Spellbound

Spellbound isn’t a revolutionary room, but rather a platonic ideal of how an escape room should function and feel. It was truly awesome, and definitely one of the top 3 rooms at 13th Gate. From the jump, the set design was fantastic…this is the best version of a “cabin in the woods” set that I’ve seen thus far out of 140 rooms. The interior of the cabin was packed with creepy bric-a-brac, animal skulls, and witchy ephemera, with several different puzzle pathways, so all of us had something to work on or explore. The non-linear format required us to backtrack to an earlier room, which was a cool callback. Everything flowed really smoothly and there were a few really memorable secrets too!

Rating: 4.5/5 - Beautiful set with my favorite puzzles at 13th Gate Pros: ➕ The set looked beautiful with so many little details. It was fully immersive, even the timer was nicely integrated. One of the best cabin themed sets I've been in. ➕ Enjoyable narrative and story progression. ➕ Puzzles were fun and intuitive, and they were well integrated into the set. I like that the puzzles fit the theme and storyline very well. ➕ Hints were delivered via a character in the room (pre-recorded audio) ➕ Multiple rooms to discover and explore ➕ Fun, satisfying ending ➕ Some cool, hidden surprises ➕ Non-linear puzzles, kept all of us occupied ➕ Mostly tech with minimal padlocks. The tech felt magical and the padlocks they did use felt like antiques which fit the theme. ➕ Audio and lighting effects added to the immersion. ➕ Set was dark, but everyone got their own flashlight on a lanyard. ➕ GM was friendly and helpful. Room for improvement: Nothing significant, though the room would be even better if they integrated an actor. Also, I'm nitpicking but the scale of the set felt less impressive than some of their other rooms though it it still larger than most other escape rooms elsewhere. It is maybe a tiny bit spooky, but not scary, no jump scares. We played as a team of 5 enthusiasts and breezed through this one. This is probably one of their easier rooms. In general, make sure you are not afraid to ask for hints, also tell the game master to nudge you when you get behind. My ranking of all 8 rooms here: 1. Cutthroat Cavern ❤️ 2. Tomb of Anubis ❤️ 3. Spellbound ❤️ 4. Disappearance of Flight 13 ❤️ 5. The Asylum ❤️ 6. The Collector 👍 7. Agent 13 👍 8. Death Row👍

It was a non-linear room where all five of us stayed busy the entire time, no one was left standing around. I really enjoy this style of puzzle. Funny story: I locked my buddy in the outhouse, and the game master had to come in to let him out, 😂😂.

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I really wanted to like this room as it was like being transported to the set of hocus pocus. However, there were so many technical difficulties that we couldn’t do the room. We asked for help multiple times without anyone to respond. Therefore, we walked around aimlessly praying that the mechanisms and stars would align for us. It is beautiful, everything they do is, but I wouldn’t say it was worth it.

This should have been our first game of five games of the day. We had to swap this game with another one so that the staff could do some maintenance on the room (no big deal). Upon entering the room, we were amazed by the set! Unfortunately, our inattentive and unhelpful game master along with what appeared to be a malfunctioning puzzle (possibly the one they were “fixing” earlier in the day?) led to our failure. There was also a clue sheet in the room so faded that it was nearly impossible to read, making a straightforward puzzle take forever to solve. Wish I could give this room a heart, but the game needs some maintenance.

Started off our day here with a bang. This room is extremely immersive, well spaced out and non linear enough for a group of four. Maybe the actual best puzzling of any room we did at this location

This was a very cool game. Some of the tech didn’t work for us, but we were still able to get around it and it didn’t take much time from us. Great atmosphere and design.

Spellbound was the second game we played during our day at 13th Gate. As we started, I had a sense of deja vu. I HAD played this game before at Mindspark in Tempe 7 years before. (In fact, in my review of that one, I lamented the fact that the team I was with didn't get very far back then and I hoped to revisit them someday), so I did get to experience closure. (Also, my memory is terrible, so I can assure you that I playing a similar game 7 years prior helped ZERO because I recalled NOTHING.) I loved Spellbound in so many ways. The set is beautiful (both outside and inside the cabin) and the puzzles were really nicely done. There's a nice flow which starts off linear and then changes to non-linear and then back. The plot was fantastic and integrates magical puzzles seamlessly. It's magic so lots of tech and the clue system made use of an animatronic cat straight out of Hocus Pocus which kept the immersion tight. Spellbound had one big issue that ALL of 13th Gate's games have. These are 60 minute rooms that really need to be 75 minute rooms. There's a LOT of puzzling to be done. With a group of 4 of us that didn't get stuck too much, I'm pretty sure we ran over and they let us keep going. Come to 13th Gate for pretty much any & all of the games here. Spellbound is a must-do unless you did this elsewhere. This company is worth the 90 minute drive from New Orleans. If you are coming out, plan to spend the whole day there & do all of their games.