If ever I get locked in an underground bunker with fellow survivors of a nuclear apocalypse and have to escape before the oxygen runs out, I am sad to say I do not think we would make it.
Last weekend I put my survival skills and logical thinking to the test with Claustrophobia, a new real-world escape game in Dubai – and concluded that it is better for everyone if I never sign up to be a saviour of the human race.
Like similar race-against-time escape games, Claustrophobia locks up a team of four in a room and challenges players to crack codes and find clues to free themselves within an hour.
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Read more: Global favourites: Other popular Claustrophobia quests around the world
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This particular variation was created in Russia in 2013, with more than 51 game rooms. Claustrophobia now has 144 themed quests in 33 cities worldwide.
A few friends and I booked the post-apocalyptic Vault 13 challenge in the Dubai gaming zone.
The “To Live” room, which traps you in a madman’s lair, is also available, while the art heist-themed Museum of Contemporary Art and Sherlock Holmes-inspired Baker Street, 221B quests are due to open next month.
Vault 13 is the rundown shelter of the survivors of a nuclear holocaust that has wiped out most of humanity. Before we are locked in, we stash our belongings in a locker and the game master leads us through the guidelines. For this particular challenge, we are told that moderate force and strength would be necessary to access some clues and that hints would be available if we were struggling with the puzzles.
As soon as the countdown clock began, we were pushed into a dingy room with random items scattered around. Discarded car seats, a tabletop radio that made static crackling and whistling sounds, a vending machine stocked with cola, two oxygen tanks and a wooden cupboard – any of them could be concealing crucial clues.
We spread out to inspect every corner. I have some experience playing this type of escape game, so every object in the room, many of which had numbers on them, felt like it could be important. After 10 minutes, we were still disoriented, mumbling to ourselves and shouting out digits.
Do the numbers on the hard hat hanging in the cupboard need to be punched into the access-control keypad on the wall, or are we reading too much into a useless product serial number?
At that moment, the game master put us out of our misery and guided us towards our next clue. Along the way, we unearthed a machine gun, a monstrous bionic arm and a metal detector, all of which proved critical to progressing towards freedom.
It took us close to 20 minutes to get to a second room, in which a biological experiment on plants was underway. With a torch and a flickering bulb as our only sources of light, we were struggling to understand the function and importance of certain consoles.
Time was running out when we reached the third and final room, and we had only 10 minutes to secure our escape. The sinister soundtrack that reinforced a post-apocalyptic mood became creepy and added to our anxiety.
With three minutes to spare, we managed to find the missing piece of the puzzle, which involved some chemistry know-how, and made it out in time – but not without constant guidance and clues from the game master, whose distorted robot voice we heard whenever we found ourselves staring at a clue without making progress.
Perhaps we would have done better if we were avid video-gamers. Many quests are modelled on such games – Vault 13 draws heavily on the Fallout series of role-playing games – or films.
Claustrophobia provides a more sensory experience than other escape games I’ve played. The atmosphere, props, visual design and music help immerse you in the role of a distressed individual fighting to stay alive.
• A session for two, three or four players at Claustrophobia in Red Diamond Building, Jumeirah Lakes Towers, Dubai, costs from Dh380; visit www.phobia.ae
aahmed@thenational.ae
Green ambitions
- Trees: 1,500 to be planted, replacing 300 felled ones, with veteran oaks protected
- Lake: Brown's centrepiece to be cleaned of silt that makes it as shallow as 2.5cm
- Biodiversity: Bat cave to be added and habitats designed for kingfishers and little grebes
- Flood risk: Longer grass, deeper lake, restored ponds and absorbent paths all meant to siphon off water
Tips to keep your car cool
- Place a sun reflector in your windshield when not driving
- Park in shaded or covered areas
- Add tint to windows
- Wrap your car to change the exterior colour
- Pick light interiors - choose colours such as beige and cream for seats and dashboard furniture
- Avoid leather interiors as these absorb more heat
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
