The Asylum

My 100th game!! The GM was so excited to be doing my 100th with me. This game was certainly scary with some jump scares included. The puzzles were good and the design was incredible. So happy to have reached this milestone here!

And here we have the final room of our marathon session at 13th Gate, The Asylum. This was quite the solid room. It's one of their older games for sure and it used a common escape room theme, but still a wonderful experience. As I have said, in all my reviews, 13th gate is known for their amazing sets. Impressively, they built an elaborate abandoned mental health asylum, one that had rooms and rooms and rooms. The spooky factor was out in full force! The medical themed puzzles flowed nicely and just about everything made logical sense. There were a few gross out things (heh, toilet), but all in all, we really felt the "We really need to escape!" sense with this room. The storyline was straightforward with a nice twist at the end which worked. 13th Gate uses an "automated" hint system that they bake into most of their rooms. Someone, (like a cat in Spellbound or another victim in The Collector), gives you a pre-recorded clue when you need help. In this game, it was a little girl who was locked up in another part of the Asylum. The effect works surprisingly well and the gamemaster stays on top of things to jump in if the automated response isn't helpful. however, any time that we needed a clue, we had to go back all the way to the first rooms that we could hear her. The main issue I had with this game was the same I have with any game at 13th Gate. These are 60 minute rooms that really need to be 75 minute rooms. There's a LOT of puzzling to be done. We were a group of 4 and we ran over and they let us keep going. (And yes, if you’ve been following these reviews, you’ll notice that I have said this again and again. We didn't make it out of any of the six rooms that we did on time and for five of them, we got out because they let us play beyond the allotted 60 minutes.) Come to 13th Gate for pretty much any of the games here. Put Cutthroat, Anubis and Flight 13 as your must-dos. This company is worth the 90 minute drive from New Orleans. If you are coming out, just plan to spend the whole day there & do all of their games.

Creep factors were definitely there, but there are so many loud noises. Be careful if you're sensitive to them, because for me, eventually I got tired of the noises and was just unimmersed. Lots of puzzles, make sure you read, and get close... really really close.

This room was incredible. Even the temperature of the room matched the theme. It was so creepy but in an awesome and on point way. Would highly recommend. It was quite challenging but the puzzles were really good.

We did all of 13th gates rooms except one and they were all amazing and so immersive most of the game masters were good and friendly

One of my absolute favorite horror themed games to have ever played. The mechanism for getting hints was fun and the start of the game really added to the terror. The atmosphere was perfect and the design made the space feel huge! Don't get me wrong, it is Huge! The puzzles were fun and made sense but the atmosphere is just simply amazing and terrifying.

Set is great ofc - only con was it was LOUD - almost annoyingly so towards the end. Might want to consider wearing earplugs if your sensitive to loud noises.

I’m a scaredy cat, no question, but I can power through a scary room if the puzzles and solves are satisfying and make sense with the storyline. This room did not deliver on that for me. The set was stunning, I was absolutely immersed, but the jump-scares were contrived and the storyline just didn’t do it for me.

Absolutely fantastic. The set was by far the most elaborate that we have ever played. Good puzzles that were both original and challenging. Recommend fully, this is hands down the best escape room experience we have had to do (in 50+ rooms). We are going to have to travel back to do the rest!