Photos provided by Lockdown SG
Company: Lockdown SG
Games: Lost Treasure of Sarang Rimau
Country: Singapore 🇸🇬
Language: English
Type of Game: Digital Puzzle Hunt with GM 💻
Genre: Adventure
Date Played: 2/11/2021
Difficulty (based on 4 players): 6.5/10
Size of Team: Min 4 Devices
Time: 60 Minutes
Price: $20 per device
🆃🅷🅴 🆂🆃🅾🆁🆈
It's a strange discovery but just before you're about to be evacuated with the rest of your troop, you saw an old box buried near a cannon. It looked like it could be a pirate's treasure left behind from 1885! You only have one hour to retrieve the treasure before your comrades leave you behind...
🆃🅷🅴 🅶🅰🅼🅴 🅿🅻🅰🆈
Our game master greeted us over Zoom. He informed us that we'll need to take a tutorial of the game's platform before we could start the game and that's going to take about 20 minutes. Initially I thought I heard wrong but there was a lot of information to go through. You'll be provided with a virtual tour of a popular tourist site in Singapore. This virtual tour was used for the game but also used as a 3D tour for another puzzle hunt if you were to visit the location in person. We found that to be quite confusing as there were elements on there that would still be clickable from the tourist game.
There was also an interactive whiteboard that we had to use together as a team. This was the first time we've used this program. It's similar to the "annotate" on Zoom but you're able to do much more with certain interactive components of the puzzles (like click and drag and overlay). Pay close attention to the tutorial as you'll need to know how to use these options as part of the puzzle solving tools for the game play later. Once we were in the game space, the communication was through the whiteboard's chat function. The GM merely served as hint giver and solution checker. If you want to check your answer, make sure to either text it to him or write it on the whiteboard so he can confirm.
🆃🅷🅴 🅿🆄🆉🆉🅻🅴🆂
This game was more like a virtual treasure hunt rather than an escape game. Your first objective is to find the necessary information in the virtual tour. Once you have the information, see how you'll be able to incorporate that into the puzzles on the whiteboard. It was helpful for the entire team to be able to see what each other's progress was since if one player finished their puzzle, they could help the others.
There were essentially 4 puzzles with a meta puzzle at the end in this entire game. Since a lot of the puzzles involved drawing in some aspects, you'll need to be very comfortable with the whiteboard tools. Moreover, it would help if you have a strong sense of direction and could remember maps well. I was all over the place in the virtual park while Brandon seemed to be able to find everything quite easily. The final puzzle also needed you to be very observant. Good thing one of our players was able to assist with that. One other puzzle confused as we needed something information from a certain component in the tutorial of the game but I closed that window when we started the game after asking the GM. You wouldn't be able to get it back so make sure you leave everything open. It was definitely a team effort to be able to finish the game with just 1 minute and 5 seconds left.
🅲🅻🅾🆂🅸🅽🅶 🆃🅷🅾🆄🅶🅷🆃🆂
I have mixed feelings about this game. I love seeing historical sites so having incorporated a virtual tour was a nice touch to add to the storyline. I'm not a fan of the whiteboard interface. I also did not enjoy the fact that we had to use so much of "search and find" elements in the virtual 360. You'll definitely need to use the GM for hints at least once in this game. If you're unable to find certain items and time was running out, then you're out of luck. Some elements of the game doesn't really depend on if you can solve puzzles or not. I would much rather enjoy this game in person like a puzzle hunt. The one thing that I did like was the teamwork element of the game. Seeing how the teammates were able to draw and add on to each other's work on the whiteboard was quite amazing, Especially that final puzzle that somehow connected everything together!
𝔼𝕊ℂ𝔸ℙ𝔼𝕋ℍ𝔼ℝ𝕆𝕆𝕄𝕖𝕣𝕤❜ ℙ.𝕀.𝕤❜ 𝕋𝕙𝕠𝕦𝕘𝕙𝕥𝕤
CharLee B.
This multi-platform adventure took virtual escape games to a new level. With puzzles on a “whiteboard” site, and clues on a virtual tour through a real-life exhibit, this innovative journey kept me intrigued with every click. Half of the challenge is figuring out the puzzles and how to solve them, the other half is navigating your way through a “street view” version of Fort Siloso. It was so interesting that I even forgot I was learning a little bit of history! The game is a little longer than shown because of the tutorial on the two sites that lasted about 20 minutes. The puzzles were definitely challenging and the hints from the host were definitely helpful. It was clear that this game took a lot of effort in the making of it and it paid off well.
Pros:
- Innovative digital platform
- Felt like a real adventure
- Poses a good challenge
- Great host
Cons:
- Will put your computer and computer skills to the test
- Extremely difficult if you’re bad with directions
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Evan P.
This is a tough one! I usually go for more whimsical games that have a magical or sci fi element. Sarang Rimau is a real historic site in Singapore, and this is very much a realist storyline. Gameplay requires two windows open in addition to Zoom: one is a digital white board on which teams can write notes and solve some of the puzzles. The other is a virtual, self-guided tour of the Sarang Rimau military base. Both of these gameplay windows are nifty, but it’s time consuming and a bit clunky to keep switching back and forth.
I found the virtual tour difficult to navigate. It’s not as intuitive or precise as I would like, and I found myself spending a lot of time just trying to get from here to there. The puzzles themselves are clever, and my team did win just in time, but I felt pretty useless for most of the time. I think with some bugs worked out, this could be a very fun game for those who enjoy history and realism. It wasn’t for me.
*** We regret to inform this game is no longer available for booking but check out other games on their website***
Disclosure: We thank Lockdown SG for comping our tickets for this game. Although a complimentary experience was generously provided, it does not impact our opinion on the review whatsoever.
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