Puzzle and Escape rooms - An overview and review
Singapore is an incredible place and it picks up so many trends yearly that I just can't keep up with them. One of them happens to be these Escape rooms that seems to be sprouting up everywhere. What an original idea! I don't know if you have played these horror/mystery room games on your mobile phone before, but the trend literally takes these virtual rooms to real life. Yes you can solve a real life mystery-box room, and in fact, plenty of them, right here in Singapore.
So if you have read this Her World article, you would know there are plenty of rooms to try out here. There are movie themed rooms, such as Inception and Harry Potter, and there are also other quirky rooms such as museum rooms, horror themed rooms such as Resident Evil, and an Alice in Wonderland room.
Personally, I've been to two of the mystery room outfits - Trapped and Freeing SG - and my colleague has been to Xcape Singapore. So let me recount some of our experiences, and maybe you might like to try some of these puzzle rooms for yourself.
Trapped
This was the first puzzle room I tried, and I tried it with a bunch of my colleagues. The outfit was a quaint little shophouse at 42 Kandahar Street, near the Arab street precinct. Coincidentally, just a few doors down is the fabulous Rich & Good cake shop, specialising in gorgeous durian swiss rolls, but I digress.
There are only two rooms in this outfit - Alice in Wonderland, and Hostel. I went to the Hostel room without even knowing that Hostel is actually the title of a horror movie. The guide explained everything clearly and showed us what we could touch and what we couldn't. Also, he was nice enough to tell us we could even call for help more than three times (the recommended number). We were given a handheld phone to dial for help and a few small torches, masked with tape, and then led into the room, which was pitch black. Then he locked the door, and our one hour started there.
Firstly, the room was creepy. There was creepy music playing in the background, and when we shone the torches around, we could see red bloodied handwriting all over the walls. There were creepy pictures on the table, hanging on the walls, and a cell door that led into another room. The other room had a bunk bed with no mattress, and several gory props, such as severed arms and legs. There were also several items in the room, such as a map, a locked chest, a locked cupboard, and several other props. We were a bit lost, and didn't know what should we be unlocking first, so we called for help after 10 minutes of shining our torches around and scaring the hell out of everyone.
I must say, even though we called for help four times, we really enjoyed ourselves and had fun. The room was suitably creepy and when I was frustrated, I just picked up the axe (another prop) and pretended to be a mass murderer and scared the hell out of my colleagues. The puzzles were not very difficult to solve, but it really required some lateral thinking, which I think is good for expanding or stimulating our minds, it's a real brain exercise, but a sensory and enjoyable one. Plus the ambiance was just fantastic.
If you are worried about maths and academic challenges, don't worry, there are none of them. You don't really need anything beyond a six year old's understanding of words and numbers. But like I said, you really need to think out of the box. All in all, we really had an enjoyable time at Trapped, and were really happy that we managed to break out of the room only a minute late! Yes, the guide was sweet enough to give us just that little bit of extra time when he saw we were on the verge of solving the last puzzle!
Xcape Singapore
I didn't try this, but my colleague did. He picked the Resident Evil room, and he said although there was music piped in, it was so soft that he almost couldn't hear it. Honestly, I don't know why is Xcape so popular, because in his opinion, the customer service was crap.
There were 10 in his party, and he said no explanation was given, as they were all led into two different rooms (connected by a locked door) and then the game just started. They had no idea if they were supposed to play With or Against each other, and it was only later that they found out the first thing they had to do, is to unlock the door in between them, so that they could work together as a team. As they were promised a room made for 10 players, I thought it was a very unprofessional thing to do, not to explain the rules, and just lock them in.
Although, to save them from utter disgrace, he did say the room was intriguing enough, and they did have fun, although they couldn't really solve the room altogether (it was the toughest room in the series). Also, they called for help numerous times, but it seemed that the staff did not respond at certain times, and they had to wait for quite a while.
Considering it costs more than $200 for 10 people just to have an hour with the room, I think it's really unprofessional of the staff not to respond to calls for help.
However nice the rooms are, I don't think I will stop by this one.
Freeing SG
This is one of the latest escape room outfits and it's a branch from Hong Kong. It's located at the top (7th) floor of Bugis+ (previously known as Illuma). They really have quite a number of themed rooms, and if you want to read more about the rooms, check this piece out.
The room I tried was called The Painter's Murder. And my partner and I paired up with another random couple who selected the same time slot as us. What I liked about Freeing SG is that you can book the rooms and time slots you want online. And you don't have to pay for them. You just have to give them your name and booking details when you show up.
The ambiance and staff were really nice too, even though we only had 45 minutes and one chance to call for help. The guide led us to a small area near the room where we could put our belongings, and we could even take our mobiles phones in, although we were advised not to use them. Then he explained the storyline to us, and also gave us our roles, which were to sneak into the painter's studio and try to find evidence to prove a few theories. All in all, it made it exciting because we were given a role to play :)
The room was really well designed, and there were no areas we couldn't touch. It really looked authentic as there were canvasses, paintings, easels, wooden stools, brushes, palettes dry with paint scattered everywhere. Nothing seemed out of place, and the walls, floors and ceiling were scrawled with colourful paint and lines. Again, we were given torches as the room was dimly lit and it was supposed to be "night" since we were sneaking into the studio. It's a deliberate handicap but we didn't mind.
I overturned all the canvasses and still couldn't decipher the first clue, after 15 minutes, we decided to call for help and the response was immediate. When we were given a hint, we just wanted to smack ourselves in the heads. Like I said, it was so obvious but we just couldn't make the connection. Lateral thinking. A six year old could do it, but I suppose our rigid and boring academic indoctrination just didn't help. All we were taught in the Singapore education system is how to memorise model answers. I'm not surprised we couldn't even make the simplest connections with all the clues given.
As with the other rooms, there were a couple of red herrings in the Painter's studio, and my partner was so obsessed with one of them, that he even missed out on the clues we had uncovered. We didn't solve the room in the end, but our guide was nice enough to explain all the puzzles and how each one was solved at the end of the game. They were all so intriguing, fascinating and solvable, but I think we were just annoyed that we couldn't see it even when it's in our faces.
Altogether, I think Freeing SG is a very nice place to bring your friends to, or just to have some unconventional fun with your partner as opposed to the usual movie and dinner. What's good about this place, is that it's open till 12am. That means, well, if you have the time, you can even play a late night game, and hope that you don't have to share a room with anyone :)
That's all folks. Hope this gives you an insight to what these puzzle rooms are like!
*Update*
I have also tried the Phantom Joker recently and I must say it was quite high tech, and rather fun to crawl though mazes, lasers, and have magic doors opening in front of you when you trigger the right clues. The storylines are very confusing though, and I found out that this was because the "plot" was a direct translation from Mandarin. This explains the bad grammar and structure of the sentences. This will not detract from the experience however, and the clues are pretty solvable, although I felt that it was a little harder to solve compared to Freeing Sg and Trapped.
*update 2*
There is now a new escape room with a spooky twist. It's called Encounter. Read more about it here.
So if you have read this Her World article, you would know there are plenty of rooms to try out here. There are movie themed rooms, such as Inception and Harry Potter, and there are also other quirky rooms such as museum rooms, horror themed rooms such as Resident Evil, and an Alice in Wonderland room.
Personally, I've been to two of the mystery room outfits - Trapped and Freeing SG - and my colleague has been to Xcape Singapore. So let me recount some of our experiences, and maybe you might like to try some of these puzzle rooms for yourself.
Trapped
This was the first puzzle room I tried, and I tried it with a bunch of my colleagues. The outfit was a quaint little shophouse at 42 Kandahar Street, near the Arab street precinct. Coincidentally, just a few doors down is the fabulous Rich & Good cake shop, specialising in gorgeous durian swiss rolls, but I digress.
There are only two rooms in this outfit - Alice in Wonderland, and Hostel. I went to the Hostel room without even knowing that Hostel is actually the title of a horror movie. The guide explained everything clearly and showed us what we could touch and what we couldn't. Also, he was nice enough to tell us we could even call for help more than three times (the recommended number). We were given a handheld phone to dial for help and a few small torches, masked with tape, and then led into the room, which was pitch black. Then he locked the door, and our one hour started there.
Firstly, the room was creepy. There was creepy music playing in the background, and when we shone the torches around, we could see red bloodied handwriting all over the walls. There were creepy pictures on the table, hanging on the walls, and a cell door that led into another room. The other room had a bunk bed with no mattress, and several gory props, such as severed arms and legs. There were also several items in the room, such as a map, a locked chest, a locked cupboard, and several other props. We were a bit lost, and didn't know what should we be unlocking first, so we called for help after 10 minutes of shining our torches around and scaring the hell out of everyone.
I must say, even though we called for help four times, we really enjoyed ourselves and had fun. The room was suitably creepy and when I was frustrated, I just picked up the axe (another prop) and pretended to be a mass murderer and scared the hell out of my colleagues. The puzzles were not very difficult to solve, but it really required some lateral thinking, which I think is good for expanding or stimulating our minds, it's a real brain exercise, but a sensory and enjoyable one. Plus the ambiance was just fantastic.
If you are worried about maths and academic challenges, don't worry, there are none of them. You don't really need anything beyond a six year old's understanding of words and numbers. But like I said, you really need to think out of the box. All in all, we really had an enjoyable time at Trapped, and were really happy that we managed to break out of the room only a minute late! Yes, the guide was sweet enough to give us just that little bit of extra time when he saw we were on the verge of solving the last puzzle!
Xcape Singapore
I didn't try this, but my colleague did. He picked the Resident Evil room, and he said although there was music piped in, it was so soft that he almost couldn't hear it. Honestly, I don't know why is Xcape so popular, because in his opinion, the customer service was crap.
There were 10 in his party, and he said no explanation was given, as they were all led into two different rooms (connected by a locked door) and then the game just started. They had no idea if they were supposed to play With or Against each other, and it was only later that they found out the first thing they had to do, is to unlock the door in between them, so that they could work together as a team. As they were promised a room made for 10 players, I thought it was a very unprofessional thing to do, not to explain the rules, and just lock them in.
Although, to save them from utter disgrace, he did say the room was intriguing enough, and they did have fun, although they couldn't really solve the room altogether (it was the toughest room in the series). Also, they called for help numerous times, but it seemed that the staff did not respond at certain times, and they had to wait for quite a while.
Considering it costs more than $200 for 10 people just to have an hour with the room, I think it's really unprofessional of the staff not to respond to calls for help.
However nice the rooms are, I don't think I will stop by this one.
Freeing SG
This is one of the latest escape room outfits and it's a branch from Hong Kong. It's located at the top (7th) floor of Bugis+ (previously known as Illuma). They really have quite a number of themed rooms, and if you want to read more about the rooms, check this piece out.
The room I tried was called The Painter's Murder. And my partner and I paired up with another random couple who selected the same time slot as us. What I liked about Freeing SG is that you can book the rooms and time slots you want online. And you don't have to pay for them. You just have to give them your name and booking details when you show up.
The ambiance and staff were really nice too, even though we only had 45 minutes and one chance to call for help. The guide led us to a small area near the room where we could put our belongings, and we could even take our mobiles phones in, although we were advised not to use them. Then he explained the storyline to us, and also gave us our roles, which were to sneak into the painter's studio and try to find evidence to prove a few theories. All in all, it made it exciting because we were given a role to play :)
The room was really well designed, and there were no areas we couldn't touch. It really looked authentic as there were canvasses, paintings, easels, wooden stools, brushes, palettes dry with paint scattered everywhere. Nothing seemed out of place, and the walls, floors and ceiling were scrawled with colourful paint and lines. Again, we were given torches as the room was dimly lit and it was supposed to be "night" since we were sneaking into the studio. It's a deliberate handicap but we didn't mind.
I overturned all the canvasses and still couldn't decipher the first clue, after 15 minutes, we decided to call for help and the response was immediate. When we were given a hint, we just wanted to smack ourselves in the heads. Like I said, it was so obvious but we just couldn't make the connection. Lateral thinking. A six year old could do it, but I suppose our rigid and boring academic indoctrination just didn't help. All we were taught in the Singapore education system is how to memorise model answers. I'm not surprised we couldn't even make the simplest connections with all the clues given.
As with the other rooms, there were a couple of red herrings in the Painter's studio, and my partner was so obsessed with one of them, that he even missed out on the clues we had uncovered. We didn't solve the room in the end, but our guide was nice enough to explain all the puzzles and how each one was solved at the end of the game. They were all so intriguing, fascinating and solvable, but I think we were just annoyed that we couldn't see it even when it's in our faces.
Altogether, I think Freeing SG is a very nice place to bring your friends to, or just to have some unconventional fun with your partner as opposed to the usual movie and dinner. What's good about this place, is that it's open till 12am. That means, well, if you have the time, you can even play a late night game, and hope that you don't have to share a room with anyone :)
That's all folks. Hope this gives you an insight to what these puzzle rooms are like!
*Update*
I have also tried the Phantom Joker recently and I must say it was quite high tech, and rather fun to crawl though mazes, lasers, and have magic doors opening in front of you when you trigger the right clues. The storylines are very confusing though, and I found out that this was because the "plot" was a direct translation from Mandarin. This explains the bad grammar and structure of the sentences. This will not detract from the experience however, and the clues are pretty solvable, although I felt that it was a little harder to solve compared to Freeing Sg and Trapped.
*update 2*
There is now a new escape room with a spooky twist. It's called Encounter. Read more about it here.
I'm sorry to hear about your bad experience at Xcape. I have played so many escape games before, in my opinion, Xcape is the best provider by nature of their games. They do have a huge budget, so they do up the rooms very nicely instead.
ReplyDeleteI would recommend some of the other escape providers to you. Service is not too bad and the games are fun too.
BreakOut - www.breakout.com.sg
Rooms are nicely decorated and the staff are really friendly. The puzzles really make you think out of the box.
Phantom Joker - www.phantomjoker.com
They have some interesting electronic gadgets. Room décor is quite excellent.
Think Your Way Out - www.tywogames.com
Very clever puzzles, and require thinking skill.
Lockdown - www.lockdown.sg
Suitable for beginners
Hello, well Xcape was my colleague's experience. That's what I heard, but maybe I have to try it myself. Thanks for the suggestions. Will definitely give some of the above a try :)
DeleteYes I totally agree. Just went to xcape today and didn't really like their service. Took really long to respond and when they do, they just solve the current problem for us instead of giving us a hint. Their rooms are very well-designed though.
ReplyDeleteWent to Xcape to try their tomb raider. Reading from past comments, it is true that their staff are rude and not enthusiastic in all aspect. Having that perception, we thought the game should be our main focus point. Boy were we wrong. a couple of times, when the mechanism such as locks, doors couldn't work, we called for help as time was running out….took them 10 mins to come in….and when they did, they couldn't solve the fault. We asked for extension time as this was clearly management fault but NO extension was given. This totally puts us off…..wouldn't visit again even if they have the best room which to our opinion wasn't even on par with the rest of the providers in Singapore.
ReplyDeleteTrapped.sg is a Scam. Beware of it. Their service is very poor as they delayed my bookings in hope that I would miss it or forget about it. As I insisted and persisted on, they allowed my bookings to go through. However, on the day itself, my game time was delayed and reduced by half hour because of their poor service. When the game has resumed, the game was stuck because the supposedly hidden clue was not placed in the room at all! We had to call for help and to our horror, the hidden clue was then brought into the room and we were told to move to the next room. We barely had 15 minutes of the game play. This was a total scam!
ReplyDeleteTrapped.sg is a Scam. Beware of it. Their service is very poor as they delayed my bookings in hope that I would miss it or forget about it. As I insisted and persisted on, they allowed my bookings to go through. However, on the day itself, my game time was delayed and reduced by half hour because of their poor service. When the game has resumed, the game was stuck because the supposedly hidden clue was not placed in the room at all! We had to call for help and to our horror, the hidden clue was then brought into the room and we were told to move to the next room. We barely had 15 minutes of the game play. This was a total scam!
ReplyDeleteI personally enjoyed Xcape resident evil and chamber of secret. But some parts were illogical. The staff were ofcourse not on par with some of the other escape games. But their decoration of the games surpass their staff. Though yes, we too did find it annoying that it took the staff so long to come to give us a clue which ate into our time. But amogst all, when i weigh in puzzle and atmosphere, I enjoyed Trapped games like their Hunger games which is the latest one and their Friday the 13th game. They had props that moved and we were really frightened in the game. But the hunger game was not scary, though the decoration was as good as xcape.
ReplyDeleteAmogst all the escape games, i didnt enjoy Break out, as their room was hot and very small. Lockdown had a good game, Kidnapped, but their latest one Haunting was very dissapointing.