HiddenCity: Moriarty’s Game: A Killer In The Hive

We really enjoyed this game, it wasn't too difficult but at the same time didn't spell things out too easily. Found the experience to be quite immersive considering we were sat at home, good quick response time from the text messages and the use of audio and video helped with the immersion. It felt very high quality,  a good opening chapter, if following chapters were a bit harder that wouldn't be a bad thing. Will definitely play the next episodes.

For this game you don't need any resources apart from your phone (and maybe a computer), so it makes it easy to set up and you could easily play it with an online group over Zoom. You get your clues in the form of text messages from the detective and weblinks to the police archive with case files and security footage. You then do research or study the material you are given to find clues about the criminal and text it back to the detective. 

You pay per device, so you could have the whole family playing on just one device if someone reads out the text messages you receive.

It was quite different from other play-at-home escape rooms I have done because it felt very realistic as it felt as if you are texting a real person and you had to use real websites likes Twitter and maps to find out clues. The only snag was calling a hotline which kept on hanging up on us, but I guess it is also very realistic that you get frustrated when calling a hotline...

Definitely recommend it, and not too expensive either.

We played this with the work team, split into two competing teams, and had an excelletn time solving this mystery. Story was very engaging and we were imperssed with the set up, and variety of activities. It was such great fun and I'd highly recommend it!

We booked this game for the 20 members of my sales team on the recommendation of my wife, as she had already booked it for her team.  As we were in a lock down, this was a fantastic way of the team getting together virtually and a fun activity for our Xmas party.

The game itself is well thought out and immersive with good acting and an interesting story line.  although challenging (for us) at some points, its fun and and it keeps your attention, especially if you are competing against another team!

I would thoroughly recommend this to anyone that wants a 'remote' puzzle solver

Also special mention to India, who helped me set it all up and answered my many many questions!!! . Customer service is great.

Cheers again 

Great game of the highest quality - immersive and challenging.  Perfect for lockdown times.

Very entertaining game. Played with Vertical Aerospace work colleagues at Christmas. Fantastic fun. loads of interactivity keeping everyone involved. Highly recommended

Really good! Interactive, realistic, competitive and fun! Highly recommended.

Great fun to play at home. Lots of different input, using texts, social media, audio and video.  A good story and a variety of clues.  a great distraction for lockdown. 

Played this on Boxing Day with family. Great fun - great mix of puzzles, interaction and maps/ streetview of London. Highly recommend.

A brilliant alternative to the usual quiz night.  Either play with your friends together as a large team or competitively against each other.  Both engaging and fun, with problems to solve and clues to find, A killer In The Hive is an excellent evening’s entertainment from the comfort of your own home.  Thoroughly recommend it!

What a great game! The calling the phone numbers, texting and clips were so fun and felt so real. Great fun to play with the family over zoom we all enjoyed it, can't wait for Chapter 2!! The only thing I would say is it took a while to understand how it would work, with inputting the team and receiving the links, it may be worth updating the how to guide as it took a while to get started and would have enjoyed a few more difficult cryptic clues to solve 

We played this game with my company for our virtual Christmas party and we all had great fun! What a thrilling experience to be part of this mystery to solve! We were impressed to see how realistic the game was, with texts, but also websites to visit and calls to make. Can't wait for the second episode!  

Played this game as a Virtual Christmas Celebration with work colleagues via Zoom, where we split into two teams to add some competition as to which team could complete it the quickest.  We all had a great night and thoroughly enjoyed the challenge - would highly recommend. 

Such a brilliant experience, can't wait until episode 2 🙂

Fantastic way to socialise (virtually) with work colleagues and a welcome change away from the boring Zoom quiz! Really great value for money and looking forward to part 2!

I'm not a big gamer and didn't have any expectations but this was brilliant. I was really surprised by how well put together everything was, it looked really slick and the actors were amazing, I was completely drawn into the story and had such a fun time. Would definitely play again! 

Excellent game! Really realistic touches and great fun to race my colleagues. Felt so real.

Excellent

A great game definitely recommend. Very clever setup.

Do not hesitate to play. Have a computer to hand

We have completed a number of Hidden City games, in the past, out and about in London and thoroughly enjoyed them. So this on-line version was a little different but great fun was had by all! There was a lot of thought and planning involved which enhanced the game and made it something different from the  usual virtual experiences that are out there at the moment. Top Tip: We had 1 team in two separate households so we ran a Zoom call along side the text clues so we could share the screen and work together better to solve the crime! - We would recommend this game for anyone looking for something different during these unpresidented times. 

Loved this! Fantastic game that is both engaging and fun! Would highly recommend it. Looking forward to playing another installment of this game or one that's completely new! Great work guys 🙂 

An almost completely mobile based game made it a little hard to play with our family team of 3 but the plot was refreshing and exciting!

I was looking into virtual online escape rooms as I've been into them recently but obviously with lockdown restrictions, they've currently shut. I had come across Hidden City before and will definitely be playing the live versions soon as the virtual game was absolutely incredible! I played on my own but had just as much fun as I do when I'm in a team. The case was so immersive and really made me feel like I was a part of the story! I hope a Chapter 2 for the virtual game comes out as they left it on a real cliffhanger & I'm so intrigued as to what happens next!!! 

I have previously played two Hidden City adventures in London in-person, but this was the first played completely remotely. The SMS-based system is familiar to those who have played the live formats, but the freedom to discover online materials and explore London via maps worked very well and ensured that the same sort of mysterious atmosphere was present. Overall, a fantastic and reasonably-priced development for this company and I hope to see many more adventures in the near future. This makes lockdown bearable.

Highly enjoyable way to while away an evening.  Level of clues mean all the family can take part - there aren't any mastermind questions but there are a couple that will catch you out once you get too cocky 😉   For the price I was surprised by how much effort had gone into building the experience.  Lockdown or not inthehiddencity rise to the challenge and deliver more fun entertainment.  Looking forward to taking part in an interactive hunt when lockdown is lifted but until then I am more than happy to curl up on the sofa with my laptop and spend an evening on this 

We all really enjoyed doing the game, in separate households but all together via Zoom.  The activity was arranged so we could all be “together” to celebrate my son’s birthday.  The wide age range made no difference to the enjoyment of the game, we all had our strengths and weaknesses.  Looking forward to doing another “group game”.

Fantastically well put together, very enjoyable and immersive. A really solid evening's enternatinment with friends and family we couldn't be with in person. Highly reccomend for anoyne looking for an alternative to another zoom quiz!

Great game. Really fun and well thought out. Had a small tech Issue with one clue but I don't think this would be a problem for most people.

Really great fun to do something different with family and friends in the evening. Can't wait for lockdown to end to try the one's aroud the city!

I've loved so many of HiddenCity's games, and this virtual one didn't disappoint. It prompted the same mix of research, lateral thinking and engagement as the physical ones - and we got to do it in our pyjamas! The gameplay is a little quicker without the physical element, but it's still thrilling. I can't wait for Chapter 2.

Quite a nice experience with the use of texts and phone calls. Not very many actual puzzles to complete and all pretty easy. 

A great team event for budding sleuths.

Engaging for the approximate hour it will take to complete the session. Requires a little bit of internet savviness to get the best out of the game.

Very enjoyable hour spent and it was engaging to solve clues working together as a team and make your way virtually around London.

Really engaging game which kept us glued to our PCs and mobile for over an hour. The real-time themes and locations definitly give this game it's' edge.

Very enjoyable game, very exciting, pitched at a good difficulty level. A really good variety of puzzles too (maps, phone calls and different online systems)

We did this for a work Christmas party - it was absolutely excellent, and worked really well for remote teams and was super fun. Highly recommend!

Really good immersive game. We had a lot of fun trying to finish this one, definitely recommend

We really enjoyed playing this game - without giving the game away, the best part is how they use a variety of different media to make playing online more varied and fun.  We have played several of the Hidden City games before and being able to play one of theirs when we can't leave home was a lot of fun.  I look forward to the next instalment!

Excellent game - played entirely via text messages, emails and websites. 

Very well constructed, involving and entertaining. While not the most challenging puzzles I've ever encountered the whole game was really enjoyable and left me wanting to know when Episode 2 will be available.

Very highly recommended

Compared to other virtual games, this was well above the rest. Played as a group of a friends. It was very interactive, with the use of clips, phones, laptops etc and kept us entertained for well over an hour. Would really recommend!

We played this game with a group of family and friends over Zoom, and had a thoroughly enjoyable evening.  Initially the idea of calling people up on your phone was a little strange, but we got used to it.  We had the clues texted to each of the groups and the hour flew past.

The group can't wait to play the next episode now, and when we can we will definitely try out one of the games in London as well......

A fantastic game, fun, with a touch of realism and a tester of  our skills. Helped pass a really different NY eve with fun and intrigue.

Looking forward to episode 2

Trevor

I've played a fair amount of physical escape rooms (about 60 at the moment). I also enjoy puzzle books, board games and video games. This game isn't terribly hard. It's a good introduction game to a series - you don't want the first game to be too hard - but it was challenging enough. I had no clues but did get a time penalty for typing an answer incorrectly. I enjoyed the structure of the game and thought it was well thought out. No tech issues etc. I found it immersive and was left wanting to play the next installment.

Original, engaging, entertaining and thrillingly addictive, it would be impossible to recommend this highly enough.

We did the escape room as a work social activity while we're all in lockdown, and we all thoroughly enjoyed it!

It was varied and interesting, challenging but not impossible, and the competitive flavour of us competing with another work group was exciting too. 

The first game left on a major cliff-hanger, and I think it says a lot that we're all itching to do the 2nd game

Five family pairings and intensely competitive. Clever use of text, phone & social media through out the game. We’re all set for the next one!

Played it with kids (12-18 y) for a lockdown birthday party. They had great fun and enjoyed every minute and solved all the puzzles (with only a little help). Great use of text messages, video clips, online resources etc. made it engaging from end-to-end. No time limit on completing it, but around 90 minutes entertainment felt right. They look forward to the next episode - hopefully coming soon. 

Did this with my kids as half term lockdown activity and they really enjoyed it. Very exciting with lots of puzzle solving, action voice mails and inventive uses of technology to keep us interested!

Great way to get through the lockdown

We played this game at home during lockdown and it provided a good hours entertainment. It was very professionally put together and we really enjoyed the immersive experience, especially the range of communication used. We would definitely play another episode.

Lots of fun for a virtual game. Good balance of trickey challenges and digital fun!

Fabulous way to spend an evening in lockdown. Thoroughly recommend!

We did this as part of a work social event and it was really fun.  We loved the way that everything worked smoothly and the way that fiction and real-world elements were blended gave it authenticity.  The use of technology provided a sense of urgency which made it a quite compelling experience.  Plus we got the office bragging rights by solving the puzzle quickest!

Played this across 2 homes, all participating. Very exciting game and extremely novel use of technology/websites/google.

We played this game today as part of a work virtual away day. As a group of cynics, we were not expecting much. HOW WRONG WE WERE!!!

We had some great banter, working our way through the story. The interaction across text, online, researching, chatting on teams etc was great, really engaged us all to try to solve the clues and complete the mission.

The price point for the game is also great value for money and we all said we would be trying another game out in the future with friends and family.

I would definitely recommend the game to everyone.

Really engaging, with a smart interface, fun real-world puzzles and top-notch voice acting!  Can't wait for episode 2 🙂

Impressive! We felt like we were really on calls & texts with our "partner", and the story developed in a way that felt organic. A very fun night! 

Great team game, would highly recommend it!

Great escape game and really well done. Would recommend

A really excellent game. Very realistic. Involves lots of calling, texting, research, puzzle solving. Very immersive and realistic. Highly recommended!

My work team split into 2 groups of 3 to play this and we were all so impressed. It was very professionally done and very fun! I didn’t think it would be but it was easily as good as any in-person escape room I’ve done. Really enjoyed. Really recommend!!!! 

Really enjoyable! Did it as a team of four and we all brought something different to the table in terms of skills. It was pacey and fun - good storyline and interactive elements via text message. Definitely fun team building activity while remote! It ends on a bit of a cliff hanger so now I want episode two…!!

Good to do as a virtual work Christmas get together - we found ourselves really getting into the storyline. It wasn't too hard either, so we all left satisfied!

We played this for a work xmas party. Really nice change to the normal remote quiz games that you see everywhere and the mix of tech used like mobile phones and audio clips was nice. The acting on the clips was really good. The story was immersive enough that we were all checking if Part 2 was out yet

was a great game to play!! very well lead and clues were fun

LOVED this - we've played Hidden City games in London previously but haven't been down to London for a while.  We were thrilled at the opportunity to play a game from home but as we have such poor mobile signal it wasn't an option.  However, we were away for a weekend and the opportunity arose.  Enough puzzles to keep us entertained, a great story and immersion despite being on our own and fabulous gameplay.  I liked that nothing was so obvious or easy as to make it boring but not too fiendish that we felt stumped - the only errors were operator ones!!  Thoroughly recommend this to other players and can't wait till they bring out Chapter 2.

We played this in lockdown with family and it was a great way to lift spirits. Truly immersive and a whole lot of fun!

Great crack. Entertaining and challenging and a good way to connect with family I have not seen in a while.  Really enjoyed it !

We were a team of 3 against several larger teams from the office. We all thoroughly enjoyed playing the game, despite none of my team having any experience of Twitter - it just increased the fun aspect. We hadn't realised that there would be penalty time points - so will watch out for that next time! On the whole it was very well thought out and executed and we had a lot of fun! Looking forward to the next one . . . 

Really cool set up. The main character was a little annoying, but it helped to set the scene well regardless. 

Really great fun with quite a bit of variety in puzzles and media.

An enjoyable and interesting use of a mix of text messages, websites and publicly available online resources, it was well designed and executed, and worked well when playing with friends remotely over a video call. It was a lot of fun and more immersive than we'd expected for a mobile/online game. I look forward to the next one!

Crazy pricing structure but a game that felt great. Far better than thier walking games. Sadly on one or two brain teasers but lots of deduction. Really nice use of multiple devices (luckily we were all happy to use our text and social media). Felt real..worth a play (but be warned of the odd pricing)

The only reason we didn’t give this game 5 stars was because we wanted it to be longer and can’t play the next chapters yet (not available yet). We’ve done the live games through this company a few times and we’re gutted when we couldn’t over lockdown so were so excited to see they’d set up an ‘at home’ version. The different media mean there’s something for everyone. It is awesome! Highly recommended and counting down until the next one!!! 

I didn't feel it was great value. Moriaty wasn't really involved and left it open for future episodes but it was all a but easy and felt like a warm up

Really great fun and brilliantly done - would highly recommend - definitely compete with your friends!!!

We very much enjoyed playing ‘A Killer in the Hive’ - without a doubt one of the best online escape rooms we have tried during  lockdown. The plot was engaging and the experience was tense and gripping throughout. Technically, the game worked well (for the most part) - the clues and resources were well thought out and of a high quality. We’d definitely recommend the game and we hope that another online story is made available soon.

Really good online escape room! I was impressed with the creative ways they have managed to capture the escape room feel and it's something I haven't seen before. We've done a lot of escape room (50+) so we found the challenges/problems on the easier side, but we still enjoyed and would highly recommend the game to others.  We played with two households/two devices and the experience was seamless and everyone could contribute easily. 

We had over 100 people planning in teams of 2 - 5 and it was a huge success in place of our Xmas party . Definitely something we will look at running again! India was incredibly helpful throughout the process and always made time to answer my questions and made sure the game kicked off smoothly 🙂 10/10, would play again!

I played this game with a group of friends and we all enjoyed the immersive design. So far it's been the best game we've given a go, thank you.

Best online game I have played, so far.

Different take on typical online escape rooms using text messages, video & social media to convey instructions and clues.

I arranged this for my wife's lock down birthday with a group of friends over Zoom. 

It was far better than I ever imagined it would be.  The inventive use of media and communications was amazing. 

We all had a great time and I would recommend this experience to anyone in or out of lock down! 

Well done to Hidden City for an awesome product and for keeping us entertained.

I played this game as two teams of two and we absolutely loved it! It was completely immersive (the time flew) interesting, exciting and challenging.

An excellent game. Definitely better than my initial expectations. The level of detail that has been thought about for this was amazing. I would definitely recommend this game. I wasn't sure how it would all work online but definitely something great to do in lock down. Possibly a little more expensive than some others we looked at but so glad we did this one instead. Worth the extra couple of £. 

This was great! So well put together and easy to engage with. It was great to get the texts, calls and solve the puzzles. A great way of spending an evening during lockdown too! We'd happily have played for longer as we got through the puzzles fairly fast, but we'll certainly do more of these games in the series. 

Completely immersive, had me gripped from the first text message and has left me wanting more!!!

Come on Hidden City, let’s see Part 2!!!

This is sooo soo damn good. It was so much fun. The narrative is fun the puzzles are hard, which is good. Awesome game.