The Ladder

While one of the most technically impressive and expensive escape rooms I’ve ever been a part of, its completely disconnected elements make it one of the least satisfying rooms I’ve ever done. You’re never quite sure what to be focusing on, or how you’re well you’re doing. There’s way too much in here for a single escape room, and half of the room has nothing to do with the other half of the room, which is why they encourage you to come back and spend more money to do it again… which is funny, considering the entire theme of the room is about corporate capitalist greed. If you do do this room, either commit fully to the “puzzle” track or the “games” track, don’t waste time doing both since they don’t work together. If you want an actual escape room, just do the puzzle track. If you have a large group and want to split up and just play their pointless minigames, do the games track. But don’t give into the cash grab and pay to do it again.

We didn’t love it. Less an escape room and more a series of puzzles. Sets were great and themed well. It gets super chaotic at points. If you work in a hi-stress environment during the week, perhaps this isn’t the room for you in your off time.

We just played The Ladder for the second time and it has to be one of the best escape rooms. The immersion is incredible, we truly felt like we were climbing the corporate ladder! It's very high tech and allows you to make different choices including characters, costumes, and what choices to make which affects your gameplay! The games are very fun and can be done multiple times by multiple people without feeling boring. The puzzles are pretty difficult, we want to play again and spend most of our time on those! The gamemasters and janitors are incredibly helpful and in character. Highly recommend all of the rooms including Lab Rats, The Nest, and The Ladder at Hatch Escape and can't wait to play The Ladder again.

I liked the idea, but it's just extremely unrewarding. It definitely has lots of replayability, but I can't imagine why anyone would want to, especially for the price.

This is not a traditional escape room. It felt more like an unrewarding video game. But it was cool.

The Ladder is more of an experience than an escape room, where each room is a 15-minute container and you are moving through each decade with your chosen character. It’s the best of both worlds in my opinion with the “choose your own adventure” and escape room/arcade game feel. There are multiple pathways to win so you never really lose and you’re doing something the entire time either to get more story or more money. Do it for the plot takes on a different meaning here. When we played the experience, the technical pieces ran smoothly and we came in with the expectation that this was a linear immersive video game. Our game master, Chelsea, is probably the most amazing human ever so that definitely made our HR onboarding a seamless one. We also came on a Wednesday, which significantly reduced the price point for our group. I see the vision of how this is meant to be played more than once and now I want to back to see what other lives I may have lived! I always have completions tendencies so I know there is always going to be that part of me that’s hesitant to shift to a new focus or let a task go. One feedback I would have is to have a much more obvious signal if the games and puzzles were solved. Sometimes, we were not sure if it has already been solved or we messed up along the way. The point is to have fun and we did have a lot of fun. Thank you so much Chelsea and Hatch for a great 50 years 😭

In simple terms... not worth the money for a group of four, almost impossible to do everything in your first try for the room, the mini games are not innovative but rather arcady. And they dont honestly make sense with the story line as one might think. The puzzle part really doesn't make sense to be solved on a first run in the alotted time. It might have been a group size issue, but having done more than 50 escape rooms and finishing them with time remaining, finding ourselves here not able to finish anything feels disappointing. Adding to that the fact that some parts of the " experience " in this room can be accessed only on playing it a second time... Before going into this room, just keep two things in mind: 1- this is something you have to play again ( basically double the already high price ) in case you want to achieve something and have the actual full experience. 2- its a 75% mini games and 25% escape room type of deal ( you would understand what this means if u do the room ) Room design and theme are one of the best we have ever done though, kudos to that.. Bonus: Lab rat is a definite masterpiece though.

Loads of fun. Less of an escape room and more of a choose your own adventure book almost. Would absolutely recommend giving it a try. There are multiple paths all with different endings along with upgrades and modifiers you can earn along the way as you climb the corporate ladder. The room is designed so you play the entire time so you goal isn’t speed but high score. We managed to get just over $1.2 million dollars by the end with the “Messiah” ending.

A truly unique experience that has something for everyone, which is both praise and criticism. If you’re a die hard puzzler and escape room fan, you might leave a little bit disappointed, but if you go with an open mind and know that it’s not so much an escape room as it is a linear immersive video game with puzzles that you can play with up to 10 of your friends, then you’ll have a great time. It’s a unique story, some good twists and turns, really incredible tech and integration, and a great host. I’ve done it twice and thoroughly enjoyed both times, and it is explicitly designed to be repeatable. But your mileage may vary, and a few people in my group enjoyed it but didn’t rank it as high as other escape rooms in the complex like lab rat.