Book of Whispers  (Bigwinboard.com)

Book of Whispers: Slot Overview

Hacksaw Gaming sidekick Trusty Gaming has blown the dust off one of the most venerable sets of features to be used in online gambling to create the slot Book of Whispers. The title is a dead giveaway, and yes, as you might expect, this is a game of books and special expanding, pay from anywhere symbols in free spins. What's interesting is how uninteresting the features in Book of Whispers are. While other studios have taken the 'Book of' genre on unexpected turns, Trusty Gaming has essentially stuck to the core features and left things there. And so, if the vanilla approach appeals, let's continue on.

Where Book of Ra was a dry, dusty, desert game, Book of Whispers is the opposite - a lush, green, jungle slot. As well as dense trees, and lower down plant life, the game has a mystical touch with glowing objects and unusual items inhabiting the screen. It's not quite Avatar's Pandora, since the character symbols are all human beings, but it leans in that direction, as if the folk who live around here have a much deeper and more profound connection with the world than regular city dwellers with their eyes glued to a screen 24/7.

Framed by wood and gems, Book of Whispers' gaming grid is a 5x3 matrix with 9 paylines awarding wins that start from the leftmost reel. Regular winning symbols must land on adjacent reels, but not so the special expanding symbols. Medium-high volatile, players may stake 10c to $/€100 per spin, and when doing so, the RTP is 96.24% on the higher return model or 94.49% on the lower one. Book of Whispers keeps things simple by having just one bonus buy option, and it is not an ante bet, FeatureSpins, or anything like that.

Five patterns printed on stone are Book of Whispers' low pays, and its high pays are four character symbols. Lines of 5 matching low pays award 5x-10x the bet, or 75x-500x is awarded when landing 5 matching character symbols in a winning line.

Book of Whispers: Slot Features

A big, thick book with a big, thick gem on it is the wild/scatter. As a wild, it can substitute for anything except special expanding symbols. Landing 3, 4, or 5 books awards 5x, 10x, or 25x the bet plus 10 free spins.

At the start of free spins, one symbol is randomly chosen to become the special expanding symbol. These special symbols are highlighted with a golden frame and expand to cover all positions on their reel if they create a win. What helps is that expanded special symbols pay from any position, as in, they do not have to be on adjacent reels. When expanded, they award wins along all paylines. Should 3 scatters land during the feature, +10 free spins are granted.

Feature Buy

For 100x the bet, players can buy the free spins round where one symbol is randomly selected to be the special expanding symbol.

Book of Whispers: Slot Verdict

So far, Trusty Gaming is yet to impress with one of its releases, and Book of Whispers fails to as well. Monkey Frenzy felt like a tentative step in a more positive direction, but Book of Whispers drags it all back to a mediocre middle ground. A lack of a burning, bright creative spark is exacerbated by the studio's connection with Hacksaw Gaming, a leading developer that consistently surfs the fringes of what's possible in a slot. Hacksaw Gaming's association with Backseat Gaming and Bullshark Games has gone on to bear creative fruit, but we are yet to see the same positive effect rub off on Trusty Gaming.

Book of Whispers is another example of the studio's willingness to settle for mediocrity. Expanding symbol features can be found all over the place, with a variety of twists and turns building on the core mechanic to make it new again. Book of Whispers has none of that. It's a bone-dry 'Book of' slot with not a speck of technical novelty about it. In other words, the biggest issue is that amongst the ten thousand 'Book of' slots crowding up the place, Book of Whispers just doesn't stand out. It feels like it's cowering in the middle of the group, terrified to put a foot wrong. Such a timid attitude is just going to end up being crowded out by bolder 'book' slots which aren't afraid to try something new and aim for exceptional, whether they ultimately succeed or not.

On the more positive side, Book of Whispers doesn't look terrible, special expanding symbols do their thing, and a 5,000x win cap is about average for this sort of slot. The game makes a fairly promising first impression via its colourful jungle world, but fails to capitalise on the goodwill, instead following through with a bland set of features.