Here’s your chance to put on the Sherlock hat and solve a murder mystery that has happened in the heart of Bugis. Join HIDDEN’s immersive Sherlock Holmes experience with family and friends for a memorable brainteasing adventure around the Bugis district.
A Study in Red: The Official Sherlock Experience by HIDDEN
A Study in Red: The Official Sherlock Experience is the world’s first officially licensed Sherlock Holmes experience playable in the real world. HIDDEN secured the exclusive license from the Conan Doyle Estate as a preferred partner for global expansion.
Those who participate in the experience and familiar with the Sherlock world might recognise Easter eggs in the game that pays homage to iconic characters, events and locations.
Since the experience had a rating of PG13, we took our 15 year old along. Was it a teen-friendly experience? Read on to find out.
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About HIDDEN’s Sherlock Holmes experience in Bugis Town
The experience takes approximately 90 minutes to 120 minutes depending how distracted you get wandering through Bugis Town. Bugis Town is made up of three malls – Bugis Street, Bugis Plus and Bugis Junction. Yes, expect to walk to all three spots to search for clues!
Only a mobile device is needed for a highly responsive chat interface. I thought this interface was very well-built as it contained all that we needed to solve the murder mystery together with Sherlock Holmes, his trusty sidekick Watson and other characters.
Our Experience as a Family at A Study in Red: The Official Sherlock Experience
We had to meet at 221B located at Bugis Street’s second floor. This got us a little confused even before we got to the starting point. I loved the clever reference to Baker street, aka the address of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. John Watson.
The unit was decked out in a familiar setting with a fireplace, bookshelves, ornamental pieces and even a coat rack with costumes for those eager to dress up. Participants were also given a personalised ID so it felt even more surreal as if we were working on a real case!
This ID will also give participants perks to various food and beverage spots in Bugis. Some of them might even give you essentials required to solve the case! If your legs feel tired, there’s always the option of taking a break midway during the experience.
Once we got our case file, given our ID tags and registered via our mobile phone, we were ready to begin!
Without giving too much away, we entered the crime scene to check out evidence and then ventured to other parts of Bugis town for other clues.
Answers just need to be entered into the web application to proceed with the other parts of the experience. It was easy to use and also encourages cooperation amongst the group – for instance, one can be holding some physical clues, others might be checking out the surroundings and one can key in the answers.
The plot thickens… when we follow the trail to another crime scene!
Review of A Study in Red: The Official Sherlock Experience
One big perk of this experience was walking mostly in air-conditioned setting. The tropical heat can make puzzle hunts painful specially if they are outdoors. A Study in Red: The Official Sherlock Experiences makes it a comfortable adventure – that even the grumpiest teen would approve!
The puzzles on the whole were not too difficult to solve. We enjoyed the varied questions that tested our observation and deduction skills with the information given in the chat, in physical forms with artefacts and also on structures and walls.
I thought it was novel to have a web interface for everyone in the team to be able to see the progress at the same pace. It was cool to have the conversation between Sherlock, Watson flowing smoothly and even calls from various parties plus a 360 degree VR scene to give us an immersive audiovisual adventure.
My teen who loves mystery themes in books and movies, and also a fan of Sherlock Holmes gave his two thumbs up for the experience. As a parent with a tween, i thought the PG13 rating was appropriate as there were a few gory setups to deal with with mentions of sex and drugs in the plot.
One piece of feedback we would have as aging adults would be the inability to see the documents well. The text on screen was at times rather small, this meant our teen had to tell us what he could read while we zoomed into the various documents.
While solving the murder mystery, we could also check out the shops in Bugis town that we never knew existed. While we couldn’t purchase from the stores that day, we will be back with our ID tags for the exclusive discounts.
Elementary, My Dear Watson
If you’re keen to try this whodunit puzzle-solving trail, sign up for the experience via this site.
Form 1 to 5 people per team. Rates start from $19 per student, $29 per adult on weekdays and $39 per adult on weekends and public holidays.
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