S’porean man goes to escape room with colleagues & sees everyone's wild side

Like many people, I have a focus mode and leisure mode.

According to my deskmate Julia, who likes to ask me random questions to relieve stress, I'm in "like 100 per cent focus mode" at work and often tune her out with monosyllabic answers.

And even though my colleague is known to be pretty chaotic at work (which I won’t elaborate on why), she insisted that if she was playing a game, it would be totally game face on.

"I'm very serious when it comes to escape rooms" were her exact words.

Since I was highly sceptical of that, I decided to test it out by taking on an escape room with Julia as a teammate.

I figured it would be a good team-bonding activity, and perhaps I could get to know her better too.

Rounding out our unlikely team were two other colleagues: Travis, who "loves escape rooms", and Khine Zin, who's never tried an escape room before.

Was I confident? Not really. But in any case, I figured it would probably be good for some laughs.

Museum of Humankind

Our escape room of choice was Escape @ Science Centre, which opened earlier this year and offers three different STEM-themed rooms. We decided to try two of them.

We started off with the Museum of Humankind, a room styled after a dystopian future where we play the role of the last humans on Earth, kept in a special exhibit by aliens who have taken over the planet.

To add to the realism, we started off as pairs trapped in adjacent glass capsules.

In the dim lighting, we turned to face each other, and Julia screamed. That was probably the scariest thing that happened in this room.

Thankfully, we soon found some clues around the area, and I can still remember the awesome sense of relief as we got out of the confined space.

Despite the innocent retro aesthetic, however, it was a tough puzzle to crack.

I was impressed by how Travis bossed it and helped to crystallise our random observations and ideas into solutions we could actually try.

However, all that brainwork, and the fact that we spent a bit too long on that room, seemed to have taken a toll on him.

As we were working on a clue in the next room, he said, "We're running out of time!" and started frantically scooping balls out of a ball pit, making random screeching sounds as he did so.

To his dismay, Julia accidentally fell and knocked some balls back in. We all laughed.

Unfortunately, I think she and Khine Zin were still more useful than I was at this point, as I had mentally checked out for a bit.

Case in point:

The rest of the scenario was completed in some mad rush, and with generous amounts of hints from the game admin.

One down.

Dr. X

Our journey through the next room started out in a more foreboding fashion.

Dr. X, which has mild horror elements, is tied together by a simple narrative — you are rescuing your friend from a mad scientist's laboratory, where he has lured innocents to study the effects of fear on the human brain.

The catch is that one of you takes on the role of the friend, and will be separated from the rest until they get rescued.

After being volunteered volunteering to be the damsel in distress, I was ushered to a small white-walled room which would be my home for the next hour.

Goodbyes were abrupt.

"What's that behind you?" was Julia's parting shot before the door shut. Awesome.

The next hour looked like it was a blast for my colleagues.

They got to mess around in the room, and snapped some nice shots of themselves having fun.

They also got to watch me slowly go insane, through monitors that displayed my movements in the room.

Did I feel like I was being watched? Not at all.

But was it entertaining for them? Definitely.

Thankfully, my prison provided me with some means to communicate with them, and it felt empowering to be able to give them clues to progress through the laboratory.

But still, one hour is a long time.

By the time I heard someone calling my name, I think I must have been a bit delirious.

I had never been so happy to see my colleagues' faces.

Even Julia.

My colleagues' thoughts on the experience

Here is what my colleagues had to say about the escape room experience:

Travis liked the effects in the Museum of Humanity room, and the satisfaction of a loud thud or lights going on and off when we managed to reach a solution together.

He had high praise for us:

"There were many moments where my colleagues managed to understand the clues and deduce the solution to the puzzle in ways that I wouldn’t have even thought about. That makes me realise that they are seriously smart."

And also for Julia:

"I have also realised that it’s very easy to scare Julia because she gets startled by almost everything that happens suddenly."

Khine Zin said her first experience of an escape room did not disappoint, and the cool mechanics reminded her of her favourite Korean show "The Great Escape".

She also felt it made for a great team bonding activity:

"I think escape rooms are one of the best ways to bond with colleagues — where else would I have seen an unhinged Travis throwing balls around? Also learned that all of us ain’t quitters, we persevered to complete both rooms despite how tired we were."

Meanwhile, Julia, a self-professed fan of horror movies, enjoyed the mild horror elements in Dr. X, as she found herself genuinely scared at times.

Not surprising.

But what did she learn about us as colleagues?

"I might actually be able to rely on them if we’re ever in danger. Just kidding, probably not."

Some things never change.

Was a fun experience with colleagues

And for myself, what did I take away from the experience of completing an escape room with colleagues?

It was the unbridled joy after solving seemingly impossible challenges together.

Getting a leg cramp after squatting or kneeling too much (yes, we old), and getting advice from Travis on how to fix it.

Realising that Julia was honestly a pretty good teammate, no matter how annoying she might seem at work.

Laughing at the strangeness of certain solutions we had to come up with.

And the little moments of madness, which showed me that my colleagues — despite the mode we show at work — are all humans, and honestly a good mix of weird and cool at that.

In short, it was really fun.

First escape room at the Science Centre

If you're interested in trying the escape rooms at the Science Centre — with suitably unhinged colleagues or your own preferred teammates — you can find out more at their website.

The rooms available are: Museum of Humankind, Shangri-La and Dr. X.

They are recommended for ages 13 and above, with a recommended group size of four. Each session can take up to eight persons.

Children between four and 12 are allowed to join, provided they have a valid ticket and are accompanied by a paying adult.

Participants are also advised to wear covered flat shoes and pants for the rooms.

Tickets for the individual rooms are sold separately, and range from S$25 to S$30 per person for a one-hour session.

Tickets can be booked via this link.

You can also get a 10 per cent discount when booking six tickets or more for the same room.

And for Mothership readers, you can claim an additional 5 per cent off by keying in the promo code ESCMOTHERSHIP5OFF when buying tickets.

Address: 15 Science Centre Rd, Singapore 609081

Operating hours:

Thur to Sun & Public Holidays: 10am to 10pm

Mon to Wed (Gazetted School Holidays): 10am to 5pm

This sponsored article by Singapore Science Centre made this writer realise that his colleagues are honestly pretty cool.

Top image by Daniel Seow.