The Ladder

This was a real letdown after this same location's Lab Rat, which is a gem. This is an interesting concept but trying to be too many things to different people, leaving pretty much everyone in my group unsatisfied. Noting that perhaps we're in the minority, for me it was either a very expensive mediocre arcade, or an expensive and unsatisfying puzzling adventure - which nonetheless still makes you play a dull minigame to end the experience and listen to a lot of unnecessary flavor text which hinders rather than supports the experience. The dialog cuts off gameplay and won't give you "credit"for anything you accomplish after the dialog begins - an unfun design for a. escape. My thought: play Lab Rat here, then go to Level 99 or Dave & Busters. This is nominally an "escape room," but it's best to think of this as an arcade here in each room you choose "arcade/minigames" or puzzles. The puzzles are good but too sparse, and you really need a dedicated team focused only on the puzzles to solve them. The minigames, sadly, are boring - think of an expensive arcade with less fun puzzles (stacking boxes, scanning barcodes, clicking buttons - seriously). Even worse, it's not always clear which items pertain to the puzzles and which to the minigames. In one particular room, the hint leading us to the puzzle track led us to a minigame - and we lost about a minute before we realized the minigame was repeating again and then found the puzzle track we needed hiding under the minigame. In this same room, we actually finished the puzzle track, but we didnt get credit for it because the ending audio had just begun - artificially cutting off our "successful" puzzle. So we were forced to listen to the audio while we were still trying to get the game to register our completed puzzle. Naturally, this isn't fun... We had told the GM ahead of time we wanted to do the puzzles, but little help was given when we found ourselves offtrack due to the lack of clear sign posting. A bummer all around.

Very fun experience! we have a replaying friend and she had explained the rules and assigned the tasks so we didn’t scramble too much (but still a lot lol). We’ve chosen the “right” character, made “right” choices, worked hard, and finally achieved the success ending! It’s definitely repeatable so I’m ready for the superior ending next time!

Not your typical escape room. The puzzles are very unique and innovative, none like I’ve experienced before. As stated there are 2 tracks you can follow. The puzzle track is definitely not beginner friendly and was difficult for my group of friends even though we have completed many escape rooms previously. They stated that this escape room is meant to be replayable and although the puzzles and games were fun, I left the escape room feeling disappointed and that this “replayable” aspect is just a money grab. There were also 2 rooms that had machines that were not functioning correctly.

Not your typical escape room, in the most excellent way. Story based puzzling and gaming, and there is so much to do you really need a sizeable group. It is physically impossible to see and do everything yourself the first time through, each of the multiple rooms within this experience has 4-5 things to do, and you only get about 15 minutes per section.

The puzzles were fun, the room is extremely fast paced. There are nine possible endings. I think the replayability is a little over stated, because once you know how the puzzles work you will fly through some parts of it, but it can change the story of the room. It was fun and I’d definitely recommend it

The Ladder is an experience about climbing the corporate ladder. It has a solid storyline and accompanying set design. I've read the reviews, and it seems to me that the two main reasons that The Ladder gets dislikes/downvotes are: 1) people expected a traditional escape room, or 2) the cost of the room, especially when considering its replayability. Both those things are accurate. But Hatch does go out of the way to try to make sure you know the Ladder is NOT a traditional escape room. It is more of a choose your own adventure experience, with a puzzle track and mini games available. Do the puzzles, solve the story's mystery subplot, and you get closer to an escape room feeling. The mini games are there, and some are distractingly fun. They allow you to earn "money" to determine whether you had a successful run at the company or not. How many puzzles you solve, how much money you make, and whether you make ethical/unethical decisions along the way determine which of the game's 9 endings you get to see. Addressing the second part of the complaints: cost of replayability. The Ladder is designed to be played more than once. You most likely won't succeed in playing the game perfectly and achieving the highest ending on your first playthrough. The game costs about $55/player on weekdays, and $75/player on weekends. At that price, it doesn't sound great to play something and not be able to do well on that first try, and have to pay again to do it again. You could go to nearly 4 escape rooms instead with that money. For us though, we found Groupons (that just expired, but maybe it returns) that brought the price down to $35/person for a weeknight game. Much more palatable and we ended up playing twice. Our first time, we brought 4 people, which is the MINIMUM. I wanted to finish the puzzle track (escape room puzzles). But you need 3-4 people on puzzles to be able to solve them, especially the first time around. A couple of our players focused on games, and we ended up doing poorly. We ended up with the WORST ending of the 9 endings. The second time, we brought the original four and added two more people. Returning also means you get access to a better character that improves your scoring as well as automatic access to the bonus 6th room. This second experience was a lot easier because the puzzles were familiar already so we mostly knew what to do, at least to start, and then had enough time to solve the end of the puzzles. We also had more people so we could focus people on specifically making money off the mini games. In the end, we just barely made enough money, but we achieved the HIGHEST ending of the 9 endings. Started from the bottom, now we here [at the top]. Would we play The Ladder a third time? Unlikely, especially after achieving the best ending. There is some curiosity to see the other endings, but that would require 7 more playthroughs, and playing accurately to achieve each of those endings. Realistically, I would only ever return with another Groupon deal and if I have a new group that just really, really wants to go. But if I do return, there are definitely a whole set of mini games I have yet to play so I could still have a fun experience. Gameplay wise, the puzzles are solid if not spectacular. They are definitely better than some bad escape rooms out there, but if you want a really great puzzle room, this isn't it. The games are varied. I enjoyed some more than others. Some people won't care for the games at all. If you want a traditional escape room, go elsewhere or do Lab Rat there. Otherwise, the Ladder is a different and enjoyable experience, with the caveat that you might be unsatisfied with the frustration and shortcomings of not doing well on the first go around. If you really only want to play once, I'd suggest bringing 6-8 people. 6 is definitely a solid number, but make sure at least half of them are experienced escape room players (for the puzzles track) and that the other half might not mind doing mini games the whole way through.

This was a ton of fun, but each sub-room is only 15min, not really enough time to solve the main puzzles on the first time through. I get that you're supposed to come back, but I would've appreciated more time and fewer rooms to really enjoy all of the puzzle's intricacies.