The Ladder

Last night, we played through The Ladder by Hatch Escapes in Los Angeles. I’ve been vaguely aware of it since we moved to LA, but hadn’t tried any of the Hatch experiences yet. After last night, I can understand exactly why there’s been so much positive buzz around them.

Just to establish where I’m coming from: I’d rank myself as maybe “intermediate” with escape rooms. Definitely not an expert, but I have played through at least a dozen. And immersive entertainment has been kind of like a mechanical bull throughout my career; every so often I’ll be able to get ahold of a contract or an interesting project before it bucks me off and I’m back out of the loop. So I’m tangentially aware of the state of the art, but undeniably behind on seeing the latest and greatest.

By the way, I’m going to keep calling The Ladder an “escape room” even though it’s technically not. One of the things I like about it is that it isn’t as precious about its artistry or innovation like immersive entertainment can sometimes be, insisting that you use the correct terminology for the experience or you’re doing it a disservice. Here, you’re doing 90% of the same type of stuff you’d do in traditional escape rooms: you’re in a group of 4-10, together in the same space, solving thematic puzzles, but your goal is never actually to escape from a room. Instead, it’s tracing a career over the course of several decades, with a light-hearted story — which is genuinely funny and clever throughout — about corporate espionage and back-stabbing.

Until last night, Palace Games in San Francisco were the most technologically advanced escape rooms I’d gone through. The Ladder is extremely ambitious with its technology. I don’t recall any single effect being as dramatic as some of the entire-room transformations as in Palace Games’s best, but The Ladder spreads clever use of tech through every part of the experience. I was especially impressed that Matthew McClain, credited as the “Creative Technologist” for the experience, was selling copies of his book Arduino for Artists in the lobby, encouraging more people to learn how to make creative installations.

At several junction points in the game, the group has to make a choice from a menu, and each one had an ingenious interface that perfectly fit the theme of the room. Even if the rest of the experience had been a disappointment, I was so impressed with the initial room’s selection interface that I still would’ve considered the whole thing a success.

The most unique thing about The Ladder, at least compared to all of the similar experiences that I’ve tried before, is that it’s replayable. And not just in the sense that you can repeat it, but that you might be eager to go back as soon as possible and go through the experience again, so that you can improve your score. Probably the biggest problem I have with escape rooms is that they’re so prone to quarterbacking; one or two players can take over the experience, leaving the rest of the group with little to do.

The Ladder is designed around independent activities with a common theme. There is a main story-based puzzle that you’re working to figure out, but there are also multiple other puzzles or games in each room that you can complete just to improve your team’s score. Our team didn’t accomplish the main story goal, but I get the impression that we would’ve needed to complete the story and earn a sufficiently high score in order to get the best ending(s). And a recap sheet that you’re given at the end of the game reveals the fact that there are several different possible endings.

Our team had four people, which was the minimum number of players allowed in the experience, and frankly isn’t enough to do very well. I’d guess that the ideal number is around 6. The company sets the upper limit at 10 players, but I can’t imagine that many people crammed into the small rooms that make up most of the experience.

I’m being deliberately vague to spoil as little as possible, but if it’s not clear, I highly recommend The Ladder to anybody in southern California that has an interest not just in escape rooms, but theme parks or interactive entertainment in general. It’s really funny, and it’s designed to respect your time and let you have fun. I can’t wait to try Hatch’s other experiences, and especially to see what they do next.