Title: Apartment No. 129
Developer: Dead Witness
Publisher: Dead Witness
Release Date: August 2, 2024 (Steam); January 16, 2026 (Console)
Platform: PS5, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch, Windows PC via Steam
Reviewed on: Xbox Series X|S
Price: $13.99 USD

I’ve long stated that the horror genre thrives because of indie developers. Although it’s simple to imitate, horror is a difficult beast to master, and yet, time-and-time again, creative minds in all forms of media—from film, to novels, to video games—are able to pass with visceral flying colors on the strictest of budgets and the tiniest bits of experience. Horror is one of the few genres in which a small group of devs can surpass even the largest studios if they have a unique perspective, and use their creative passions to nail the landing.

That’s what attracted me initially to Apartment No 129. The game, developed by a studio consisting of only two people, takes players to the seldom explored country of Turkey, in which they must overcome their fears and struggle through questions of morality, religion, and philosophy in order to put the damned souls of an abandoned apartment building to rest. I was intrigued by the novel premise, and some of the previews were undeniably unnerving, but in the end, I was left more frustrated and confused than I was afraid.

In Apartment No. 129, you play as Emir: a true crime content creator who gets a tip from his cousin about an infamous apartment building with a sinister past. Legend goes that in 2009, two young women performed a Satanic ritual one night at around midnight, which resulted in an earthquake that violently shook the entire apartment block. Strangely, no official seismic activity was recorded, and only the residents of the building felt the vicious quakes. The two girls also mysteriously died, their bodies discovered laying within a pentagram, bathed in candlelight, and with discernible cause of death. Shortly thereafter, the residents of the building began to suffer further horrific events: crippling depression, frightening nightmares that kept them awake at all hours, and even suspected supernatural events. These issues forced the residents to gradually leave the building until the apartment remained completely abandoned. As interest in the phenomena grew in the general public, the Turkish government worked to suppress the whereabouts of this building to prevent any further horrors from afflicting the world.

Then one day in 2024, Emir receives a call from his cousin, who tells Emir that he has dug up the location of the fabled apartment number 129, and that it’s only a two hour drive from where Emir lives. He urges Emir to get there quickly so that he can be the first YouTuber to cover the legend on location, and Emir reluctantly agrees. However, upon arriving, Emir finds himself barred inside, and, most frighteningly, he’s not alone. Emir uncovers notes addressed directly to him that guide him to various rooms where the most sinister acts have occurred. With no other choice, Emir confronts these horrors head-on as he desperately seeks an avenue of escape.

The game’s story about the two women and the supernatural earthquake comes from a real life urban legend that is apparently well known throughout Turkey. Personally, I think it’s great that the developers focused on something more personal and “homegrown” rather than chasing what’s popular. Not only does the audience get a taste of something that’s likely foreign and not normally explored in gaming, but the uniqueness allows for more surprises, which in turn can lead to far more scares.

And Apartment No. 129 does have some legitimately eerie sequences. The building’s tight hallways and cluttered rooms make for a claustrophobic setting, keeping players on their toes as they brace for a fright with each turn they make. While enemies are few and far between, their twisted faces, wild eyes, quick movements, and blood curdling screams are guaranteed to make your hairs stand on end with each encounter. In addition, there is some grotesque imagery to be found, in particular concerning a hanging corpse that you stumble upon early in the adventure.

Sadly, that’s about all of the positives that I have for Apartment No. 129.

The problems began for me almost immediately. As soon as the game starts, slides are used to set up the story, which are written in Turkish. This would normally be perfectly fine, but the English translation is presented in teeny-tiny font at the bottom of the screen. The first two panels were ok, but the third was so small that I completely missed it. I had to restart the game, get off the couch, and stand right next to my screen to make out the microscopic letters on my TV.

Then, I was presented with the opening cutscene which—along with the game’s ending—is filmed using real actors. At first I thought that this might be a cool little touch, but I couldn’t get over how campy it felt. I can’t understand Turkish, but even so I could tell that the acting was stilted, and the dialogue—at least the English translation of the dialogue—was jarring. While this was a turn off for me, I can imagine that this “camp” factor may be a drawing point for others, and at least it’s better than the live action scenes in Resident Evil Director’s Cut.

After gaining control of my character, I was given whiplash by the absurd camera controls. I’m not exaggerating when I say the smallest touch on the right joystick sent Emir’s focus spiraling from the ceiling back down to the floor. It quite nearly gave me motion sickness, which is something I’ve never felt playing a first-person shooter.

Quickly, I went into settings, and realized that the game defaults the camera sensitivity fully maxed out. It took several minutes of adjusting to get it to a more comfortable place, but I could never quite get it to feel natural, as it was always either too slow or too fast to my liking.

There is also a setting for “look smoothing,” which kind of “snaps” the camera into place as if the camera is being controlled with N64 buttons rather than the thumb stick. Do yourselves a favor, and kindly TURN THIS SETTING OFF.

Soon, I encountered my first environmental puzzle, which called for me to jump over a concrete barrier. Because the controls felt so awkward, I kept thinking that I wasn’t jumping at the right angle because Emir simply would not make the jump over the barrier despite it appearing like he was clearing it. Turns out, I had to go back and grab a box from the previous room, and use that to get a leg up. It’s a minor complaint, but the unintuitive nature of this puzzle resonates throughout the game which most of the objectives that it gives you, and could be explained a bit more.

Continuing on, I got my hands on a flashlight, and then I procured some batteries, which I correctly assumed would be used to power my flashlight. The problem arose maybe ten minutes later, when my flashlight had grown so dim that I was struggling to see practically anything in the apartment’s pitch black halls. This occurred ever so gradually that I didn’t immediately connect that it was actually my flashlight that had burned out; I could still use it after all, and it lit up the walls brightly when they were right next to me, I just couldn’t see more than a couple of feet ahead. After hugging the walls and fumbling around in the dark, I tried to adjust my settings to no avail. Then, I attempted to change the batteries, going into my inventory and trying to “combine” them with the flashlight, but nothing happened. This went on for several minutes to the point I was convinced the game was just designed to be so dark that it’s unplayable. Eventually, in a final act of desperation, I tried combining the batteries again with the flashlight, and this time it worked. Looking back at my recorded footage, I cannot see what I was doing wrong, and can only chalk it up as being a glitch.

After doing some exploring through a dozen or so nearly identical dwellings, I encountered the first of only a handful of enemies in the game, this one being a ferocious dog that came charging at me from out of nowhere. As the beast was biting at my ankles and literally pushing me down the hallway as if the floor was freshly waxed in pure grease, I clumsily navigated the inventory menu and withdrew my axe: the game’s sole melee weapon. I lined up my shot, took a big swing, and then… immediately went out of bounds, clipping through a wall, falling through floors, and passing into a void of endless blue.

After a heavy sigh, I reloaded the game, and had the foresight to assign my axe to a shortcut button on the d-pad, and deftly took out the monstrosity. This would actually be the first and last time I would ever use the axe, as just a few minutes later I would pick up a handgun, which came with the very generous amount of 168 bullets. Survival horror this was not. This was enough firepower to take on a small army, and even the most trigger happy of players would likely never use this much on the handful of enemies in the entire game.

The handgun also came with a flashlight attachment, which actually never requires batteries, so then what is the entire point of giving us batteries for the original flashlight if it’s only going to inconvenience us for the first 15 minutes of the game?

I should add that by this point I had also collected maybe a dozen healing items, and would gather about three times as much by the game’s end, none of which I would ever use. Enemies either kill you so quickly that you don’t get to heal, or you down them by emptying your clip into their skull. Furthermore, you heal automatically after a few seconds anyway, so again I have to ask what even is the point?

I believe the developers made a crucial error in outfitting the player with an arsenal far too early. Because of the abundance of ammunition and healing items, and now equipped with an endless source of light, I felt invincible for the terrors ahead. There’s no fear in conserving your items, so encounters are mostly trivial. Oh, and did I mention the game auto saves after nearly every action? So again, even if you do die, you’re only losing a minute or two at most.

Something else worth mentioning is that the game is very text heavy, requiring you to find and read a lot of documents in order to progress. This isn’t anything new, and most of the writing is actually pretty interesting. However, these documents just aren’t presented very well, and I don’t think even the most well-read gamer is going to be excited when they are frequently shown a huge wall of text that takes up the entire screen. Splitting these into smaller slides with much larger font would have made reading these feel far less of a chore.

Also, Apartment No. 129 is almost completely silent. Aside from your footsteps, there are few other sounds to be heard. Admittedly, this can amplify the fear at times, as the quiet makes you feel hopelessly alone and primes you to jump at even the slightest of unexpected noises that you may come across, but I believe so much more immersion—and ultimately more fear—could be obtained had the developers concentrated more on sound design. Some monsters do produce a bone chilling scream when encountered, but I believe this is only terrifying because the volume is cranked way up to 11, and thus I think it’s a cheap way to startle a player.

There’s also virtually no music, and aside from the live action scenes, there is no voice acting. This is especially noticeable when you encounter a few NPCs in your journey, and you converse with them in silence and with no animation.

One final thing is that the game’s trailers and screenshots all look great, with impressive lighting and crisp visuals. However, at least with the console release, the game has a noticeable dip in quality, with some jagged edges on polygonal objects, grainy visuals, lighting that likes to spaz out, and gratuitous amounts of slowdown and pop-in. I just don’t think the game was optimized well at all for consoles.

Final Score

By the game’s end, the game produces a plot twist that unfortunately falls very flat. It’s an interesting idea on paper, but it’s executed so poorly that it’s practically comical. It’s also the type of twist that I feel has become far too common in horror titles these days that is no longer creative or interesting.

Apartment No. 129 has a lot of promise. I think the seldom visited locale of Turkey can make for a chilling affair, and exploring a lesser known urban legend is a great way to mix in culture and history with some real world frights. The developers genuinely do a good job is crafting an unsettling atmosphere, and I often felt uneasy while exploring these accursed residency. However, my frustrations with the controls, presentation, glitches, and general game design far outweighed any enjoyment I had in being frightened and uncovering the unnerving mystery within. For this reason, I cannot recommend the console release of Apartment No. 129 to any but the most hardcore of horror fans, who might possibly be willing to put up with 2-3 hours of jank for a underwhelming scare.

Final Score: 1.5/5 Stars