SINGAPORE – So many pandemics, so little time. My three teammates and I are in a race towards time – it all the time is – to seek out the treatment for a brand new pandemic that kills 40 per cent of its victims.
A vanished scientist and a journal with lacking pages point out that the answer is discovered on unlikely St John’s Island, one of many few virus-free spots on the planet, along with Sentosa (do not play play).
This immersive recreation, known as Escape From St John’s Island, could also be slightly on the nostril in a time of Covid-19 fatigue, however it’s tantalisingly linked to native historical past.
Do you know that St John’s Island was a world-class quarantine centre greater than 100 years in the past? Why does the publicity materials embody a point out of former president Devan Nair? Do the natural world on the island have something in widespread with the monkeys, civets and bats related to pandemics previous and current?
I’ve different burning questions.
Can I lease any of the present old-school chalets on the island for my very own pandemic staycation? Nineteenth-century cholera vibes apart, they’ve the look of a Changi vacation bungalow in splendid isolation.
With an agreeable frisson from recollections of schoolgirl tenting and ghost tales, it might be good to fireside up some rooster wings at an deserted barbecue pit.
This futuristic pandemic unlocks a thirst to know extra about an underappreciated chapter of Singapore’s historical past, at the same time as we delve into St John’s racy previous – medication, colonialism, warfare!
The sport is the newest by tour operator Tribe, which has different mystery-solving video games that trace darkly at native crime and intrigue, corresponding to Chinatown Murders and Jewel Heist, the latter of which takes place at Singapore’s airport.
Now we have to unravel puzzles at every stage of Escape From St John’s Island. I hate to brag, however my lengthy profitable streak at Wordle, the viral five-word recreation, is a bonus right here. By no means thoughts that my teammates fill within the blanks of the lacking letters quicker than me – I used to be too shy to shout out the solutions, I reckon.
We toggle between a pill, our smartphones, a map, island signboards and a spiral-bound journal to determine the solutions. There may be even a Telegram chat the place the sport grasp lurks on-line, prepared to produce extra clues if we get caught.
This mixture of excessive and low tech includes an excessive amount of multi-tasking for me. If one can embed a QR code, why did the blasted scientist not simply add all his pandemic-solving analysis to the cloud? Time to maneuver on to note-taking apps, bro.