Review: Apartment No 129 — A Turkish Urban Legend Strangled by a Botched Console Port
The Bottom Line Up Front: Apartment No 129 has the bones of a compelling, culturally rich horror experience, but it’s currently buried under a mountain of technical failures. From broken interaction hitboxes to a camera sensitivity that feels like it’s on caffeine, the transition from PC to Xbox has been anything but smooth. Unless you have a high tolerance for "jank" and a magnifying glass for the UI, this is a skip until a major patch lands.
There is a specific kind of dread that comes from domestic horror. We’ve seen it mastered in classics like P.T. or Resident Evil 7—the idea that your safest space has been violated. Apartment No 129 taps into this using a fascinating Turkish urban legend from 2009. While the narrative hooks are sharp, our analysis reveals a game that struggles to function as a basic piece of software on the Xbox Series X.
The Atmosphere: A Cultural Win
We have to give credit to the developers for the setup. You play as Emir, a YouTuber chasing clout (a trope that’s becoming the new "investigative journalist" in indie horror). The game opens with real FMV footage, a nostalgic touch that immediately grounds the urban legend of a failed satanic ritual and a subsequent earthquake. Unlike the generic "spooky hospital" settings we see every month, the Turkish cultural lens provides a refreshing bit of lore gain. The environmental storytelling through letters and documents is dense, though we found a major hurdle: the localization text is catastrophically small. Even on a 4K display, you’ll be squinting to grasp the narrative nuances.
Technical Breakdown: When Porting Goes Wrong
If the atmosphere is the hook, the controls are the dealbreaker. It’s clear this was a PC-first title, and the translation to a controller is, frankly, a mess. Here is a breakdown of the technical hurdles we encountered:
- The Sensitivity Crisis: Out of the box, the camera is unmanageable. We recommend immediately diving into the settings to floor the sensitivity before you even take your first step.
- Counter-Intuitive Mapping: The "Interact" logic is baffling. Pressing B to interact with a note but then A to actually read it feels like a relic of poor QoL planning.
- Broken Scripting: We encountered multiple instances where audio cues fired (like a cupboard opening) but the visual asset remained locked, preventing us from grabbing essential resources.
- Weightless Combat: When the game finally hands you an axe or a gun, the "game feel" vanishes. There is zero tactile feedback or hitreg confidence. You’re essentially swinging at air and hoping the enemy’s health bar agrees with you.
The Survival Horror Fatigue
Beyond the bugs, Apartment No 129 leans on some of the most tired tropes in the genre. Our veteran team has seen the "flashlight battery" mechanic a thousand times, and here, it adds nothing but frustration. In a game this dark, the torch isn't a strategic choice; it’s a tax on your patience. While the visual foreshadowing—like rooms full of cloth-covered figures—shows real artistic promise, the impact is neutralized by the frustration of the core gameplay loop.
Key Specs & Performance Data
| Category | Rating / Data |
|---|---|
| Visuals | Strong atmospheric design; poor creature variety. |
| Performance | Unstable camera; broken interaction triggers. |
| Combat | Basic, floaty, and lacking impact. |
| Price Point | £11.74 (Fair, if it were functional). |
| Platform Reviewed | Xbox Series X |
Final Thoughts: A Missed Opportunity
We wanted to love Apartment No 129. The shift toward niche cultural legends is exactly what the indie horror scene needs to stay relevant. However, expertise matters, and the execution of this console port feels rushed. It lacks the polish of its peers and fails to respect the player's time with its unintuitive UI and buggy mechanics.
If you’re a die-hard horror completionist, wait for a deep sale and a few stability patches. For everyone else, there are better ways to get your scares this January. This is a 2/5 experience that could have been a 4/5 with six more months of QA and a better understanding of controller mapping.
Pros:
- Genuine "creepy" factor and sound design.
- Interesting use of Turkish urban legends and FMV.
- Controls feel like an afterthought.
- Game-breaking bugs with inventory and environment.
- Combat is some of the worst we’ve seen this generation.
- Illegibly small UI text.