Asylum Files

Anyone who's seen Shutter Island understands the first rule of a dark asylum: if a door seems like it should stay shut, someone's going to open it. There is one at Blackwood Asylum as well. You already went through the security checkpoint, curiosity. Patient 402 is probably in there waiting.

The paperwork, at least, is reassuringly straightforward. Asylum Files by Revolver Gaming is a 5-reel, 3-row slot with 20 paylines. This online casino game has high volatility. The RTP variants range from 90% to 96%. Therefore, check the game info before you start playing. ( more about RTP HERE) 

Bets run from €0.20 to €200, and the maximum win reaches a rather peculiar 12,321x the bet. Quickspin and Autoplay are there to support your playing style, while desktop and mobile support mean Blackwood is unfortunately quite easy to access. 

Theme And Symbols

The nurse has blood on her clothes, the doctor has apparently decided that an exposed brain pairs nicely with a monocle, and Blackwood isn't some abandoned building full of things left behind. Lights flicker through the asylum while the nurse's jangling keys and syringes mix with diabolical screams and screams from the patients. The music is slow, dark, and eerie, and it is always there.

If somebody was supposed to turn the lights off and lock this place up, they appear to have missed several occupants.

The reels aren't much more reassuring. Restrained patients appear alongside a wild-eyed nurse and a doctor whose exposed brain suggests he may not be the person to ask for a second opinion. Stitched eyeballs, chains, rusted machinery and bubbling vats complete a horror style that happily dances along the edge between disturbing and delightfully mad.

TheWild substitutes for regular symbols except Eyeballs and Jackpot Scatters. Two eligible symbols are also randomly selected to appear stacked with every new game. Apparently overcrowding is one problem Blackwood isn't attempting to treat. 

Betting Options And Special Features

For all the screaming, Blackwood runs a surprisingly organised experiment.

An Eyeball landing on the reels pops away, reveals the hidden symbol underneath and drops into the container below. Three eyeballs fill a container in the base game, but where they land decides what opportunity you've opened. 

The outer containers award 5x total bet, while the containers beneath reels 2 and 4 provide 5 Free Spins. Fill the middle one and Blackwood wheels out its Bonus Wheel, where classified patient files conceal multipliers from 10x to 500x or the Progressive Jackpot. Because apparently ordinary prize wedges weren't sufficiently sinister. 

During Free Spins, the asylum becomes considerably more generous with its eyeball policy. A single one triggers its corresponding container reward. Up to three can appear on one reel, potentially awarding 5x three times, retriggering 15 Free Spins, or multiplying Bonus Wheel prizes by 3x. ( get more info about Free Spins HERE)

And then there is that enormous eye watching from its containment chamber.

The Progressive Jackpot has two routes. Three Jackpot symbols on reels 1, 3 and 5 can award it directly, or the Bonus Wheel can stop on its Jackpot prize. It starts at 2,000x total bet before the progressive contribution begins adding to it. ( find out more about Progressive Jackpot HERE) 

Conclusion

This online slot could have stopped at creepy patients, flickering lights and a few strategically placed syringes. Revolver Gaming clearly decided that wasn't nearly enough.

Compared to other Revolver Gaming releases, here the madness reaches right into the mechanics.

Eyeballs become opportunities, patient files hide prizes, Free Spins make the experiments more active, and the Progressive Jackpot sits behind two different doors. 

It has that bad-dream logic where everything is recognizable, yet something about every detail is wrong. You know what a nurse is supposed to look like. You know what a doctor is supposed to look like. You know what a hospital is supposed to feel like.

Blackwood takes all three and lets the nightmare rearrange them.

The asylum isn't abandoned. It's waiting for new patients. Patiently.