The Woman Above

Something is moving in the apartment above

The Woman Above is a short first-person psychological horror puzzle game from Beshbarmak games, following a vacationer who checks into a rented apartment only to hear strange moans coming from the unit above on their very first night. This review draws on a total review sample of only 6 reviews at the time of research, one of the smallest samples this review has covered, and one that is not entirely in English.

A simple premise: a rented apartment, and something above it

The game's hook is deliberately small in scale. Players check into a rented vacation apartment, only to hear unsettling moans coming from the unit directly above on their very first night, and must decide whether to investigate. From there, the game leans on puzzle-solving rather than combat or chase sequences to unravel exactly what is happening upstairs, with reviewers describing colour and phone-based puzzles as the main mechanical throughline connecting the story's beats. One reviewer sums up their first playthrough bluntly: "very good game loved it a lot, but the first part I wasn't expecting that," suggesting the opening stretch lands its intended shock even within such a compact runtime.

Praised for a dark, compact story built around puzzles

Where this review found praise, it centred on the game's tightly focused, hour-long structure. "It's a puzzle game more than anything. Lots of video settings, played great, found a couple small bugs but not game ending. Takes about an hour," reads one detailed review. A separate reviewer independently agrees on the core appeal: "a pretty simple game that unravels a dark story." This review treats that as fair: two independent reviewers converging on the same basic description, a compact, puzzle-driven horror experience that can be finished in a single sitting, is credible evidence the game delivers what it promises on its store page, even within such a small sample.

A fair, corroborated complaint about one specific, unfixed sound design problem

Set against that praise, this review found a specific, repeated complaint pointed at one particular puzzle. "That colored phone puzzle needs to be fixed. They just won't stop ringing and the ringing is everywhere!!" reads one review. A second, non-English review independently raises the exact same complaint in stronger terms, reporting that they could not finish the game "because I experienced some stress and discomfort continuing due to the disturbance of the phone ringing sound that would not stop," and asking the developer to change the ringtone to something less grating. This review treats that as fair: two independent reviewers, in two different languages, converging on the exact same specific puzzle and the exact same specific sound design complaint, is strong, corroborated evidence of a genuine, unresolved problem severe enough to have driven at least one player away from finishing the game entirely. It is a notable finding precisely because it is so narrow: rather than a broad complaint about the horror atmosphere or scares being poorly executed, both reviewers zero in on the same single mechanical and audio element, which this review treats as a problem the developer should be able to isolate and fix more readily than a vaguer complaint about pacing or tone would allow.

A fair complaint about minor bugs

This review also found a smaller, secondary complaint about polish. A separate reviewer independently reports "a few glitches" while still recommending the game overall, echoing the first reviewer's account of "a couple small bugs but not game ending." This review treats that as fair: two independent reviewers describing the same general category of minor, non-blocking technical issues is credible evidence of a rough but largely functional launch state, distinct in severity from the specific ringing-phone complaint above.

Achievement data suggests the good ending is hard to find

This review's own check of Steam's global achievement data found a striking gap between the game's two tracked endings: 38.8 percent of players earned the achievement associated with what its name implies is a bad ending, while only 4.8 percent earned the one associated with a good ending. No reviewer in this small sample discusses the game's branching outcomes directly, so this review treats that gap as its own independent finding rather than a corroborated one, but flags it as a specific, concrete data point suggesting the game's better outcome may be considerably harder, more obscure, or more easily missed than a first playthrough would suggest.

A note on this review's extremely small, partly non-English sample

This review draws on a total sample of only 6 reviews at the time of research, and not all of them are in English, an unusually small and mixed base even by the standards of this review's smallest prior coverage. Several of the specific claims above rest on one or two sources each, including one non-English account, so this rating should be read with real caution until a larger, more English-dominant review base is available.

Final verdict

The Woman Above is a short, dark psychological horror puzzle game that this review found genuinely delivers on a compact, single-sitting story, credit that held up across its small review sample. That credit is tempered by a fair, corroborated complaint about one specific, unfixed and immersion-breaking sound design problem severe enough to have driven at least one player away before completion, alongside minor, non-blocking bugs. For fans of short psychological horror puzzle games who can judge from a very small review base and tolerate some rough edges, it's a reasonable pickup at its price; players especially sensitive to repetitive or grating sound effects should wait and watch for a possible audio fix.