Handmade Mysteries: Lady Chastity’s Reserve

We ventured intrepidly into the wreckage of Lady Chastity’s hedonistic final party, in order to try to retrieve a bottle of her legendary aphrodisiac wine. Did we leave with our thirst quenched?

Handmade Mysteries

• Location: available in Hackney, Clapham, Farringdon and Brighton (we played in Farringdon)
• Players: 2 – 6
• We played: June 2019 as a team of 3

Great things about Lady Chastity’s Reserve:

• This memorable game creates plenty of immersion, not only through its highly decorated environment – the upstairs of The Hope pub in Farringdon had been made to resemble a Victorian den of debauchery – but also through the involvement of an actor-host who enters the room at various points and interacts with players in character throughout the experience.
• One of our favourite elements of Lady Chastity’s Reserve was the balance between a spooky atmosphere and filthy humour. Dirty jokes and innuendo were part of the interaction with the host, and also embedded in the game through the theme and props. When we weren’t tittering, we were shrieking: this room uses lighting, decor and sound to build spine-tingling suspense and provide a few jumps.
• Handmade Mysteries have a talent for incorporating interesting, cleverly adapted artefacts into their games. There was a good variety of puzzles overall, and manipulating a range of objects adds to the feeling of tactile discovery.
• We liked the use of a large, custom prop that provided a centrepiece to the game and gave a visual indication of our progress (after the slightly more directionless first stage of the game).

On the other hand…

• There’s a lot packed into Lady Chastity’s quarters, in terms of puzzles and paraphernalia too, and there’s a specific order in which to proceed. We found the signposting to this order a bit ambiguous, and had to be set back on the right track a couple of times. This was a little confusing – luckily, having an actor as a key part of the experience meant that we could be redirected without spoiling the immersion.

Who should try this room?

This room is only for over-18s, but any adults who like their rooms spooky and their humour smutty would be disappointed to miss out on meeting Chastity.

Rating – 8/10