The reels in Golden Ark are set inside a classical Egyptian temple - the all seeing eye of Horus stares somewhat menacingly behind the symbols. Those symbols include a scarab beetle, another eye of Horus, a golden statue and a female archaeologist. Our heroine is the game's top payer, offering payouts of between 10 and 5,000 times you line bet if you find between 2 and 5 of them on an active payline.
The beautifully decorated book is both the wild and the scatter - it substitutes for every other symbol apart from the scatter. Find 5 wilds and your bankroll will be boosted by a payout of 2,000 coins.
Land between 3 and 5 of the book and you'll trigger the Free Games feature. Once active, you'll be awarded 10 free spins complete with the special expanding symbol feature. Before the feature starts, 1 symbol will be chosen at random. After each winning spin during the feature, the chosen symbol will expand to fill every reel in which it appears. A second payout consideration will then take place giving you more chances to win.
Golden Ark is a medium to high range variance slot - there will be plenty of times when you'll find little in the way of treasure, especially in the base game. If you manage to land a high value expanding symbol during the feature though, the coins can quickly build.
Visually, Golden Ark is impressive, especially for a Novomatic slot. The images are detailed yet crisp and the animations sleek. The soundtrack is the same generic fare we've become used to from this developer, albeit punctuated with the odd Egyptian style wail of delight to herald a winning spin. We'd have loved to have heard something more original here.
Overall though, Golden Ark is a good slot - the free spins feature is the likeliest route to a decent score. If you like the ancient Egyptian theme and can cope with high volatility, then this is a desert treasure hunt worth making. I would also recommend Book of Ra Deluxe which has a similar theme and is Novomatic’s most popular game. Another slot from ancient Egypt I would play is Pharaoh’s Fortune by IGT which has been revamped and is a land-based classic.