Month: February 2020

The Escape Artist – Santa vs Caishen

When: 12 Jan 2020
Team: Five people
Venue: Singapore Chinese Cultural Centre

After last year’s mini mooncake heist, it was great to see the comeback of full-fledged escape events at the SCCC, with the awesomely-themed Santa vs Caishen game. There was a cute intro scene — especially effective given that there were families with young children taking part — before teams dispersed, with each team having been assigned to one of four possible starting puzzle areas.

The use of parallel tracks was great for crowd control, but we also appreciated that it wasn’t strictly enforced, with teams free to split up if desired. Sadly, the coolest station (involving Augmented Reality) was also the most tedious, and soon lost its shine — something to calibrate in later games, maybe? Another puzzle stage allowed for teamwork and had a cute twist. There were two multi-puzzle stages with a good range of puzzle styles and difficulty, with one multi-layered puzzle being particularly clever.

Interestingly, there was no finale scene and no need for teams to regroup at the end. Although that could make the ending potentially a little anticlimactic, I think it was a good way to let teams enjoy the experience at their own pace — particularly important given the wide range of participants.

Result: Pledged our points to Caishen, who ended up being the victor on both days.

The Escape Artist – Santa vs Caishen
https://santavscaishen.peatix.com/
http://www.theescapeartist.sg/

Lockdown – True Lies: Secrets of the Gallery

When: 11 Jan 2020
Team: Five people
Venue: National Gallery

Held as part of the Light to Night Festival, this event aptly used coloured lights as a unifying puzzle element, from the early stages through to the endgame — a nice physical aspect that elevated the game beyond being paper-based. The need for puzzle-motivated map-reading added an interesting dimension to the experience, though the map itself could have been a little clearer…

The puzzles were a bit of a mixed bag, though I appreciated that most of them required some engagement with gallery exhibits. Indeed, the main reason that my team wasn’t fond of the metapuzzle was that — unlike the game up till then — it had no relation to the venue.

Still, even if the puzzle-based lead-up to the endgame was questionable, the physical lead-up was certainly impressive, making use of an architectural feature of the building that isn’t ordinarily open to the public. The little reward waiting at the end was pleasantly thematic, too, providing a solid conclusion to a somewhat hazy game narrative.

Result: Got to the treasure, and got to see parts of the National Gallery which we hadn’t seen before, which was cool!

Lockdown – True Lies: Secrets of the Gallery
https://www.nationalgallery.sg/see-do/programme-detail/215381580/true-lies-secrets-of-the-gallery
http://lockdown.sg/