Mental Free Play in Demo Mode

Mental review

Theme and Storyline

Mental has a horror theme influenced by sources such as Silence of the Lambs and American Horror Story.

Players will enter a historical mental asylum where they’ll see patients undergoing torture-like medical procedures in gritty detail. These images are unfortunately more likely to leave players uneasy than thrilled.

Due to problematic portrayals of mental illness and unsettling illustration of unethical treatment, this game misses its mark.

Graphics, Sounds and Animations

The creepy piano soundtrack is infused with distant screams and electric sparks, adding a classic horror flavour.

The symbols take the form of crumpled photographs and stained notebook pages. They are drawn in a style that brings to mind decades past, and a time when medicine worked quite differently.

Among the symbols are body parts, weary and frightened patients, and icky-looking bugs. The most iconic character is a masked Hannibal Lecter-type staring out from his reel. However, the suffering patients are the ones who will leave players troubled.

Behind the reels, players will see a filthy tiled room with a single lightbulb flickering above. Everything about the setting prompts disconcerting feelings.

Overall, the music and animation combine to create a disturbing, slightly too realistic psychiatric horror atmosphere.

Gameplay

The reels of Mental have a 3-2-3-2-3 structure.

Wins are awarded for landing matching symbols in adjacent rows, starting from the leftmost reel and going towards the rightmost.

Wilds, Bonuses and Free Spins

The Wild symbol substitutes for all symbols except the Scorpion, Spider and Dead Patient symbols.

The Fire Frame feature is triggered at random, adding a frame to the reels in which any symbol splits in two.

The Dead Patient feature is activated when 2 Dead Patient symbols are present. One of the Patient symbols is revealed to have a multiplier between x5 and x9999.

The Enhancer Cells are present beneath reels 2 and 4 and are activated with 4 and 6 Fire Frames respectively. These cells reveal a variety of special symbols, including Patient symbols, Dead Patient symbols, xWays, xSplit, or Wilds.

The Mental Transform feature is triggered when players land a Spider symbol on reel 2 or reel 4. This Spider symbol is transformed into a special symbol such as a Wild, a Dead Patient, an xWays, or xSplit.

When players land 3 Scorpion symbols, the Autopsy Free Spins feature is triggered, starting with 8 free spins. If players land additional Scorpion symbols with a Fire Frame, they are awarded an additional free spin.

The Lobotomy Free Spins feature is triggered when players land 3 Scorpion symbols and 1 Spider symbol. The feature begins with 9 free spins and has additional special features in comparison to the Autopsy Free Spins feature.

The Mental Free Spins feature is triggered when players land 3 Scorpion symbols and 2 Spider symbols. The feature begins with 10 free spins and has more special features than either of the two previous Free Spins features.

The maximum payout for the Mental slot is 66,666x player’s total win.

Bet Sizes, RTP and Variance

The return to player of this game is 96.08%, just about our yardstick for average of roughly 96%.

The range of bets on the site we tested ran from a minimum bet per spin of $/£/€0.20 up to a maximum of $/£/€70.00 per spin.

The volatility of this game is high, which makes it a good match for our preferred slot machine strategies. Our slot strategies target the highest possible volatility.

Conclusion

Unfortunately, the questionable taste of Mental’s theme precludes a recommendation despite its average RTP and high volatility.

Players who happen to be comfortable with this game’s controversial elements may appreciate this horror slot’s robust volatility from a strategy perspective.

The diverse range of bonuses offers a lot of engagement as well, and this may appeal to players who have no qualms with Mental’s frontend.