Whenever someone says “life and death,” I don’t think about mortality—I think about that ridiculous Life and Death Brigade from Gilmore Girls, prancing around in tuxedos and jumping off scaffolding like privileged lemmings with a death wish and a trust fund. Because honestly, nothing says “existential dread” like rich kids doing adrenaline stunts while yelling “In omnia paratus!” as if Latin makes it deep. Life is basically a chaotic Lorelai monologue you can’t pause, and death? Probably just Emily Gilmore waiting at the Pearly Gates with a martini and a list of everything you did wrong.

Fortunately, Life and Death slot from Hacksaw leans more into the emo My Chemical Romance crowd than Huntsberger and his merry band of douchebags.

A Gothic masterpiece

The Life & Death slot from Hacksaw features 19 paylines and a combination of Free Spins, Wild Multipliers, and Expanding Wild Reels. Betting starts at just $0.10, with a maximum limit of $20. If you’re betting at the upper limit, you could win up to $300,000, thanks to the 15,000x maximum multiplier. The slot has medium to high volatility, meaning wins may not come often but can be significant when they do. The RTP is 96.36%.

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Four distinct Wild Multiplier symbols form the core of the bonus features. These Wild Multipliers substitute for all paying symbols and appear on reels 2 through 5, with each reel associated with a specific Wild Multiplier. Each symbol is linked to one of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, and each has a unique colour and multiplier range. When a Wild Multiplier is part of a winning combination, its value is applied to the win. If multiple Wild Multipliers contribute to the same win, their values are added together before being applied.

Wild Multipliers can expand to fill an entire reel if doing so creates or enhances a winning combination. This expansion applies only if the expanded symbol contributes to a win. Wild Multipliers may also land on reels not originally assigned to them, although only one can appear per reel in a single spin.

Landing three FS Scatter symbols in the base game triggers the Devastation Bonus feature. You will receive 10 free spins, during which Wild Multipliers appear more frequently. If two or three additional FS Scatters land during this round, you will receive 2 or 4 extra free spins, respectively. There is no cap on the number of additional spins you can earn.

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Landing four FS Scatters in the base game activates the Reckoning Bonus feature, awarding 10 free spins. In this round, Death Reels come into play. When a Wild Multiplier lands on its connected reel, it becomes an activated Death Reel. That Wild Multiplier will then expand into a full Wild Reel even when it lands on any of the four central reels, provided it is part of a winning combination. As in the Devastation Bonus, landing 2 or 3 FS Scatters awards 2 or 4 extra free spins with no maximum.

A Bonus Buy option is available with four purchase options, with costs ranging from 3x to 200x your total bet.

Is Life and Death slot emo or gothic perfection

Like most Hacksaw releases, Life and Death is beautifully illustrated and animated, with no detail left unloved. If you’re into the morbid and the dark, this slot absolutely nails the aesthetic. Hacksaw’s themes can sometimes veer into the generic, even if they’re still executed better than most. But with Life and Death, the studio really shines. The theme is mostly original, and the execution is so weird and on-point that it’s hard not to love it. The bonus features are also perfectly aligned with the theme and do a great job of keeping the gameplay dynamic and engaging. I give the Life and Death slot a ten out of ten.

If you’re looking for a few other Hacksaw slots that I love, I recommend 2 Wild 2 Die and Time Spinners.