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 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.