Month: November 2015

HAUNT – 13th Gate – LA 2015

13th GATE

5 stars

This season I’ve been to 20 haunts including Universal Horror Nights, Knotts Scary Farm, 6 Flags, House of Shock, 13th Floor and this is the best.

I should mention I enjoy haunts, but don’t really scare easy. Heck if I jump twice from boo scares in a haunt the actors did an amazing job. With that said, my husband couldn’t believe his eyes when I fell backward while legitimately screaming in Necropolis. I was also genuinely uneasy around one character in particular in Necropolis too. (Thanks a lot Dr. Who!!!!) There was one other incredibly patient and dedicated actor that “got me” when I thought he was an animatronic and he sent me jumping on my way. This may not sound like a big deal to the average person, but if you knew me you’d understand what an amazing job these actors did as well as the brilliance of the maze design ad application. It’s incredible!

Now onto The 13th Gate haunt in the building across the street from Necropolis.
The best word to describe it, “WOW!”
The attention to detail is insane!!! LIVE rodents and snakes…are you kidding me!?!? Amazing!!! The actors are great. The sets are better than Universal Studios Hollywood Horror Nights and that’s a freaking movie studio! The 13th Gate is simply mind blowing. There’s one scene that thrilled me beyond anything I could imagine. It felt like I had actually stepped into my favorite horror movie (technically the remake) and I couldn’t find my boomstick anywhere. I don’t want to give too much away, but the fairy tales were another favorite for me. Oh and London. Oh and the ice. Oh and…it’s time for you to stop reading this and go buy your own tickets so you can experience it yourself.

This event is not to be missed. We came all the way from California and were thoroughly impressed!

ESCAPE ROOMS- 13th Gate – Louisiana 

13th GATE ESCAPE

I’ve played a lot of escape games nationwide and these two are the best. I played both The Collector & Death Row. You need to play these rooms in a group because of the brilliant team building puzzles that you will encounter…especially The Collector.

Why is 13th Gate Escape the best?

Not only are the puzzles logical, thought provoking, creative and unique, they fit into the theme of each room organically. The rooms are beautifully designed. The stories are wonderfully thought out and really start your adventure into these incredibly emmersive experiences. The Collector is especially emmersive in a way I’ve never experienced before. The detail is unbelievabe using more senses than any room I’ve ever done. These rooms use technology in wonderful ways with exciting aha moments and squeals around every turn. They are also the first company I’ve seen use such a user friendly, non-intrusive hint system. A lot of time and heart went into these rooms and you can feel the passion when you meet the owner and incredible staff. Their pictures should be the first thing you see when you look up “customer service” on Wikipedia.

Overall 13th Gate Escape has it figured out and really creates unique immersive experiences that are not to be missed. I wish they would open up a location on the west coast so I don’t have to travel 1,800 miles to play the next room they open…but I will…because they are THAT GOOD!

*We escaped Death Row in time, but not The Collector.

ESCAPE ROOMS  – The Basement – California 

THE BASEMENT

This is the best horror themed Escape Game in the Los Angeles area.

Totally AWESOME!!!! We didn’t make it out of the Basement, but it was super fun and really frustrating at times…exactly like an escape experience should be.  The staff is super cool too.  We loved it!!!

So my husband and I escaped the BOILER ROOM with 2 friends.  We are all escape room junkies.
The boiler room tells the story incredibly well…that’s the thing this company does better than most other escape game companies.
It’s a beautifully decorated/themed room.  It’s linear so the whole team works on one thing at a time.  If you are severely claustrophobic this may not be fun for you. It really didn’t have enough puzzles and wasn’t particularly challenging as far as actually figuring out the answers…some were simple to figure out but still challenging to complete. However, we’ve done a lot of escape rooms. This would be much more difficult if we had not done so many games and seen how some of the puzzles work before.
We escaped the BOILER ROOM in less than 20 minutes.

My husband and I played the new Study game that recently opened at this location. It’s the third game in the story. We enjoyed it. We got out just in the knick of time. I felt it was quite different than the other two games in the way you must think to solve the puzzles. I enjoyed the actor/character in this game even more than the others. I really enjoyed the physicality and creativity of the puzzles. However my husband had an even better experience than I did because of the choices we made in who did what. I recommend starting at the beginning with the Basement game and going in order to the Boiler Room then Study.

ESCAPE ROOMS- Exit Game – California 

EXIT GAME

  
Incredibly well done escape games. Especially awesome for people that love escape rooms!!! Beautifully themed and great puzzles. I was totally puzzled a few times. Highly recommend!!! My husband and I tried to get out of the Sorcerer themed room twice and still didn’t succeed but we had fun trying. I would say to have a minimum of 4 people in your group for that room. (This comes from the girl that has done and escaped from other escape games alone, normally I would say do rooms with only 2 people.) The Alien room is fun, note that there is crawling involved. My husband and I escaped from the jail themed room. It would’ve been easier in one section if we had an extra person or two, but it’s not impossible with only two people.

Overall this company is one of my favorites.

ESCAPE ROOMS- PanIQ Room – California 

PANIQ ROOM

I had a fun time in the Bunker escape room in Los Angeles. It was just the two of us and we have done other live escape rooms. The puzzles were good.  We had a couple of technical difficulties.  Thank goodness for the walkie talkie to ask for hints…it saved us a couple of times when we had technical difficulties.  I say if you are sure you are right or you think something seems off, call on the walkie and save valuable time.

The Asylum room in Los Angeles is dark and has a lot of random props that you may or may not need. The set design is very detailed and it’s quite an immersive experience.
I personally prefer the Bunker over the Asylum.

The last PanIQ Room we played was in San Diego for the Cemetery. That game had much more simple puzzles, however we have done several games at this point so we’ve seen a lot of the different styles of puzzles before. This one was much more finding and doing physical challenge type puzzles rather than solving math or riddles. It’s a great beginner room. I sent a group of friends there and they are newbies that really enjoyed it.

UPDATE: The San Diego location is now closed.

INTERVIEW

ESCAPE ROOMS – X Room – California 

X ROOM

We did the Wonderland escape room experience and really enjoyed the creativity and fun atmosphere of the rooms & puzzles.
The puzzles were much more complicated than some of the games I have played elsewhere and really make you think outside the box.  This isn’t your tear apart the room searching for “stuff” kind of escape room like The Basement, but more along the lines of Exit Game puzzle solving.
The staff is very friendly.  They have a cool feature that I’ve never seen before where you find tokens in your game.  The space is quite large and they have parking available for free in the complex.We did the new VIP Victorian Mansion game  yesterday.  It’s really cool!!!  It is well decorated and the puzzles are really unique from any other escape game company I’ve done so far.  Highly recommend.
We also did Curse of the Mummy yesterday.  It’s a beautifully decorated room and awesome concept, but I had a harder time with the puzzles in this one than usual even after hints.
I strongly recommend that first time players start with “Court is in Session” as their first XRoom Game.
(The only one I have left to do here is Escape the Prison.)

*Rumor has it this location may have closed.

ESCAPE ROOMS- Enigma – California 

ENIGMA

If you can only do one escape room in LA…this is the one. Do the apartment themed room. It’s not scary, so it’s perfect for all ages.
This is the best puzzle, environment, technology infused combination of an escape room I have yet to encounter.  The puzzles are difficult, but logical and certainly not impossible.  The environment and story are wonderful.  They use technology & effects I had yet to encounter in an escape maze.  It’s a must experience!!! In the apartment  I was actually to stressed to make a decision by the end and told my husband that he had to do it and I trusted his judgement.  LOL

DO BOTH!!!!

  • Enigma Escape Rooms - Los Angeles, CA, United States. We LOVE Enigma!!!! The apartment is AMAZING!!!

    We LOVE Enigma!!!! The apartment is AMAZING!!!

ESCAPE ROOMS – Room Escape LA – California 

ROOM ESCAPE LA

We did the bank escape room. It’s great.  Jo our game master is awesome.  The rooms are designed beautifully.  They feel like a set from a movie.  The puzzles were just a little too difficult for my husband & I to fully complete on our own…we had a lot of help (hints).  It was fun and we stole the diamonds. The bank has multiple rooms. Your goal is to break in and steal the diamonds, slightly different than the typical escape game. They make you think using different types of logic/thought processes on each puzzle. That is a major plus to this game. I highly recommend this company.

ESCAPE ROOMS- Captured LA – California 

CAPTURED LA

There is a great combination of atmosphere and puzzles in the escape room. The story is good and helps set the stage for the experience.  We did pretty well for just the two of us, but didn’t escape.  The staff is great, too. It’s not as high tech as some of the other games I’ve played. I think they are in a different location than when we did it, so the game may be different now. I like that they make a little “trailer” of your adventure.

  • Captured LA - Los Angeles, CA, United States. Fun!

ESCAPE ROOMS  – Escape Room LA – California 

ESCAPE ROOM LA 

We did the cavern escape game during beta-testing and the group we were put together with was much much too large. The communication was lacking among a couple of players that arrived late and were allowed to jump in because we hadn’t left the briefing area at the beginning yet, but we could tell by the disrespect at the beginning they’d be tough to deal with and they were. Unfortunately the group you are with dictates the level of fun in this type of game. Game pieces went missing due to these same players ripping things up and moving them. Past that bad experience, if it were based on that I’d give only 1 star…the game itself is well decorated. The puzzles were often time consuming, but not especially logic based compared to the other games I’ve played. My least favorite puzzle in the room was based on checking a certain item in the room multiple times and if you don’t, you won’t be able to solve it. My other large complaint was the first part of the game you are required to stay behind yellow tape and not cross it until the staff member moves it even though you can see the rest of the room. You aren’t allowed to work on the other puzzles until the first one is solved…except only a few people are able to work on one puzzle at a time.