Escape Hunt Lakeside - "Escape the Wild West"

Updated: Apr 23

LOCATION:  Essex, United Kingdom

Photo above is property of Escape Hunt

📝 ETR DECODER

🔑 GAME: Escape the Wild West
📅 DATE PLAYED: November 16, 2021
🎬 GENRE: Adventure
🧠 DIFFICULTY (Based on 2 ppl): 6/10
👥 TOTAL # OF PLAYERS: 2-6 ppl
🕒 LENGTH OF TIME: 60 Mins.
💰 PRICE: £22-28/ pp (pending on the group size), student/over 60+ disc available
☎️ BOOKING TYPE: Private
🔓 ESCAPED/ COMPLETED?: Yes

📖 THE STORY

Head to the old Wild West to the frontier town of East Victoria to celebrate with them on their discovery of gold! Bad news is that word of the gold has got to the Bill French Gang who are on the way to take ownership of the gold and kill everyone in the town. It is your task to get that gold and get safely out of town. There is a rusty old locomotive that hasn’t worked in years but you can head on up and move on out by getting it up and running then you have a great means of escaping this town richer than you went in, let’s get going “yee-haw!”

Video above is property of Escape Hunt

🎯 HIT THE BULLSEYE

Lovely look and design to add to the feel to the room. All the puzzles were linked to the theme and some had some lovely quirky twists to them. There are specific puzzles that have to be done and others that are optional depending on how much gold you want to take and how fast you want to get out of town. This means the number of puzzles/games you play could be reduced if you start to run short of time. We needed a couple of nudges for those tumbleweed moments where silly ideas of what to do next run out and silence falls. Our host was very good at getting us to giddy up and get back on the right path.
Most of the props were authentic and felt good quality (a couple of notes needed some love as they were on paper and one was already torn before I accidentally ripped it in half - sorry!).
It’s not a linear room, there is plenty for everyone to get involved with. I really liked the puzzles and games, they weren’t too challenging but were a lot of fun.
I do love that they provide props for your victory photo and our Games Host was very obliging in taking the pics of us, these were done on our own phones standing in front of the branded sign (they don’t take their own pics for their social media).

🧩 MISSED THE MARK

Due to the room being within Boom Bar and a group of people having a lot of fun axe throwing, it made it hard to hear the opening story which was given over an audio feed within the room which was describing what our mission was.
There was no clock in the room but we did get 10min updates from the sheriff and a 5 min one as the end approached that added to the need to the urgency to get out. We did have a ‘is that the end?’ moment as we weren’t quite sure - we are clearly better cowboys than we think we are!

🏹 TAKE A SHOT?

Overall we enjoyed the ride and had a rootin' tootin' good time. I darn well recommend giving the room a go, it ain't that hard and would be perfect for more of a novice escape roomer, if you are bringing your kinfolk or first timers. The puzzles ain't too complicated, but if you chose a certain path you could potentially be out of there faster than fallin’ off a bucking bronco, but due to the fun elements of certain puzzles there is no way you’d not give them a bash. Good luck cowboys, git ‘er done!

ℹ️ ADDITIONAL INFO

Escape Hunt Lakeside is based within the Lakeside shopping centre so there is plenty of free car parking available. Currently, they have 3 traditional escape rooms at this venue as well as a few VR experiences.
Lakeside Shopping Centre has a direct link to Chafford Hundred railway station where c2c trains travel from London Fenchurch Street via Upminster and West Ham or towards Southend Central via Grays and Stanford-le-Hope. Buses include: 370, 372, X80.
Escape Hunt is located within Boom Bar which is a games venue (axe throwing, darts, pool, shuffleboard etc). The Escape Hunt part of the venue has its own waiting area and alcoholic and soft drinks can be ordered through your games host or from the bar within Boom Bar - there was a list with a couple of themed cocktails available too which was a nice touch.
Accessibility - unfortunately this venue isn’t wheelchair accessible.

Photos above are property of ESCAPETHEROOMers

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Disclosure: We thank Escape Hunt Lakeside for comping our tickets for this game. Although complimentary admission was generously provided, it does not impact our opinion on the review whatsoever.