Queen of the Damned feature: If you land a Queen of the Damned wild in the special Spirit Gate, extra spirit gates are deposited onto the reels for the re-spin. This means a greater chance of landing yet more expanding wilds and building a bigger score.

The Fire Mistress feature: If a Fire Mistress wild lands inside the Spirit Gate, a random multiplier is applied to any win which is created if you win on the following re-spin. These can range from 2x to a massive 10x.

The Metal Priestess feature: This haunting looking wild when it lands in the Spirit Gate transforms symbols during the re-spin, metamorphosising the low-value Ritual Relic symbols into the premium Spiky Skull symbol.

The next main bonus feature is the Free Spins feature, which is a little more conventional in its style and application. To trigger the Free Spins round, all players need to do is land a Crypt scatter symbol on reels 1, 2 and 5 on the same spin.
You will then be given free spins and a chance to add more Spirit Gates to the reels. Land a wild in the Spirit gate when within the free spins and you’ll trigger the associated modifier which is then added to the already heightened gameplay. This means the potential of having expanding wilds, multipliers, and high-value Skulls all at the same time.

Lastly, there are the special Crypt Spins. This is probably the best and most lucrative feature, so we saved it until last. To trigger this feature, players must land 3 of the flaming Crypt scatters whilst the free spins is still in effect.
This will give you 8 free Crypt Spins. Landing a Spirit of Unity wild in the Spirit Gate from within this feature, rewards a very special, almost unbelievable re-spin which has all three Spirit Gate modifiers active on the spin. With all these features working as one, the payout and a visual feast are stunning.

Conclusion

Those that enjoyed the previous game will be very pleased with the sequel, as it keeps the best bits of the original (including the fantastically petrifying theme) and adds to it in terms of both features and layered gameplay. The range of different wilds is especially exciting and not something which a lot of games do. Even if you aren’t a great fan of horror, you’ll love the massive 6,000x stake jackpot.