Dead Witness Studio has released their psychological thriller Apartment No. 129 for the PS5. Is it worth your time and money, or should this one be left to rot in the dark?
Apartment No. 129 is a compact, first-person psychological horror game from Dead Witness Studio that draws heavy inspiration from a disturbing real-life 2009 incident in Turkey involving two teenage girls, alleged satanic rituals, and their mysterious deaths in the now-infamous apartment.
You play as Emir, a skeptical content creator who enters the sealed building hoping to film something viral. What begins as a cynical investigation quickly becomes a personal confrontation with guilt, doubt, and the supernatural. The story unfolds across roughly 4–6 hours with branching choices that lead to multiple endings, delivered through live-action cutscenes featuring real actors for added authenticity.
Story and Premise
The narrative is rooted in the chilling 2009 urban legend: two girls reportedly performed satanic rituals with candles, leading to their deaths and rumors of an unrecorded earthquake that damaged the building. The game transforms this real tragedy into a tense, supernatural descent.
Atmosphere and Immersion
The atmosphere is suffocating from the first moment. Dimly lit hallways, cracked walls covered in occult symbols, flickering lights, and scattered remnants of the girls’ lives create an overwhelming sense of tragedy and intrusion. The sound design is masterful—distant whispers, creaking floors, sudden demonic shrieks, and low, ominous rumbles keep tension high at all times.
On PS5, the DualSense controller takes immersion to another level. Haptic feedback makes every step across debris feel real, adaptive triggers add weight to reloading your handgun, and intense vibrations pulse during terrifying encounters. The combination of moody lighting, detailed decay, and tactile feedback makes the horror feel uncomfortably personal.
Gameplay Mechanics
Gameplay follows classic survival-horror traditions: explore the multi-floor building, collect notes for lore and clues, solve environmental puzzles, and manage limited resources like ammo and health items. The layout encourages cautious backtracking, with hidden areas rewarding thorough exploration.
Combat is deliberately clunky and unforgiving. The handgun feels stiff to aim, bullets are scarce, and enemies are grotesque and relentless, forcing you to prioritize evasion over confrontation. Player choices—ranging from small moral decisions to major acts of forgiveness or condemnation—directly influence Emir’s mental state and determine which of several endings you reach.
Religious Themes
The game’s deepest layer is its exploration of faith, doubt, and redemption. Emir begins as a staunch atheist who mocks the idea of the supernatural and views religious belief as weakness. As the horrors escalate, inverted crosses, demonic invocations, and manifestations challenge his worldview, forcing him to question whether evil is external or born from his own guilt and choices.
Your decisions throughout the game tie directly into this theme: do you show mercy rooted in forgiveness, or give in to anger and skepticism? The endings powerfully reflect these choices, offering either release through faith or eternal punishment for rejection, giving the short experience surprising philosophical weight.
PS5 Performance
The PS5 version runs beautifully, locking at 60fps in performance mode with crisp visuals, dynamic shadows, and highly detailed environments that highlight every crack and bloodstain. Load times are nearly instant, and there are no noticeable technical issues.
You can also choose quality mode for enhanced 4K visuals if you prefer sharper detail over frame rate. The DualSense features are fully utilized and feel essential to the horror experience rather than gimmicky.
Strengths and Weaknesses
- Strengths — Genuine dread, meaningful player agency, real-world-inspired story, exceptional atmosphere and DualSense integration
- Weaknesses — Intentionally rough combat/controls, simple puzzles, limited enemy variety (adds to the raw indie vulnerability)
Final Verdict
Apartment No. 129 is a tense, atmospheric, and surprisingly thoughtful horror experience that punches well above its weight. If you enjoy psychological dread, real-world-inspired stories, and games that make you question morality and belief, this is an easy recommendation.
8
Apartment No. 129 review code provided by publisher and reviewed on a PS5. For more information on scoring, please read What our review scores really mean.
