Singapore, Aug 2024
My previous experiences of escape rooms in Singapore have tended to be a little underwhelming; although the industry developed here relatively early, it seems to have lost its energy around 2016 and seen few advances since, meaning the games I’ve tried were old fashioned and also just old. So Inmers is an exciting development, a new company with a pair of reputedly large, sophisticated and story-driven rooms designed in the style that’s become popular in China.
Both games are horror themed, and we played Break Through The Soil, in which we were detectives investigating a gruesome murder by entering the mind of the only witness. Describing it as a horror game feels like it might give a misleading impression, even though it has horror theming, with actors and scenes that are intended to startle or frighten you; I think the difference is that in most horror games I’ve played elsewhere, gameplay alternated between puzzle sections and scare scenes, whereas here the horror elements were a series of set pieces that gradually revealed a mystery. Telling the story was the emphasis throughout.
Puzzles were definitely not the emphasis – there were barely any. This is not an escape room as I understand the genre, in that there’s very little to solve. You’re guided (or pursued!) from one tableau to another, usually with explicit instructions from an actor or from the walkie talkie on what to do and how to do it.
In the place of puzzle solving, actor interactions are central. Both actors performed with energy and commitment to their roles, aided by a constantly changing repertoire of tricks and effects, not simply to frighten (though that certainly played a big part in it) but also to convey the story and the characters in dramatic and striking ways. This plays out in a set that is fairly large and made to feel larger by the way it’s used, evoking an old Chinese village via props and set dressing, made much more effective by sophisticated and dynamic lighting.
In terms of game style I’d compare it to the award winning games in Athens and the Netherlands, Don’t Take A Breath and Stay In The Dark, without being on the same massive scale as them. However, I thought it felt more passive than those. Those both successfully gave a sense of agency – which was largely illusory since they broadly proceed through a fixed sequence no matter what the players do, but it still felt like we were driving the story forwards. With Break Through The Soil, despite all the ways in which scenes were immersive and interactive, I felt more like we were the audience, seeing how it unfolded without making any consequential decisions myself.
The narrative was complex enough to hold my attention and for me not to be able to predict in advance what the resolution would be. It was also a bit overwrought. The characters were largely archetypes more than convincingly realised personalities. Language was also a bit of a barrier, even though we were playing the English version of the game. Talking with an actor was an important part of the experience, and his Singlish made it hard to follow. That might vary depending on who you happen to get playing the role.
At the same time, it was quite the spectacle. One scene followed on another, each different and each moving the story forwards by one piece. The game establishes its themes and its motifs, then gradually reveals the significance of them as the mystery is revealed. Several of the effects were memorably cool; one or two were quite magical.
All of which is to say, you should not play this expecting an escape room in the familiar sense, but you certainly should play it. Not only is it to the best of my knowledge the most interesting option currently available in Singapore by some way, it would be worth seeking out in its own right even in a different market. 
