The Asylum

Rating: 4/5 - Their scariest room with a fully immersive set Pros: ➕ Lots of tense moments and minor jump scares. ➕ The narrative was enjoyable and I liked how the hints were delivered via a character (pre-recorded audio) involved with the story. ➕ The set felt fairly large with multiple spaces to discover and explore. ➕ Everything was decorated appropriately grimy and gross, floor to ceiling. The set was fully immersive and very high quality. ➕ Audio and lighting effects added to the immersion. ➕ Mix of padlocks and tech. ➕ Most of the props looked VERY realistic. ➕ I enjoyed the puzzles in this more than some of their other games. ➕ Set was dark, but everyone got their own flashlight on a lanyard. ➕ GM was friendly and helpful. Room for improvement: ➖ I wish they incorporated the GM as an actor to ramp up the immersion and scare level. ➖ No really big "wow" moments like some of their other rooms. The set also wasn't as impressive or unique since asylum themes are pretty common nowadays. We played as a team of 5 enthusiasts and it took us almost the full hour. Make sure you are not afraid to ask for hints, also tell the game master to nudge you when you get behind. Very playable as a team of 4, I would say it's a moderate challenge. 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👍

I truly felt like I was inside a mental institution, the atmosphere was incredibly creepy. The puzzles weren’t particularly difficult, but the dim lighting made them more challenging than they needed to be. Adding a live actor for immersion would have easily made this one of my top haunted escape rooms

Our group liked this game but it really wasn't the quality I've grown to expect from 13th Gate. The puzzles were a little disjointed and sometimes felt like they were just tossed in to fill time. This is definitely a room for more than 4 people and I would say groups of 6-8 are more suited to the room. It is really a big space which is well utilized and the theme carries throughout but we had trouble with one of the puzzles (don't want to spoil it for others) and we spent a lot of time trying to figure it out. The colors were really subtle and the lighting was very low. Also I put my hand into a hole in the wall to pull something out and something fell on my hand and it hurt. Kind of an unpleasant surprise for me.

Excellent room. We've heard people say 13th Gate is known more for their over the top set design and not as much for the puzzle quality, we totally disagree. GREAT puzzle quality and of course fantastic set design and immersion. A++

This was the best Escape room ! Quite frightening! Keegan helped us through to make it out in time !

Absolutely dripping with atmosphere. Normally not a fan of horror rooms, but this is supremely well done. Highly highly recommended

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.