Why I Can’t Get ‘The Ladder’ at Hatch Escapes Out of My Head
Last week, I had the pleasure of meeting up with six friends and playing the newest game at Hatch Escapes in LA, The Ladder. And I’ve been thinking about it ever since. (Certain elements in the photograph pixelated to hide spoilers!)
First things, first: I strongly recommend The Ladder, even if you don’t consider yourself an escape room enthusiast. I would also recommend organizing a group of 6–8 players, particularly folks who you might want to play with more than once because this experience has multiple endings and is truly replayable!
Explanation of the design follows:
So I hesitate to even call The Ladder an “escape room” because not only is it one of the most ambitious immersive experiences I’ve ever played, it lacks a lot of the features that people traditionally associate with escape rooms. The Ladder doesn’t have a normal countdown timer, you are not locked in, and it’s impossible to truly “lose” at the game. There are (at least) five separate rooms in the experience, each one representing a single decade, and themed appropriately going from the 1950s to the 1990s and everybody gets to see every room because the experience pushes you forward regardless.
All teams reach the end of the experience; however, the ending you receive is dependent upon a few factors, namely if you achieve two simultaneous goals during the 90-minute run time: solving the (very difficult) puzzles in each room while also making at least $1 million by playing the mini games. This means the experience has basically two separate tracks, and if you want to do well, you need enough people on your team to be able to divide and conquer, which means it is possible to play without working on puzzles the entire time.
Your team chooses an avatar and you collectively get to make choices along the way that affect the story about your avatar’s rise within a corrupt vitamin company in Nebraska, narrative beats which get communicated via cut scenes between rooms. Do you get married and start a family or become a cat lady? Do you look for corporate secrets? And what do you do with those secrets, keep them or spill the beans? Do you make ethical choices, unethical choices, or double-crossing choices? Plus: the choices available to your team’s player character also depends upon how well you did in each decade and there are things that get unlocked on subsequent playthroughs. (Did I mention that the Ladder is extremely ambitious?)
During this first playthrough, I stuck to the mini games (aka the money winning track) while other friends attempted to solve the puzzles, all of which are tied in directly to the overarching story of your player character’s career. And your team is given less than 15 minutes within each room where you do your best to do both tracks, but you might have to leave some puzzles unfinished as you move on. Overall, we made enough money to meet our goal but didn’t solve all the puzzles in every room, which led us to one of several possible endings.
And what I haven’t mentioned is that the writing is hilariously on point (your nemesis in the game is named Stab Backner and is played in the cut scene videos by Jordan Melfi of Entourage fame) as is the theming (the 1950s room is built entirely in black and white, for example).
Hatch Escapes have created a really wonderful, replayable interactive experience. I’ve been thinking about it ever since. And I can’t wait to go back.
