On July 23, developer Scott Cawthon dropped a bomb on the public in the form of a formerly fuzzy bear that just so happens to enjoy eating people. The fourth installment in his horror puzzle adventure series Five Nights at Freddy’s was released three months early to shocked (and yet overtly enthusiastic) consumers.

The meteoric rise of the Freddy’s series is only bested by the astoundingly brief development cycle of the games themselves. The initial title was released less than a year ago, in August of 2014. Since then, three more have been released, and they seem to be more popular than ever.

And that’s the perplexing part.

You see, Five Nights at Freddy’s 4 is purported to be the final installment in the series. A franchise less than one year old is already being shelved for the sake of the developer, who would like to move onto other projects.

Cawthon has been out front saying it would be the final game, but he’s also made a show of playing coy with the public in the past, so I wouldn’t be surprised if I saw a fifth game in the next several months. I’ll be shining my flashlight down the hallway of the franchise until I’m sure there’s nothing lurking there.

It would seem that each subsequent game after the first would be like leftover meatloaf, merely reheated and dished out half-cold to fans. That’s not the truth, however. Each game built on the strengths of the previous ones, lead up to this fourth and final title. And though I have my reservations about the franchise, my basic feeling is this: though the fourth game uses some of the same old tactics to scare the headsets off its player base, the supremely creepy atmosphere is more than enough to draw in players for one more go-around.

In Five Nights at Freddy’s 4, you’re not a bumbling security guard of some kind, or an amusement park employee, but a child cowering in his room.

While the popular and well-known animatronic beasts from previous games lurk somewhere in the house, you must use a flashlight and your sense of hearing to ward off your tormentors until the fabled six o’clock hour strikes. There is no camera-checking, no security video to view. In that way, it’s more akin to the second game than the odd numbered ones.

Each sequel has built on the series’ lore in interesting ways. Each has brought new challenges, mechanics, and narrative threads. Sure, it doesn’t have the mechanical complexity of more ambitious games, but going from the first to the fourth game reveals a developer working on his craft, and one thing remains abundantly clear: these games are scary.

Sure, they’re kind of like dime-store haunted house scares, but that doesn’t make them any less effective. I’m a grown-ass man with a job and student loans and almost zero fear of horror movies or the dark, and each and every FNAF game has managed to make me shriek like a scalded dog.

However, I still admit it’s a more-than-familiar experience. You’re not going to be blown away by the creative or technical leaps in the game. Other than the noticeable change in scenery and some other mechanical features, the concept is the same: survive five nights in an enclosed space, flashing lights and closing doors to prevent your erstwhile “friends” from creeping in and scaring the PJs off of you.

You have four areas of concern to monitor. They are the two hallway doors on either side, the closet directly in front of you, and the bed behind you. Let one area linger unattended for too long, and you’re bound to have a very bad night. The difficulty curve appears to be much higher than in previous games, so it might take a bit longer to reach the final few nights, but once you’ve developed a strategy for how to proceed, the game becomes way easier.

What is new is that FNAF4 has added a inter-level mini-game involving Springtrap, which offers players a two hour respite in the subsequent night for stopping him with the flashlight. The game also builds on the lore, which is weird, considering that the series basically began its life as a pants-wetting simulator. The narrative pieces feel almost unnecessary and are so mechanically thin that they could basically be cutscenes, but they do add some depth to the game.

As far as the gameplay and puzzle-solving elements go, Five Nights 4 has a kind of internal logic that must first be bested before real success can occur. Before that happens, you’ll die several (dozen) times. If you happen to live with someone else, as I do, then you’ll certainly try that person’s patience and love before you manage to feel less like an idiot than you (probably) are.

I can definitely see template exhaustion becoming apparent, but it works well enough for me, and like I said above, the game is not without its slight surprises.

The key feature to pay attention to is the auditory component. Rather than just click around and look at how the “demonatronics” are moving around the area, you’ll need to listen for their movements. You’ll spend a lot of time learning the aural clues that will prevent an attack, and that learning curve can be low or high, depending on how much attention you pay to it.

My only real qualm about Five Nights at Freddy’s 4 is also its most distinct and interesting element: the sound design. You do become aware of the nuances of the characters’ movements, but before that, you’ll probably spend a lot of time trying to discern between the score and in-game noise. It’s frustrating until it clicks, then it doesn’t matter because you’ve got the sounds squared away.

I’ve seen some similar complaints online, and I will say that it gets easier over time. You kind of have to give yourself over to the game a little bit and pay attention to the sound design to be able to distinguish between the varying auditory elements.

The sound of tiny pattering feet behind you, or the clink of what appear to be dishes in the kitchen provide a creepy distraction from your mission of protecting yourself. Headphones, I must add, are a must.

In the end, whether or not you’ve tired of the formula of FNAF will be a determining factor in whether or not you’ll want to pick the game up. If you think the game has grown stale through repetition, then you may not like it. However, if your nervous system has had time to bounce back from the third game and you feel like you’ve got one more in you, then it’s almost an obvious choice that you check out Five NIghts at Freddy’s 4.

The Final Word: Five Nights at Freddy’s 4 provides players with more than enough reasons to come back for one more soul-withering scare.