The Ladder

Lots of fun and LOTS to do. I feel like I didn’t even see half of what the room(s) had to offer! Love the fact that this can be played multiple times. Would definitely come back and try it again! Still so much I’d like to accomplish in this room and such a unique experience for anyone who has done their share of escape rooms.

I would absolutely recommend this room, although I can imagine reasons why it might not be for everyone. But if you have done a lot of escape rooms, I think it is a fun change of pace, as it is definitely a bit of a different format than the average escape room. Pros: - The story for this room is great and I loved the way they progressed you through it. - I would agree that it is replayable. To feel that you have done all the puzzles on an individual level (if that’s important to you) would probably require doing this room a minimum of 3 times and making sure you try different puzzles each time. - To successfully open up all aspects of this experience really is challenging and requires you to go in with a plan and execute it as a team. I love when a room is actually challenging like that! Cons: - Several parts of this experience were broken each of the 3 times that our group did this room. The team is aware of some of the issues, telling you about some and even sometimes giving you the average score for an activity so you are not punished by it being broken. But nobody pays money for an experience and wants to just be given a fake score they didn’t earn or to have parts of it be broken. - While they are shown in a novel theme and format, several of the activities in this room are just ripping off games that you have probably already played over the years. They’re still great games, but maybe not worth paying a bunch of money to play in an escape room for those seeking to be challenged by puzzles they haven’t encountered before. That being said, there are always more traditional escape room type of puzzles you can be working on as well.

Soooo fun!!! Almost like a bunch of mini games. There’s no way to solve everything the first time and opens up the opportunity to replay. I felt like I was walking through Disneyland! The room was SOOO high tech and the mechanics are like the future of escape rooms. There’s definitely easy and challenging puzzles so enough for both beginners and experienced. Love love loved it!!

YOU WANT TO BRING AT LEAST 6 PEOPLE. That's coming from someone who strongly prefers to do escape rooms with only 2 to 4. This experience is like one big, live-action video game with four consecutive mini-escape-rooms inside of it. Very different from anything else I've played, but they did a great job explaining this dynamic. My recommendation is to really approach your first "climb" with an open mind and to find things in each room that delight you. There's SO MUCH to do, and so much of it is a blast. Visually, this is the most stunning experience in So Cal, maybe even all of North America. This is rivaling things like The Dome (NL) and Chapel & Catacombs (GRC) in terms of scale and environmental immersion/design.

I liked it and I greatly respect the ambition, effort, and level of craft that went into making it. We played it twice on the same day and I am glad we did. But I would not be interested in playing it a third time and I didn’t really enjoy the first playthrough all that much either (just too rushed and stressful). So I am not sure how I feel about a room that you have to play twice to get good enough at it and to basically be able to reuse certain information that you picked up the first time. Recommended, but for me Lab Rat is better. Nevertheless, I think that The Ladder is a must-play for any escape room or interactive storytelling enthusiast. There are some genuinely astonishing moments.

Hatch escapes never disappoints. When you have done so many rooms, it’s hard to be impressed but I’d say this room is in my top 5. This was the shortest 90 mins of my life! The Ladder is wayyyy too advanced for its time. It’s not really your traditional lock and key escape room. Rooms will follow in their footsteps. HIGHLY recommend for all enthusiast. I would not recommend this for a first time escape roomer. The mechanics were incredible, the puzzles were novel, and the sheer # of games/puzzles were crazy. It’s worth the $85 pp.

SO much fun! This game is wonderfully designed to be many things: interesting, deeply replayable, endlessly hilarious, crazily ambitious, but most of all it is just so much FUN! A game so nice I -in the same week- played it twice and will return for thrice.

one of the most ambitious games i’ve ever played. it’s hard to imagine you can get an ideal experience the first time playing, but if you go in with the intention of replaying and going for a higher score, this game could be really revolutionary for the community as a whole. lots to do and i didn’t even get over 60% of what can be experienced.

I wanted to like this. I REALLY wanted to like this, but after numerous mechanical breakdowns (including an entire room that did not work) our experience was quite the let down. Granted this is a fun concept and it is not a traditional escape room, I just felt that there was way too much involved, a-lot of repetitive tasks, and for the price point it's kinda hard to see this as a room that I would like to come back and play just to see the other options.

This room can get tedious and feels very rushed. I know it’s to make it replayable but it got frustrating at times and left us feeling unsatisfied. It’s lots of non-puzzle tasks to complete so it’s fun for a group that isn’t too into puzzling. I prefer more interesting puzzles but I can see that this kind of room has an audience who would love the structure.