Pastish
Location: Crawley, England
Date Played: January 9, 2023
Team size: 2-8; we recommend 4-5
Duration: 60 minutes
Price: ranging from £64 per group to £192 per group depending on the number of players and the day of the week
Ticketing: Private
Accessibility Consideration: There are a lot of stairs within the experience.
Emergency Exit Rating: [A+] No Lock
Physical Restraints: [A+] No Physical Restraints
REA Reaction
Dodge City just kept on going. In a good way. We might have started in small cells, but soon we had the run of the place.
Tulleys Escape Rooms & Games built a phenomenal set for this escape room. Each time we opened up a new space, our eyes were drawn to a new interactive set piece. These were the highlights of the game. Tulleys also used vertical space exceptionally well, providing us with a new vantage point that made an interaction exciting all over again.
As much as we enjoyed the set, we didn’t really get a 2127 vibe from it. It felt more like the Old West with some electronic locks than the Old West of the future. We love thematic mashups and wanted the future to be a more prominent part of the experience.
If you’re heading to Tulleys, you’ll probably want to play more than one escape room. Crawley is accessible from London by train, but Tulleys is off the beaten path. The games at Tulleys all have impressive sets, but different gameplay styles. Play Mutiny for the smooth sailing gameplay, Spellcraft for the unusual staging, and Dodge City for the interactions.
Who is this for?
- Puzzle lovers
- Scenery snobs
- Any experience level
Why play?
- The expansive, beautiful set
- The big, nifty props and interactions that anchored different scenes
Story
Set in 2127 in the “Old” West, Dodge City started with us locked up in jail by the sheriff. We intended to escape and pull off the robbery we’d been dreaming of.
Setting
This was an expansive Old West town. It looked good and had technology peppered throughout.
Dodge City used the future setting to justify the presence of technology, but didn’t do anything especially meaningful with its inclusion.
Gameplay
Tulleys Escape Rooms & Games’ Dodge City was a standard escape room with a high level of difficulty. It had a split-team start.
Core gameplay revolved around searching, observing, making connections, solving puzzles, and interacting with some big props.
Analysis
➕ We started Dodge City locked in two separate jail cells. We loved the device for sending props between the groups. While it didn’t make a lot of narrative sense, it was pretty cool. And it was thematic.
➕ Dodge City was expansive. We loved how the set unfolded, with new areas opening up the deeper we got into the game. Tulleys used vertical space especially well, crafting interactions into every part of this set.
➖ We encountered some lazy puzzle design, for example, where numbers were written on objects, rather than finding more natural ways to clue connections. Also, the collection puzzles became excessive. Dodge City would have been just as explosive with a little less dynamite.
➕ It was the Wild West, and we weren’t going to escape without firing some shots. Our weapon aimed well and worked consistently. We’ve seen a lot of similar implementations misfire, but this one was spot on. It was fun every time it worked.
➖ Many of the padlocks were well worn and not well lit. It was frustrating to struggle with what should have been the reward for solving a puzzle.
➖ Keypads aren’t the future. These alone weren’t enough to convince us of the futuristic part of this futuristic Western theming. It was too light touch.
➕ A few large and interactive set pieces stole the show. One clawed our attention away from everything else.
➖ We were concerned to encounter water that didn’t appear to be chlorinated.
Tips For Visiting
- There is a parking lot.
- Although you can get an Uber to drop you off here, you won’t be able to get one to pick you up again after your game.
Book your hour with Tulleys Escape Rooms & Games’ Dodge City, and tell them that the Room Escape Artist sent you.
Disclosure: Tulleys Escape Rooms & Games provided media discounted tickets for this game.
