Mental 2

Thankfully I have never been unlucky enough to be subjected to out-dated, institutional methods of gruesome rehabilitation, but back in 2021, and all thanks to the extreme tendencies of Nolimit City, players were given the chance to experience the horrors of Lobotomies firsthand as the monstrous Mental first hit our screens, containing nothing short of eye-watering visuals, echoes of suffering and a whole host of torturous features from Dead Patients to xSplits and xNudge Wilds.

Almost 4 years on, the asylum-themed melee continues to be cemented at the top of countless go-to game lists and it was only a matter of time before the studio offered up a sequel…and what a sequel we now have!

Mental 2 Base Game play

The 25th March brings with it, quite possibly, the most anticipated release of the year thus far as Mental 2 crashes onto our casino platforms, and if anyone were to believe that a few mere touch-ups were all we were to be expecting, oh how very wrong you would be with this latest Nolimit number offering an unfathomable range of inclusions from Fire Frames and Enhancers to symbol transformations and the return of that wily old xHole we last saw in Kenneth Must Die.

Gameplay takes place deep within the asylum walls as the 5 reel grid sits centre stage consisting of a 3 x 2 x 3 x 2 x 3 row matrix.

If an all-out aura of doom was job number one, the team can tick that one off, with walls coated in bloody lettering, flickering lights and a soundtrack haunting and absurd enough to unsettle even the soundest of minds.

With 3 progressively fierce bonus rounds on offer, alongside the return of that new-age God Mode, players are sure to need their wits about them as a high volatility action plays out with a supporting 96.06% RTP and goliath 99,999x bet max win potential.

Tighten those restraints guys, there’s plenty to check out here so let’s get started in some more detail…

Mental 2 offers more than 108 ways to win

Mental 2 Base Game and Features

Win spins are achieved in the simplest form by combining 3 or more matching symbols across adjacent reels over any of the game’s 108 paylines.

10 regular paying symbols make the count, consisting of 5 low-paying Skeletal symbols paying between 0.5x to 0.75x for 5 or more matching symbols and 5 high-paying Patient symbols worth 1x to 2.5x for a line of 5.

Wild symbols are also included during play and substitute for any regular paying symbol.

Activate Dead Patients and multipliers to enhance wins

Fire Frames & Fire Reels

During any game round, between 1 to 13 random reel positions may inherit a Fire Frame.

When a symbol lands within a Fire Frame position, it will split into 2 identical symbols.

Similarly, a spin can also see between 1 and 5 reels randomly transform into a Fire Reel.

Any symbol that lands within a Fire Reel shall be split into 3 identical symbols.

Dead Patients

Similar to its predecessor, those Dead Patients make a return, with 2 or more Dead Patient symbols activating the feature.

When activated, the Dead Patient symbols reveal a random Patient pay symbol along with a random Multiplier between x5 and x9,999.

The Multiplier value represents the number of individual symbols on that respective reel during win evaluations.

xWays symbols increase reel heights, offering more payways

Enhancer Cells

Beneath reels 2, 3 and 4 sit the game’s Enhancer Cells which can be activated through the appearance of Fire Frames.

4 Fire Frames activate the Enhancer Cell on reel 2 with 6 and 8 Fire Frames activating reel 2 and reel 4 and all 3 reels respectively.

Fire Reels also count towards activations of Enhancer Cells and act as 2 or 3 Fire Frames depending on the number of positions within that reel.

When an Enhancer Cell activates, a number of special symbols can be revealed…

• Wild – a single Wild symbol that substitutes for any regular paying symbol.
• xSplit – one symbol on each of the other reels splits into 2 identical symbols and the xSplit symbol splits into 2 Wilds.
• xNudge Wild – nudges until fully expanded on its respective reel with each nudge increasing the multiplier by +1.  When more than one xNudge Wild is involved in a winning combination, their multipliers add together to form a total Wild Multiplier.  Splitting an xNudge Wild sees its multiplier increase by +1.
• Patient Symbol – a random Patient symbol is revealed.
• xWays – 3 identical pay symbols are revealed on the reel, expanding its height and when more than one xWays symbol becomes activated, all revealed symbols will be the same.
   

Activate the xHole feature and see symbol sizes increase and scatter

xHole

The xHole feature can be activated when an xHole symbol lands within a Fire Frame or Fire Reel on the second grid position on reel 3.

Upon activating, all regular paying symbols and Wilds are sucked into the xHole and rescattered across the reels into random positions.

All scattered symbols see their sizes multiplied by either 2, 4 or 8 and any xNudge Wild involved only sees its win multiplier affected.

Any symbols forming a winning combination prior to the activation of the xHole feature will be scattered back into their original positions and the xHole symbol converts to a Wild symbol after activating.

Should any Dead Patient multipliers be stored at the time, the values will not apply after the feature has activated.

xMental

Landing an xMental symbol within a Fire Frame or Fire Reel position will activate the xMental feature.

When activated, an extra spin is triggered with a number of additional features…

• All current reel positions adopt Fire Frames.
• Enhancers shall only reveal xWays, xNudge Wilds or xSplits.
• There is an increased chance of triggering the xHole feature.

Should an xMental symbol land during a successful Bonus round trigger, the xMental feature will not activate.

Land 3 scatters or more to trigger 1 of 3 Free Spins rounds

Scatter Symbols and Mental Transform

2 types of bonus scatter symbols are included during base game play, Cognitive scatters and Disembodied scatters.

Cognitive scatters may only land on reels 1, 3 and 5 with Disembodied scatters able to appear on reels 2 and 4.

During any game round, landing a Disembodied scatter symbol on reel 2 or 4 triggers the Mental Transform feature that sees the scatter symbol randomly turn into either xWays, xSplit, Dead Patient, Wild or a Patient symbol.

Mental 2 Free Spins

Mental 2 offers 3 different Bonus rounds, each that can be triggered by a different combination of scatter symbols landing during a single game round…

• 8 Bloodletting Spins – triggered by landing 3 Cognitive scatters on reels 1, 3 and 5.
• 9 Surgery Spins – triggered by landing 3 Cognitive scatters on reels 1, 3 and 5 alongside 1 Disembodied scatter on reel 2 or 4.
• 10 Experimental Spins – triggered by landing 3 Cognitive scatters on reels 1, 3 and 5 alongside 2 Disembodied scatters on reels 2 and 4.

For all 3 bonus rounds, landing a scatter symbol within a Fire Frame awards 1 additional starting spin and 2 additional starting spins if landing within a Fire Reel.

Surgery Spins Bonus round

Bloodletting Spins

Playing to similar rules and mechanics as base game mode, all Fire Frames and Fire Reels remain persistent throughout the round.

Landing 1 Disembodied scatter during a free spins round upgrades the remaining bonus to Surgery Spins, awarding 1 additional spin.

Landing 2 Disembodied scatters during a free spins round upgrades the remaining bonus to Experimental Spins, awarding 2 additional spins.

Surgery Spins

Plays with the same features as Bloodletting Spins, Disembodied scatters also remain sticky throughout the bonus round and trigger the Mental Transform feature on every spin.

Additionally, the Dead Multiplier comes into play that sees the highest multiplier from each Dead Patient symbol collected along with its count.

A Dead Patient’s “count” resembles the number of symbols revealed of a particular Patient.

If 3 Patient symbols are revealed with multipliers of x5, x10 and x15 respectively, that Patient would get collected along with the highest multiplier value of x15 with a “count” of 3.

After being collected, the Dead Multiplier gets transferred to its particular Patient symbol based on the count when a new collected Patient symbol lands on the reels.

For example, if a Patient symbol has a x15 multiplier value and count of 3, the first 3 occurrences of that symbol on the reels will be given a x15 multiplier.

Each time a Dead Multiplier value transfers to another Patient symbol, its count decreases by 1 and Multipliers cannot transfer to a Patient symbol revealed from a Dead Patient symbol.

Landing 1 additional Disembodied scatter during the bonus round upgrades the remaining spins to Experimental Spins, awarding 1 extra spin.

Experimental Spins

Playing to similar rules and mechanics as Surgery Spins, both Disembodied scatters remain sticky throughout the round, triggering the Mental Transform feature on every spin.

Additionally, the Dead Multiplier count for Patient symbols does not decrease after its transfer to a Patient symbol and continues to increase with new Dead Patient symbol reveals.

Experimental Spins Bonus round

Nolimit Bonus Buy and Booster

A whole range of in-games buys and enhancements are available for players who with to utilise them…

• xBet – at the cost of 1.4x bet, each spin guarantees a Cognitive scatter to land on reel 1.
• 13 – at the cost of 6x bet, each spin guarantees Fire frames on all reel positions.
• xHole – at the cost of 99x bet, a spin guarantees the activation of the xHole feature.
• xMental – at the cost of 3,200x bet, a spin guarantees the activation of the xMental feature.
• Bloodletting Spins – at the cost of 100x bet.
• Surgery Spins – at the cost of 250x bet.
• Experimental Spins – at the cost of 1,800x bet.
• Random 50/40/10 – at the cost of 330x bet.

God Mode

At the cost of 6,666x bet, an all-or-nothing spin takes place whereby landing an xGod symbol on every reel awards the maximum win value of 99,999x bet.

God Mode spin

First Impression

Whenever a slot game loads up revealing a disclaimer warning, you know you’re in for something a bit special and that proves to be just the case with Nolimit City’s Mental 2!

To say this one had a little extra pressure on its shoulders after the raging success of its older sibling, Mental 2 chooses to vent this through a whole heap of captivating and inventive features from enhancers and multipliers to Fire-ladened frames and suggestive holes and it all makes for one great, explosive hunk of action that leaves one feeling an Asylum trip of their own may just be necessary at the end of it.

Holding onto core roots of success, various familiarities remain present along the lines of Dead Patients, xSplits, xWays and, of course those 3 progressive bonus rounds and it’s great to see those xNudge Wilds a little more often, for sure, yet with so many fresh inclusions that provide both complimenting and exciting upgrades, Mental 2 has been able to soar to new heights that will prove widely popular within the online slots community.

The overall immersion through almost cinematic animations and visuals transports players into the heart of gruesome action and a soundtrack switching between eerie piano keys and death metal riffs provides the perfect mix of horror and grunge.

Base game play provides the perfect chance to grow accustomed to all of the new inclusions before heading into the various Bonus round offerings where players can find progressive potential along with the chance to upgrade through the stages.

Each bonus has the potential to send you on a roller coaster ride of thrills and spills and chasing down that whopping 99,999x bet max win potential is certainly not for the faint of heart but this is, of course, Nolimit City and we have things no other way.

For those feeling particularly brave, the God Mode feature is back with its all-or-nothing approach and, although this inclusion gets a range of mixed responses, the potential to turn 6,666x bet into 99,999x bet is a concept that may prove that little more enticing to volatility seekers out there.

Mental 2 proves to truly take the biscuit…no, the whole jar in fact…when it comes to a powerful sequel.

The studio sticks close to all of the right, familiar pathways whilst expanding tracks leading to various new and exciting incentives and, I have to say, if one of those tracks leads directly to the Asylum itself, then I may just be going to check myself in!

*The screenshots taken of games reviewed on this site are taken from Demo Play, as reviews are often written before games are released for real play.