ALL ABOUT CERBERUS’ INFERNO SLOT
Dark Greek myths seem to be the order of the day right now – in Summer 2020 not only are Fantasma Gaming unleashing their Hades – River of Souls high variance slot on us, but now Thunderkick have chosen that very legend as the inspiration for the third in their five part Beat the Beast series of games. Cerberus was the three-headed dog whose role it was to keep souls from leaving the underworld presided over by the Hades, God of the Dead. Cerberus, like his master, was not a character to be messed with, and he now follows in the footsteps of the Sphinx and the Kraken as the intimidating presence in a Beat the Beast game that slots players must overcome to get close to the 6,666x top payout possible here.  Like the others in the Beast series, Cerberus’ Inferno is high risk action, somewhat stripped down and without any blockbuster features, but it packs a punch and like many Thunderkick games, it benefits from some really great artwork. Let’s check it out in more detail.
GAME SET-UP, SYMBOLS AND GRAPHICS
The backdrop to this simple 5×3 reel set is the underworld, depicted with stone steps curving upwards towards a stone bridge with lava flows and smoke all around. It’s atmospheric stuff as you would expect and a fitting intro to an epic game. The reels are bordered by ornate artwork and display low value symbols represented by the cards, 10 through to Ace. The premium symbols here are the Ancient Greek artefacts – a vase, a soldier’s helmet, a scepter and two versions of the dog Cerberus – one a gold statue, the other a frightening looking beast worth 150x for five on a payline. You’ll need three or more of these to score a payout, paying from left to right on 9 active paylines, increasing to 243 in the bonus round.
Look out as well for the standard wild and the bonus wild which doubles up as a scatter to unleash the free spins round where the big win action happens.
CERBERUS’ SLOT RTP, VARIANCE AND PAYOUTS
Like it says on the tin, the Beat the Beast series is all about high risk slots play. So if you want a few casual spins, then stay clear on this monster – it’s a pretty fierce one and you will be spinning without much reward for some time before you unlock the free spins round and a chance at the top 6,666x, payout. The RTP meanwhile is a standard Thunderkick 96.15% and spins start from just 10p per play.
GAMEPLAY AND FEATURES
Thunderkick have kept the features to a minimum here with just Wilds and Free Spins driving the action. Here’s how they work.
Wilds and Stacked Wilds
The basic wild in this game will sub for all others except the other wild icon. It also lands in stacks to boost your win chances.
Golden Cerberus Wild and Free Spins
The Ceberus Wild performs another function – it both subs for all other symbols AND acts as the scatter. You’ll need three or more to land on one spin to trigger the free spins round. Here you’ll get 10 free spins PLUS a decent payout – 3 Golden Cerberus gets you 2x, 4 gets you 20x and 5 gets you 200x.
When the free spins round starts the payout model changes as the paylines increase to 243, paying both left to right and right to left when identical symbols land on adjacent reels, regardless of their position. It is also possible to re-trigger the free spins by landing more scatters.
OUR VERDICT
Thunderkick have a great record in the high variance slots department – think of games like Pink Elephants, Fruit Warp and Flame Busters for example. So we got pretty excited when we first heard about this Beat the Beast series. And in some ways they have delivered just what high risk slots fans want – tough game play and the chance to hit big wins when the features come together in the bonus round. However, you can’t help but feel that there could be more going on outside those epic sequences. Like the Kraken and Sphinx games, Cerberus’ Inferno is a magnificent-looking beast, but is a little short on features outside the bonus round. So whether you enjoy it will be a matter of taste and gameplay preference. If you do decide to play, remember to gamble responsibly.
