Looking for a whole new feel to your slots? It’s guaranteed: the 2021 release of Mental from Nolimit City, known for its high-volatility slots, is best suited to horror genre fans who aren’t intimidated by loose internal organs and torture chambers, but perhaps even fascinated in some twisted way. The theme of the game is a horror asylum where, for one reason or another, autopsies and the now out-of-fashion lobotomy are performed on the unknown.

In keeping with the style of this ominous sanatorium, the main prize is 66 666 times the stake and the volatility, or risk level, of the game is particularly high. There are a considerable number of special features, including the xNudge, xDSplit and xWays features familiar from other Nolimit City games. There are three different levels of free spins, with a shortcut to purchase bonuses.

You can get into the original atmosphere of the game from several online casinos.

Game theme and layout

The Mental game’s polished, sepia-toned look is guaranteed to be memorable.The overall atmosphere in the horror asylum is oppressive – you definitely don’t want to play this slot in the middle of the night! Or is it just the thrill you’ve been looking for?

The eerie music includes muffled screams from the end of the corridors, punctuated by electric shocks, echoing footsteps and the sounds of game play. Internal organs and gruesome images of suffering patients flicker across the reels.In the bonus games, the horror effects only increase and the atmosphere intensifies with faster music.

How to play and the stakes

The mental game has 5 reels with exceptionally 3-2-3-2-3 symbol positions. The minimum bet is just 20 cents, the maximum bet varies from casino to casino and can be, for example, €14. The game can be played fully manually or alternatively you can choose to play automatic spins with an interruption criteria.

There are basically two types of symbols on the reels: life symbols and patient symbols. Of these, the patient symbols produce the highest payout. The most valuable Patient 1 symbol features a Hannibal Lecter-like figure with a metal face mask.

You must get at least 3 symbols in a row: for example, 5 of the same Patient 1 symbol will pay 5 times, 4 of the same will pay 1.5 times and 3 of the same will pay 0.75 times. Of the life symbols, the eye symbol pays the highest, followed by the brain, then the heart, kidneys and the smallest skeleton comb. It’s a good idea to check the payout table to see how big the payouts are during your gaming experience.

Special features

The Mental slot is indeed full of special features. The volatile Fire Frame feature lands randomly on the reels each round, splitting the symbols inside the frames into two symbols.

When two Dead Patient symbols appear, a patient symbol is revealed behind them with a random multiplier of at least 5x and up to 9999x. The multiplier corresponds to the number of symbols on that reel.

The Enhancer Cells symbol locations are at the bottom of reels 2 and 4. They are activated when 4 or 6 Fire Frames appear on the reels. Each Enhancer Cell then reveals one of these:

• Wild symbol
• One of the Patient symbols
• A Dead Patient symbol
  xWays, or 3 of a kind
• xSplit feature, i.e. on each reel, one symbol splits in two to form two wild symbols
• xNudge Wild, i.e. the game “nudges” a symbol to appear on the reel. Each nudge increases the payout by one.

The Mental Transform feature transforms the spider symbol into one of these:

• xWays
• xSplit
• Dead Patient
• Wild
• Patient symbol

Mental also includes many bonus games, or free spins. There are three types of bonus games available:

Autopsy quick games are triggered when three scorpions appear on the reels. The number of spins is eight, but the Fire Frame fly frames can add more. Up to five frames can appear within the Free Frame feature.

If you get a spider symbol in the Autopsy quick games, your holds are improved and you can access the Lobotomy free spins.

The Lobotomy bonus game can be accessed either through the Autopsy quick draw or by landing three scorpions and one spider on the reels. The first difference between this and the Autopsy quick game is that when spider symbols appear on the reels, they stick in place. So the Mental Transformation option remains in effect at all times.

During the Lobotomy feature, patient symbols are collected in the meter on the left side of the reels. So if you get, say, three Patient 1 symbols at multipliers of 5, 10 and 15, the total multiplier is 15 and the number is 3. The next three new Patient 1 symbols will then have the same multiplier of 15.

If you get two spider symbols during your lobotomy rounds, you can finally reach the long-awaited Mental level.

The Mental bonus games are by far the best part of the game. The bonus game can be triggered when you get three scorpion symbols and two spider symbols in the base game.These award 10 Mental free spins.In the Mental feature, the spiders stay in place when they appear until the end of the feature. The multiplier for the patient symbols remains unchanged. There are no bonus bets in the game.

Buying bonus games

There is also a shortcut to the free spins: a yellow star flashes constantly on the left-hand side of the game, allowing you to buy your way into the bonus games. So there is a shortcut, but I wonder if it’s a shortcut to happiness: buying a bonus is no cheap thrill.

Just to get into the Autopsy quick games, you have to pay 80x your stake. Lobotomy free spins, on the other hand, cost 200x and Mental spins cost 1000x the stake.

There is also the option to pay blind: when you pay 220 times your stake, you can win either Autopsy Spins (50% chance), Lobotomy Spins (40% chance) or Mental Spins (10% chance) in the draw. Using this purchase option, the recovery rate can reach a maximum of 96.47%. It is worth noting that there is still no guarantee of big payouts.

Return rate and volatility

The Mental game published by Nolimit City has a relatively good return rate of 96.08% in the base game, but is slightly higher in the bonus games, reaching a peak of 96.68% in the highest level Mental free spins.

Note, however, that the volatility or risk level of the game is among the highest on the market. The Hannibal patient and his companions can promise big wins, but it’s all down to luck.

Another not so conventional slot game is Dead Canary. Go and check that out, too! And for more, go to our front page: bestslotties.com!