The Ladder

So it wasn't so much an escape room rather an interactive game where you play mini games with multiple endings depending on your choices and if you solved certain puzzles. The mini games you play in various rooms help earn you money for a certain goal and There are puzzles that you can choose to do or ignore that can affect you later in the experience.

I can see why The Ladder is decisive. Lots of people love it and lots of people hate it. I definitely see both sides of the story. It’s unique, ambitious and tries to tell an individual story every time, while having enough for everyone to do. Pick two. I really like what Hatch has done to definitely push the boundaries of the standard escape room. I see the criticism and agree that it is valid. The game itself though is now in a state such that the core gameplay loop is solid and fun varied puzzles make it a good experience. The puzzle track we did not solve, though a repeat play may change that. Feels like a real life video game. Take from it what you will, I appreciate how ambitious and different this game is. Though not for everybody, it’s truly ambitious and worth a play through at least once. Also it was my 300th game!!

This really felt like an RPG videogame with mini games come to life! I was completely immersed from the very start. The tech, the puzzles, the mini games, the overarching score, and some of the uniquely frenetic and overwhelmingly fun elements that I will leave vague to prevent spoilers were amazing - I'll come back to replay it for a different ending for sure 💯.

This is one of the more uncoventional escape rooms because there is an escape room component (puzzles) but there are also mini games. Even now, I still don't get the entire concept. 😅 But I did this with 4 people. And 2 people (myself included) focused on the puzzles, while the other 2 (or 1, depending on how hard the puzzle was on that stage) focuses on the mini games. I was with go-getters so they were aiming for Messiah level (completed the puzzles and did very well on the mini games), but we fell short and only got President level. 😅😆 Our GM did say that our group was the only group who was able to achieve President level because everyone else achieved Clown status that day. 🤣 So that was still pretty impressive. 😁

Definitely like no other room or rooms I’ve done this far. It’s sorta like a choose your own adventure thing. Will be going back again for alt endings

The Ladder is not a traditional escape room game as it is designed to make you come back and replay it. The story was well-designed and the props were fun. Our group enjoyed the individual little games and spent most of our time grinding those out. BUT (yes, here we go), as an escape room fan, this is not what I’m looking for. I’d rather spend my money at an arcade to play those games. I honestly think it’s not worth the money because you compile many games into one experience (and some props did not working properly given it’s a relatively new room) . It’s a novel experience I’d say, but I’d prefer a more traditional escape room experience.

So upset that I made an account just to leave a review. 90 minutes gameplay time is not truthful by the way. I think this must be mentioned, because you have to earn that last 15 minutes. Normally you'll only get 75 minutes.. One of the worst overall experiences I have had, would not recommend unless you have plenty of spare cash laying on your bedroom floor. This game is designed with a difficulty that would require multiple attempts to clear. The first red flag is that there is an option in the beginning that is locked unless it was your repeat attempt. The difficulty will be explained in greater detail in the [Gameplay] section. However, to me it was an artificial difficulty, intentionally designed to be generally unclearable in the first attempt.

It’s less on a traditional escape experience, and more an interactive almost video game like experience with some core puzzle elements. Essentially each room is one core puzzle with mini games on the side. It’s a cool room design, high tech touch points throughout with a very unique play experience. My big critique of the room is that while it’s designed for 6+ players, it’s very hard to have more than 2/3 working on the core puzzle at a time. While others are off in their own world doing side quests. The experience feels disjointed. I appreciate the ambition of this, just doesn’t quite gel to me as an overall experience especially if you’re desiring a traditional escape experience.

I really wanted to thumbs up this game. In some aspects it is insanely impressive. set, and visual quality are at the top of their game and yet, it doesn’t save them from a poor pricing model, tone deaf themes, and lackluster gameplay/ending. While in the moment I thoroughly enjoyed most of the game. The ladder is not like most escape rooms. More of a live action video game. combining games and puzzles throughout. Games give you money that progress towards your end goal. And puzzles add an extra flair to the lore and experience of the room. (You want to finish puzzles. You’ll feel more fulfilled). My gripe is not with the difficulty but instead with how the game is designed to make use of the replayability feature. We dedicated almost all of our time to these puzzles and only finished 1 of them. At the end of the game, you are given a breakdown of how you did and where your ending fell in the grand scheme of things. We fell in the bottom half. Expectant of a first time group to this replayable experience. But to return I still have to pay over 300+ dollars to do so. The small discount they give you after to come back is nice but not nearly enough to incentivize me to play a replayable game. If the ladder wasn’t built upon replayablity I wouldn’t have such an issue with the pricing. A replayable game about corporate America asks its players to dump hundreds if not thousands of dollars into it should you want the whole experience. In my opinion that’s tone deaf of the designers to price the game in this way. (Totally get real estate isn’t cheap and escape rooms are leisure activities but I’d genuinely come back and play if I didn’t have to spend so much to come back each time.) Overall it’s an interesting concept. Just racked with issues though. Games were fun, our janitor great, effects cool, but I left feeling like I got 50% of the experience and if I just payed them more money, I’d get the extra 50%. So much for climbing the whole ladder.

i really wanted to like this room but it just didn’t bring me joy. i’ve done a lot of escape rooms and some immersive experiences and maybe because it cost $89 per person i had high expectations. maybe if my group focused on the puzzle aspect, we would have had a better experience? i don’t know and will probably not find out.