Crime and Punishment - Review, Demo Play, Payout, Free Spins & Bonuses

Introduction

Turn the pages of a literary classic and see whether you have more luck than the central character in Dostoevsky’s famous book. There are wilds, scatters, free spins, and expanding wilds to help you escape the madness and survive your encounter with a money-hungry murderer.

Crime and Punishment theme and storyline

This 5 Men Gaming free slots game is based on the novel by Russian writer Fyodor Dostoevsky. It dates back to the mid-1800s and tells the story of Rodion Raskolnikov, a poor ex-student who lives in Saint Petersburg and plans to murder an unsavoury pawnbroker to get his hands on her money. He thinks this crime will be justified by good deeds afterwards, but the consequences are far different.

This slot aims to bring the fictional Saint Petersburg of 1866 alive. Raskolnikov and the pawnbroker are the wilds of the game and the reels are set in a barren bedroom with St Petersburg looming outside the windows. The reels are stark in design; however, the symbols are detailed and, along with the standard playing cards, there are thematic icons associated with the story. These include pocket watches, bottles, buildings, and blood-soaked axes.

If you like this maker but favour the idea of games based on TV shows rather than books, there are plenty of other options available. These include 5 Men's Big Brother slot.

Crime and Punishment RTP and variance

Real-money and demo slots have an average RTP of around 96 per cent. This game offers a theoretical return to player ratio of 95 per cent, which is a little on the low side but you will have to decide for yourself whether this is enough to put you off. This is when it can be a really good idea to try out a slot in free demo mode before risking any of your hard-earned cash, as it enables you to get a good feel for the game and decide whether it really is the choice for you.

When it comes to volatility, this game is marketed as a medium variance slot. We didn’t experience this when we played, as it acted like a much higher variance game; however, it is the luck of the draw with any game of chance such as this. In theory, this game should offer a decent balance between the prize value and win frequency, although never bet on anything particular happening when playing a slot. The beauty of these games is that you never know what is going to happen next.

How to play Crime and Punishment

Begin your journey with this Dostoevsky classic with the help of our top tips for playing this game:

1. Click the gear tab to open the main menu. This is where you will find the sound settings, the bet settings and the paytable.
2. The 20 paylines in this game are fixed, so you don’t have to worry about choosing how many you want to play. You do need to decide how much you want to bet, so use the plus and minus symbols to choose your coin value and bet per line.
3. Hold the spin button to choose autospin mode. The start button becomes a square and you can press this to stop the game and exit autoplay mode.

Crime and Punishment bet sizes & paytable wins

The 20 paylines in this slot are fixed but there is still plenty of betting choice. You can choose a coin value of between 0.01 and 1 in free demo mode and choose to bet between 1 and 20 coins on each of the locked paylines. This means the minimum you can stake is 0.20, which is one coin valued at 0.01 bet on each of the 20 lines. At the other end of the spectrum, the most you can choose is a coin value of 1 and a bet per line choice of 200. This equates to a top bet of 400 per spin. 

The paytable will automatically update to reflect the amount you choose to bet. There are prizes for landing between three and five matching symbols, with the payouts for five-of-a-kind combinations as follows:

• Woman = 20,000
• Building = 9,000
• Watch = 6,000
• Bottle = 6,000

The playing cards can earn you up to 1,500 for matching five.

Max-win 765x

Volatility Medium

Top RTP 95.00%

Crime and Punishment bonus features

Scatters

The axe scatters offer wins for matching combinations and also trigger the free spins bonus. Five earn you 4,000, four award you 2,000, and three lead to an 800 reward. Landing at least three scatter symbols will also get you 20 free spins.

Wilds

As mentioned previously, the murderer and the pawnbroker are both wilds in the game and can substitute for any other symbol except the scatter. They can also expand and embark on a battle for their life - and your fortune - on the reels. The Raskolnikov character can grow to cover the entire first reel and will push all the reels containing a pawnbroker character to the left on the screen.

Crime and Punishment review: our verdict

This slot offers so much promise that we were excited to give it a try. The background story is one of the most acclaimed tales in world literature and, even though it may seem a strange theme for a slot, it had the potential to offer plenty of drama and suspense. Unfortunately, the slot was a bit of an anti-climax. It failed to create any atmosphere of note and the gameplay proved fairly unremarkable when we played; in fact, the only notable thing was how fast our playing balance disappeared without reward.
 

Disclaimer: Crime and Punishment trademark / license is owned by 5 Men Gaming. This site is not endorsed by 5 Men Gaming.