About Panelka: First-Person Soviet Stairwell Anomaly Horror
Panelka is a first-person horror game set in the stairwell of a Soviet panel twelve-story apartment block. It is late, the elevator is broken, and your apartment is on the 12th floor. The building holds 50 anomalies, 4 endings, and 6 notes that piece together the history of the place.
The tension comes from two converging pressures: the stairwell light stays on for only 30 seconds at a time, and your phone flashlight runs on a battery that drains as you climb. Every floor demands attention before you take another step.
How to Play Panelka
The goal is to reach apartment 48 on the 12th floor. On each floor, look around carefully. If everything appears normal, go up. If something is off, go down. A single wrong call sends you back to floor 1.
Light management is essential — press the light switch on the wall or turn on the flashlight to avoid being left in the dark. Six notes scattered through the building tell the story of what happened here, and finding all of them, along with how you handle the anomalies, shapes which of the 4 endings you reach.
Controls
Desktop
- WASD or arrow keys: Walk
- Shift: Move faster
- Mouse or two-finger trackpad swipe: Look around
- E / Space / click: Interact
- F: Flashlight
- P: Pause
- M: Sound
Mobile
- Left half of the screen (drag): Walk
- Left half of the screen (drag far past the circle): Run
- Right half of the screen: Look around
- On-screen buttons: Interact, use the flashlight, pause, and mute
Games You Might Like
Panelka sits comfortably among the best horror games on Playgama. If the post-Soviet apartment setting gripped you, Night Shift puts you on the door of a decaying Soviet block, checking visitors for contradictions before something wearing a human face gets through. For flashlight-and-battery tension in a dark open environment, The Tall Man sends you through a desolate forest collecting nine pages while a supernatural entity closes in. Fans of multi-night survival with notes and secrets to uncover will find a lot to like in 5 Nights at Tung Tung Hotel - Horror 3D, a 3D survival horror built around cameras, collectibles, and multiple endings.
The anomaly-detection and psychological dread in Panelka also connect naturally to the Granny Games series and the cat-and-mouse tension of Hello Neighbor Games. If creeping atmospheric horror is what you are after, the Slenderman Games series delivers that same dread of something unseen. The first-person perspective and logic-driven investigation also make Panelka a natural fit alongside other first-person shooter games and detail-focused puzzle games.
