Become investigators, play laser tag at Singapore Discovery Centre

Visitors to the revamped Singapore Discovery Centre (SDC) can now role-play as special agents investigating the fate of soldiers sent on a top-secret military mission.

Working in teams of two to five, they need to piece together clues to solve puzzles before they can "escape" from one room to the next in what is called the Black Lake Facility.

In all, there are 13 such rooms, with three to four rooms taking about an hour for each playthrough.

Another new feature at the SDC, sited in Joo Koon, is a laser tag arena, where players can fire laser guns at one another.

These are among the new facilities that will be unveiled on Saturday when the centre reopens after six months of renovation, SDC said yesterday.

It will open other facilities progressively, partly to ensure crowd control, with Covid-19 safety measures implemented properly, SDC executive director Joseph Tan said.

Other facilities that open on Saturday include a multi-sensory theatre, a new cafe and a boardwalk on the lake beside SDC where visitors can see some of the more than 2,300 newly-installed solar panels, which will help supply nearly half of the centre's annual electricity consumption.

The centre has refreshed its permanent gallery, with large screens that provide a more immersive viewing experience and a theatre modelled after a bunker.

These were among the highlights shown to reporters at a preview of the new-look centre yesterday.

The gallery tells the Singapore Story from the 14th century till the present day, highlighting key events such as the Japanese Occupation, Konfrontasi, and the 1983 cable car tragedy.

To help keep Covid-19 at bay, the reopened centre will allow a maximum of only 499 people at any one time.

To ensure that there is no over-crowding, visitors are encouraged to make prior bookings online for facilities that require entry tickets, such as the escape and laser tag rooms as well as the gallery.

The laser tag arena, with a ticket price of either $12 or $15 a person, uses the Helios 2 laser tag system, and features three gameplay themes - cyborg, extraterrestrial and post-apocalyptic. Players can sign up solo or in teams of up to five people for each timeslot.

A new cafe called Wild Thyme replaces the former canteen. Board games are also available in a partnership with the Mind Cafe.

The Black Lake Facility charges $30 for those aged 13 and older, and $24 for children aged three to 12. The price is for one playthrough of one of the four story chapters and it is estimated to take about an hour.