Camp Ruby Lake: The Lady of the Lake

Deadline does a solid job with all of their rooms. They now have two rooms that can be played two different ways (Noir and Camp Ruby) and I’m still not sure how I feel about it as you get the same set for two rooms and have to ignore a lot of things in the room. Both stories are very lock and key heavy and could use a bit more signposting. I feel that Witch Doctor and Freakshow are still the two best rooms here, but these are solid rooms and worth doing. The Lady of the Lake is a bit more story driven than Blood Moon and there were a couple of times where you could split up to work on multiple puzzles at once.

I was a little worried when some of the early reviews said this was lock heavy. That is true, but there are enough nice moments and an immersive environment to more than compensate. This room actually took us longer than the one which is supposedly more difficult, but it is the more interesting of the two stories, and I thought slightly more enjoyable as well. There was one puzzle where lighting or sound clues would have helped us understand that we were supposed to look up, or that we were utilizing a particular item in the way it was meant to be used. Lighting would have also helped cue a matching section near the end as well. All in all, a well done room that I would recommend others play, even if you are terror averse. There is only one small moment that *might* be considered a jump scare.

We absolutely loved our experience with Deadline Escape Rooms! My husband and I did their new room "Camp Ruby Lake - Lady of the Lake story", and loved it! The room was immersive, well thought out, clean and new (no number pads with numbers worn out from use), and I was most impressed by how the story was well integrated throughout the game. I want to say every puzzle we encountered was new to us (and we have played maybe 30 escape rooms of which half have been in Reno). In addition, when we asked for clues (just once!) we were given a clue that helped us figure out what we were doing wrong, not just telling us what to do. The staff was attentive, well versed in the game and confident/communicative. I say this because we have been to a few places where we had little confidence in our game because the staff seemed shy/nervous/unknowledgable. Anyway, that is not the case here!

Visually pretty room with lots of beautiful details. A couple puzzles that were tricky but not overly challenging. The "jump scares" were not bad at all.

Cool room with good flow. Was a little busy at times because there are two rooms worth of puzzles that you have to parse through based on colored symbols. Our favorite of the two. Nonlinear puzzles made it so that our group of five had plenty to do.

This is two separate experiences that take place in the same room. We played both with a team of two. Unrelated plot lines except that they took place in the same ”cursed” campground. I could absolutely see there being more stories that happen in the same space too, and kinda think I spotted what might be a puzzle for a future episode. Lady of the Lake This was the easier of the two. Fun and enjoyable. The one issue is that there is a puzzle which can be solved before you have all of the clues you are supposed to need. We did so, and then later when we uncovered the missing clue, the GM needed to break in and say “actually you don’t need to use that anymore…” The website says this has “more jump scares”but there was nothing I would consider jump-scary in the room at all. It’s perfectly safe if you (like me) don’t really enjoy them. Blood Moon The harder of the two. But not by too much. The issue here is that the last two tasks in the room both relied on tech which was “fiddly” to the point where you could know exactly what you needed to do, but have a hard time triggering the tech. Both rooms were a little pad-lock heavy. All in all very good rooms. Just not as good as the other offerings at Deadline. Honestly though you should just play all the rooms at this place.

We did both versions back to back. The Bloodmoon is less linear at times than Lady of the Lake. Both were engaging, challenging, and fun. I enjoyed seeing the room utilized differently for the two stories.