Comparison

A Dark Room vs Sorcery! 4

Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both games, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.

Head to head
About

A Dark Room

Awaken in a mysterious world with a throbbing head and blurry vision. Follow the voices' instructions to survive and explore this text-based adventure. Experience a game free from ads, loot boxes, in-app purchases, and tracking, fully playable with VoiceOver.

Highlights
  • Text-based adventure
  • Survival mechanics
  • Exploration
  • Resource management
  • VoiceOver compatible
  • No ads or IAP
Features
Read full description

awake. head throbbing. vision blurry. the voices say to survive. - One of Apple's most downloaded apps of 2014. - Ranked in the top 10 games in 70 countries, #1 app overall in 7 countries. - No ads, no loot boxes, no IAP, no tracking. - 100% playable via VoiceOver. - Relive the glory days of gaming from the era of Zork.

About

Sorcery! 4

Embark on an epic open-world narrative adventure in a cursed citadel filled with monsters, traps, and magic. Explore a hand-drawn 3D world, make thousands of choices that shape your story, and master new spells. Your decisions, disguises, and interactions with characters will lead to multiple endings.

Highlights
  • Open-world exploration
  • Dynamic storytelling
  • Thousands of choices
  • Disguise system
  • Magic spellcasting
  • Multiple endings
  • Swindlestones mini-game
Features
Read full description

An epic adventure through a cursed citadel of monsters, traps and magic. Begin your journey here (Parts 1-3 not required) - or conclude your epic adventure. "One of the finest RPGs ever made" - Rock, Paper, Shotgun, Best RPG of 2016 "Sorcery! pushes and exploits both genre tropes and limitations, not as mere parody but in order to provide a better role-playing experience. A masterful work." - TechRaptor 9/10 Praise for Part 3: Editors Choice, Apple; iPad Best Game of the Year selection "One of 2015's best iPhone games" - TIME magazine "An amazing adventure..." - TouchArcade 5/5 An open-world narrative adventure into a cursed Citadel of monsters, traps and magic. Fight weird creatures, cast powerful spells that shape the story, cheat death, and explore everywhere. Begin your journey here, or conclude your adventure from Part 3. + Explore freely - go where you want through a hand-drawn, 3D world, creating your own unique story + Totally dynamic storytelling - the story adapts itself around everything you do + Thousands of choices - all are remembered, from the big to the small, and all will shape your adventure + Disguise yourself - adopt different disguises as you infiltrate the Citadel. Characters react differently depending on how you are dressed + Uncover the secrets of magic - secret spells to discover, and new forms of magic to master + Multiple endings, and hundreds of secrets - the game is stuffed with secrets and hidden content. Can you enter the vaults? Will you find the grave of the invisible girl? + Cheat, swindle, deceive, or play with honour - how will you win the trust of the citizens of Mampang? Remember, every choice matters... + New enemies, including mutants, guards, merchants and the undead - each with their own strengths and weaknesses + Adapted from the best-selling gamebook series by legendary game designer Steve Jackson + Swindlestones is back! The game of bluff and deceit is back, with the toughest opponents yet - the Gambling Monks of Effe + Seven Gods, all with different quirks and powers + Start your adventure here, or load your character and all your choices from Part 3 + New music from "80 Days" composer Laurence Chapman + New 3D hand-drawn maps to explore by Mike Schley You have reached the gates of Mampang, the ancient Fortress of Sorcerers. It is guarded by Birdmen, mutants, traps and ancient, wild magic. But inside is the Crown of Kings and the only hope for peace in the Old World. You must make your way past chasms, guards, walls and evil magic if you are to face the Archmage - and survive. From the creators of TIME's Game of the Year 2014 and four-time BAFTA nominee, "80 Days", comes the final part of the epic, acclaimed Steve Jackson's Sorcery! series, co-creator of Games Workshop and Fighting Fantasy (with Iain Livingstone). Using inkle's unique ink engine, the story is written in real-time, built around your choices and actions. Every action is remembered, and every decision, however small, can make the different between life and death, success and failure, humiliation or triumph. Sorcery! 4 is our most complex story to date, featuring over half a million words of adaptive content which incorporates all your choices from previous parts. The Sorcery! is true epic, interactive storytelling - and it concludes here.

Screenshots

A Dark Room4 screens
Sorcery! 44 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is ratings volume: A Dark Room at 2.7K against Sorcery! 4's 86. A Dark Room also leads on review sentiment (93% vs 77%) and rating (4.8 vs 4.6). Sorcery! 4's advantage is iOS requirement (8.0 vs 11.0). On update cadence, ads, in-app purchases and monetization model there is nothing between them.

Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

A Dark Room costs $1.99 and Sorcery! 4 $4.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

A Dark Room holds the better App Store score, 4.8 against 4.6. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: A Dark Room has 2.7K ratings behind it against 86, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 93% of A Dark Room's written reviews are positive against 77% of Sorcery! 4's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Both ship on a similar rhythm, roughly every 2 months. The most recent releases landed on October 15, 2026 and October 14, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard6 real differences · 5 level
A Dark Room versus Sorcery! 4: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterA Dark RoomSorcery! 4
Price$1.99 — better$4.99
Rating4.8 (2.7K ratings) — better4.6 (86 ratings)
Positive reviews92.7% of reviews — better76.9% of reviews
Number of ratings2.7K — better86
Update frequencyEvery 2 monthsEvery 2 months
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationPaidPaid
Best chart rank#24 — better—
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPodiPhone, iPad, iPod
Requires iOS11.08.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size100 MB447 MB
Age rating12+12+
DeveloperAmirali Rajaninkle

Customer experience

A Dark Room

All ratings2,655 ratings
Positive94.4%
Neutral1.4%
Negative4.2%
Written reviews1,400 reviews
Positive92.7%
Neutral1.6%
Negative5.7%

Sorcery! 4

All ratings86 ratings
Positive89.5%
Neutral2.3%
Negative8.1%
Written reviews78 reviews
Positive76.9%
Neutral10.3%
Negative12.8%

Bugs and requests

A Dark Room

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

Sorcery! 4

Reported bugs

2 issues
  • Can't move on in the game
  • Final ending underwhelming

Requested features

7 requests
  • Choice of language at the start
  • Option to enable rewind mechanic
  • Beginner/weakling mode with rewind
  • Limited number of rewinds
  • More help or tutorial for new players
Show 2 more
  • Allow rewind after completing the game a certain number of times
  • Option to enable/disable rewind in settings

In-app purchases

None

A Dark Room

No in-app purchases

None

Sorcery! 4

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is A Dark Room free?
A Dark Room costs $1.99, with no in-app purchases.
Is Sorcery! 4 free?
Sorcery! 4 costs $4.99, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, A Dark Room or Sorcery! 4?
A Dark Room is rated higher. A Dark Room averages 4.8 out of 5 from 2.7K ratings, while Sorcery! 4 averages 4.6 from 86 ratings.
Do A Dark Room or Sorcery! 4 have ads?
Neither A Dark Room nor Sorcery! 4 shows ads.
Which is updated more often, A Dark Room or Sorcery! 4?
A Dark Room ships an update every 2 months, and Sorcery! 4 every 2 months. Most recently, A Dark Room was updated on October 15, 2026 and Sorcery! 4 on October 14, 2026.

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