13th Gate Escape, Louisiana's Ultimate Escape Games — Local services in Baton Rouge

Update The manager called us the next day after our experience and was incredibly kind/understanding and seemed like he was already addressing the issues with both set (broken objects, A/C) and one of our game masters attitude. He also issued a refund for our last room which we weren't looking for but was certainly appreciated. People make mistakes and no business is perfect but I can tell overall they care about the experience and their customers. This place definitely has the most potential and best sets of any facility we've been to. We did 5 rooms today and I'll break it down by room. Overall 4/5 rooms were a positive experience and 3 were wonderful. I'm torn on leaving one star but our last room was so bad it ruined our entire experience here unfortunately.

Room 1 was murderers row and it was awesome. Our GM Noah was friendly and super helpful, nudging us where we were getting hung up without being overly directive. The room itself was amazing! The puzzles were fun and flowed well. The theming was great. We had a group of 5 with 2 first timers and a young kid and it was fun for all. It was an easy enough room though and we made it out with around 10 to spare. Super fun room and probably in our top 5 overall.

Room 2 was agent 13. Amazing theming, puzzles were great and our GM was friendly and helpful though I don't remember their name. We had one piece of one puzzle left but barely missed time. Great experience overall!

Room 3 was tomb of Anubis. Our GM was SUPER good at directing us and helping despite the complexity, he was different from the first two but we loved him. The room itself was really tough and 2 of us have done a lot of rooms. Probably finished only 75/80 percent with plenty of help and could have used another 15 minutes. Maybe with a more experienced group we could have gotten it but it was challenging. Great theme, puzzles worked and made sense but there were a looot of them.

Room 4 was spellbound, good room though our GM wasn't helpful at all and I think despite asking for guidance on a couple small things they just didn't answer at all. I think they responded with a small hint one time the entire game. There was a blacklight component that was really arduous and the lights they had sucked. Luckily we didn't need much help and finished easily with 15 or so minutes left. Good room overall but lucky we didn't need much help. Also think the A/C was broken in this room, it was incredibly hot (like hotter than outside and it was summer) which detracted from the experience

Our last room and the one we were most looking forward to was cutthroat caverns. We had Ashley as a GM and it was the worst room experience we've had in 40 or so rooms. I literally felt like walking out. The theme and set was AMAZING but that's where the positives end. After the first couple rooms the puzzles just weren't great in my opinion. Very visually based in a dark area with dim flashlights. Multiple broken things (spyglass, canon), poor sequences and poor completion signaling. At one point we told our GM we knew what we were supposed to do but weren't physically capable of seeing the markings on some coins she literally started mocking us in a rude tone saying everyone else had solved it and asked if we just wanted her to solve everything for us. The next puzzle was another visual thing where it was incredibly hard to see and the best option for seeing it (one of two spyglasses) was broken. We started feeling incredibly frustrated and the GM needed to be asked repeatedly to give us guidance on anything. We gave up after that and spent the remainder of the time walking around enjoying the set visuals. Such amazing potential lost on puzzles that didn't flow well and were heavily reliant on eye sight, not to mention multiple broken set pieces. These things can be overcome with a GM looking to help you enjoy your experience but Ashley took the opposite approach and ruined our entire experience. I've never had a GM who acted like that. Completely unprofessional and no chance...

I have to say, this was one of the most disappointing escape room experiences I've ever had, and I've done over 100 games across the country. At 7:30AM this morning, we had scheduled a game for 12:00 PM but ran into car trouble on the way, so we called the venue at 10:30 AM to let them know we'd be running late, explaining we were coming from New Orleans. The guy who answered the phone was incredibly rude, offering no understanding or flexibility, even though there were multiple other sessions on the website. He essentially told us that if we weren’t there by 11:45 AM, we’d be out of luck.

We asked if it would be possible to push our reservation back or move to a later time, but he refused, offering no alternative solutions. Instead, he insisted that we’d have to pay for both our original booking and a new booking if we wanted to try again later. This, despite the fact that we were doing our best to make it despite unexpected car issues.

It was extremely frustrating, especially considering it took over an hour to get the car fixed. The lack of customer service and unwillingness to accommodate was honestly shocking. For anyone who values good service and flexibility, I would recommend skipping this place and finding somewhere else that treats its customers with more respect and understanding. This place values money over the customer experience.

I want to make it clear as well, the man kept highlighting his “transparency regarding booking.” However, this transparency doesn’t make room for any customer emergencies or unprecedented circumstances. We were told we need to give 24 hour notice to cancel/move a reservation. How can I give a 24 hours notice when we booked the room 4 hours before and ran into unexpected car troubles? Truly an awful place.

Edit: Response to owner:

I understand you are trying to clarify the situation, but from my perspective, there were still key issues that I feel weren’t addressed properly. When we asked if we could push the reservation back to make sure we could play the full hour, your response was that you couldn’t accommodate that due to other reservations, which is understandable. However, there were no alternatives offered, such as rescheduling to a different time or a different day, especially given the car trouble that caused our delay. Instead, the only options presented were either paying the full $150 for half an hour of gameplay or paying an additional $75 to book a new time later in the day ($225) in all. There was no talk about a 20% discount. This felt unfair because we were already paying for the full game, and yet we would only get part of the experience. At no point was there a suggestion of flexibility on your part, nor was there any real effort to show care for the customer. I also heard multiple times during our phone conversation that you were losing money, which gave the impression that the business’s financial concerns were prioritized over customer satisfaction. Considering the circumstances, I think there were other alternatives you could have offered, such as rescheduling without charging additional fees or finding a different way to accommodate us. Unfortunately, the response felt more like a focus on the rules and fees than on...

Just did the Agent 13 Escape Room. I am fairly experienced with escape rooms and have been to 7-10 rooms across the US.

Out of all of the escape room experiences I have had, this is one of the worst. However, to explain why this is, I have to go into a little bit of detail, as this escape room does do some things right. The effects of the room are some of the best I have seen, and the creators of the room thought long and hard about the atmosphere of the room. It surpasses expectations in that regard.

One of my main complaints about the room has to do with the number of jump scares and loud noises employed by the room. The best escape rooms that I have played not only take me out of my normal atmosphere but allow myself and my friends a good space in which to puzzle solve. The way that many parts of the environment manifested themselves in the game did not allow me to focus on puzzles at all. The room that I played says "Fear Factor: low" but a series of events led to me being on edge very quickly, which diminished my ability to assess the environment and solve puzzles, which in turn ruined my experience. I felt as though the environment was going to punish me for exploring with a jump scare, and this is not conducive to exploration and puzzle solving, at least for me. This is compounded by my overall dislike of loud noises, which is totally my fault, but based on the description on the website there is no way that I would have known this could be an issue.

I heavily dislike the clue system. It is necessary for these rooms to have clues being not tied to the game master due to the many loud noises which makes it difficult to hear them when they speak. In both of the escape rooms that I have disliked the most (this and one other), clues were both unlimited and not something that I could talk through with a guide. Although there is a penalty for getting clues, the ability to get unlimited clues and solutions either makes you not want to use clues at all (because you are penalized for every clue you use), which makes it less likely for you to complete the room since you don't use clues enough when you are stuck, or it makes you use too many clues if you only care about completing the room, regardless of your score at the end. In the latter case you aren't puzzle solving, and in the former you are far less likely to complete the room.

The puzzles for the room were not very inspired. A couple were memorable for the right reasons, and a couple were memorable for the wrong reasons. This wasn't something that impacted my overall rating.

In talking with our gamemaster, it became clear that the issues that I had with this room are not isolated, and that many of the rooms rely on jump scares and loud noises to create 'atmosphere.' Coupling this with the clue system, I feel that these kinds of escape rooms do not do a good job with the things that I look for in an escape room. If you are someone who likes haunted houses but want to do that in a slightly different setting, this escape room is probably the best experience you can ask for. If you like solving puzzles and riddles and you want to do that in a slightly different setting, you...