Room Escape Artist

Tomb of Anubis is one of the best games in the Baton Rouge area. Here are our other recommendations for great escape rooms around New Orleans/Baton Rouge.

Anubis: God of the afterlife and dramatic reveals.

Location: Baton Rouge, LA

Date played: October 6, 2017

Team size: 4-8; we recommend 5-6

Duration: 60 minutes

Price: $28 per ticket

Story & setting

While following a boring guide through the Pyramids of Giza, we decided that it would be more fun to explore on our own… until we triggered a trap and discovered the corpse of another would-be explorer. There was no going back, only through. Could we find our way out of the Tomb of Anubis?

Tomb of Anubis was huge. The scale of this escape room was dumbfounding, as was the level of detail. I don’t think it’s a stretch to call the set of Tomb of Anubis a work of art. From sand to sandstone, to carvings and statues, no detail was too small to ignore.

Puzzles

To solve the puzzles, we manipulated the gorgeous and expansive set pieces inside Tomb of Anubis.

To understand the puzzles, we pored over a small journal of diagrams and prose that contained the clue-structure. 13th Gate Escape divorced cluing from the environment.

While there was a lot of adventure, there were some strikingly challenging puzzles in Tomb of Anubis.

Standouts

When Tomb of Anubis revealed its inner depths, we were shocked. We’d never seen a space transform on such a scale. It was the most dramatic and exciting reveal we’d experienced in an escape room to date.

We were Indiana Jones exploring this tomb. The set reacted to us. On multiple occasions, the tomb revealed surprises. It was intense. It was badass.

Tomb of Anubis was a challenging puzzle game. There were a lot of complex puzzles to work through in the space. They involved beautiful props and the set itself.

We enjoyed one transition space that was a physically interactive puzzle, an elegant link to a previous solve, and a dramatic set interaction all rolled up into one. It was incredible to traverse.

Shortcomings

Inside the Tomb of Anubis, we found a journal that functioned as a run book for the puzzles. It lead us through the different tasks inside the tomb, one by one. We focused on this one prop – and struggled against an unclear font and little diagrams – rather than on the much more impressive space around us. We would have loved to have been able to spend this escape room 100% engaged with the amazing gamespace.

Because much of the clue structure was in the journal, the puzzles were less interconnected and the experience less fluid.

Our gamemaster warned us not to place items on a very inviting surface, so as to not compromise gameplay, but this intervention put a damper on a late-game reveal. If 13th Gate Escape made a small adjustment to the set piece, they’d enhance the drama of that one moment by removing the need for gamemaster intervention. It would be worth it.

All of 13th Gate Escape’s rooms use Escape Room Boss for automated hints. If you’re curious about the details, feel free to read this post on the subject. Beyond that I’ll say that 13th Gate’s gamemasters were fantastic and I wish that they had more direct control over the experience.

Should I play 13th Gate Escape’s Tomb of Anubis?

Tomb of Anubis had one of the most impressive escape room sets that we’ve ever seen. It was enormous, detailed, and interactive. When it changed, oh wow, did it change. It was breathtaking.

I only wish that I hadn’t spent so much of my time in Tomb of Anubis with my head in a little journal.

If you like escape rooms that transport you to incredible places you can’t see in real life, look no further than Tomb of Anubis.

Know too that Tomb of Anubis is no slouch of a puzzle game. Bring a larger team. Cooperate. Share the journals and the set piece interaction. You’ll have to puzzle hard to see this one all the way through.

The Egyptians did the afterlife right.

Book your hour with 13th Gate Escape’s Tomb of Anubis, and tell them that the Room Escape Artist sent you.

Full disclosure: 13th Gate Escape comped our tickets for this game.