The last time I encountered Sight Lines Entertainment was when they did a virtual whodunnit mystery play in collaboration with Hossan Leong and Raffles Hotel during the pandemic, and it was pretty entertaining! So when I saw this name come up again in one of the SISTIC ticketing mailers with a new escape game, my husband and I were up and raring to go.
This time, the storyline revolved around our mission to stop a group of time-bandits who have travelled back in time to steal Singapore’s most valuable national monuments. But lo and behold, halfway through the game, we uncovered quite a cool plot twist that altered the direction of our mission (no spoilers in case the organizers want to revisit this, heh). Instead of being entirely virtual, this escape game required players to physically visit the various landmarks in the civic district while solving related puzzles on their devices.
Each ticket ($21 with a Mother’s Day promotion) only gave access to one account per device. Although we considered sharing one device, we eventually decided against it since we’d likely be moving around quite a bit for this. Starting the game involved finding and scanning a QR code hidden at the Esplanade concourse. This enabled us to create our accounts with our ticket transaction numbers. Subsequent clues were then provided via this account in the form of texts, images and video snippets.
The entire game took us about 2 hours to complete and brought us to five nationally significant locations in the civic district: Esplanade, Asian Civilisations Museum, Victoria Theatre & Concert Hall, National Gallery Singapore and The Arts House.
The puzzles were nicely varied, requiring us to tap on a multitude of skills such as keen observation, listening, general knowledge, pattern recognition, math (God help us) and many more. There was also a help button on every page but as we didn’t make use of it, we don’t actually know what kind of help would’ve been provided.
I thought it was very impressive that they managed to use the existing structures and exhibits at these locations to creatively come up with these puzzles. One example was this spiral staircase at the Asian Civilisations Museum, where we had to first plot out the positions of the four traders, then figure out which country each trader was from. Very intriguing, plus they were able to weave in actual facts and trivia about Singapore’s history!
My overall rating of the experience: 4 out of 5 stars. A very well-thought-out, entertaining and educational escape game that literally made us tourists in our own backyard. We explored and learnt so much about these national monuments, one of which I’d never even set foot in prior to this game! The brains behind these customized puzzles were ingenious too as they made use of a variety of mechanics such that there was no pattern we could really reuse to solve the next puzzle. Having said that, the puzzles were sort of on easy mode (it would’ve been more thrilling to solve if the difficulty level was higher). It was also a tad annoying that we would sometimes be randomly logged out of our accounts during the game. In comparison to their previous production, theatre elements were kept minimal but for an on-the-go escape game, I do think they found the right balance, with the videos and media being just the right length. If there is really a part two like they hinted at, count us in for sure!
If this post helped you in some way and you’d like to buy me a coffee, I’d be incredibly grateful (:
Dania Experiences 
Fantastic review! Your exploration of the Time Heist escape game by Sight Lines Entertainment in Singapore is both detailed and captivating. Thanks for sharing your experience and insights. It sounds like an exhilarating adventure for those looking to test their wits!
LikeLike