The last (for now) entry in The Room series of games, and one I hope future games will continue to build on. The series has gotten larger with each entry, from the small but intricate puzzle boxes of the first to exploring an entire mansion in 3, alongside a much more developed narrative. Old Sins is a bit of a step back in that regard, replacing the cutscenes and multiple endings of the third and replacing them with standard diary entries, but replacing that we get a more intricately designed level space, where puzzles in one room can only be solved by an object from another. It makes the game feel much more complete, makes the doll house that you are exploring seem less like a series of adventure game levels and more a space of its own. I've always felt a bit of longing for a return to the simplicity of the first game, where all you were doing was exploring an complex object, all of its nooks and crannies, and this fourth game comes the closest to recapturing that magic.

The Room 4: Old Sins was the culmination of all previous games, simultaneously going back to its roots with a singular object being the main focus while still including an entire mansion with various rooms to step into just like the last instalment. The big difference was the new protagonist and storyline, but like the rest of the series the story had to be pieced together because it was all rather vague. The Null was definitely an interesting concept and I’ve always appreciated the Lovecraftian themes.

It was a good run—I don’t consider any of the four games to be bad. The physics were always satisfying, the puzzles always varied.

With a four hour playtime, the game was probably twice as long as the first game. I jumped from one to four, exactly how a series is meant to be played!
I gave it the same rating as the first game for different reasons. I think it has more going on, the puzzles are still solid though never too hard. A few seem hard because I don't think you're given enough contextual information from some of the components, like maybe you weren't aware something could turn. I also found the "tentacle" scenes to be quite boring eventually. Once you complete a room, tentacles swarm the place and either kick you out or your character flees before darkening the room and prevent re-entry. The first time you see them they're a bit spooky, maybe even the time after that, but then it happens six more times. It just feels like loading screens, even though I doubt that's what they are. Same with the in-game journals you find in each room. Like the first game, they don't make much sense, arguably ever, but certainly not until the end where they really ramp up. It's seemingly a bizarre attempt at adding a story, until the very end of the game where there's a cutscene and your character apparently has a name and you see this cult and your crystal is one of many. So clearly there is a story here, but it's just sort of tucked in at the end and you don't ever really care.
But it's a puzzle game, first and foremost, and I'd say they all work pretty well. Towards the end, maybe it's simply the four hour time requirement, I was ready for it to be over. Even though I think they nailed the pace at which you open new rooms, thus keeping a sense of "freshness" going the whole time, four hours was simply too long. Probably could have lost an entire one of the rooms, here, maybe even two.
All in all, a fun game, another solid entry, though sadly while it improved it also managed to falter. I wonder if the fifth game will change the formula at all, though not likely, as these are also mobile games. That's probably where all the money is these days. It sucks that that is likely a limiter as to how much more this series can do.

The Room 4: Old Sins feels like a fresh start, utilizing what the team learned from the first three games and iterating upon it to create something that rivals the third game for the best in the series thus far.

So many of the issues with the previous games have been ironed out, namely the puzzle difficulty. There was a lot more challenge to each solution than any of the previous games offered, without resorting to moon logic to complete its puzzles.

The game is also much more interwoven in its design, thanks to using a (technically) much tighter space instead of expanding endlessly beyond a single room. It's a welcome return to form, since it offered a lot of cohesion through both flow and puzzle design affecting different parts of the central dollhouse.

And lastly, story has seen a welcome uplift. Where The Room 1 and 2 both feel like they were still trying to find their footing, and 3 offered some semblance of story, The Room 4 offers a story that's much more engaging even if the team is still perfecting their craft.

The only complaint I can give is the removal once again of branching ending paths. While a bit tedious in gameplay, having those various endings based on your dedication to the game in The Room 3 was welcome. I know this story wouldn't have made sense for a multi-ending structure, but it would've been good to see nonetheless.

Either way, I'm excited to see how the team further iterates in The Room 5, since it's creeping closer and closer to masterpiece status.

The Room series is a very consistent series, with titles that all have the same qualities and weaknesses. These games are basically like shape-sorter toys pretending to be puzzle games. But it comes with an excellent dark art direction, very creative visuals and cool animations that it's still worth playing if you're into that gothic horror vibe. This 4th episode takes place entirely inside a mansion, with each room having a specific theme. It's pretty cool, I especially like the Japanese themed room.
Just don't expect a real puzzle game a la Myst, as all the puzzles can be solved by pressing buttons and inserting objects into the right holes. There isn't really any moments in which you really have to think about the solution. Most of the time if I got stuck, it was because I didn't know what part of the mechanism could be interacted with.

The Room bills itself as a series of puzzle games, and this is nominally true. There are puzzles, and you solve them, but that is not the main draw of the series for me. What The Room is is an exercise in spectacle. The games are excellent at drawing you deeper into the madness of the setting, much like its main character (the wild, dark Null element) draws the characters deeper into its own madness. Every puzzle completed is an invitation to wonder just how deep the rabbit hole goes. Not all the puzzles are entirely intuitive, but they all succeed in leading the player down the garden path to hell.