You Are Empty

You Are Empty features basic first-person shooter gameplay. The player traverses a series of maps set in specific Soviet locations, such as a massive, ruined metropolis or a kolkhoz, while facing enemies based on Soviet propaganda archetypes, including workers, firefighters, welders with attached propellers, elderly peasants armed with shotguns, Red Army soldiers with Mosin-Nagant rifles, and giant mutant hens.

Players can acquire various weapons, including a wrench for melee combat and firearms based primarily on real-world models like the Mauser C96 pistol or the PPSh-41 submachine gun. The only exception to this realism is a large electric cannon that fires arcing discharges, it is the final weapon the player receives.

The game is set in an alternate 1950s where the Soviet Union, under the leadership of Joseph Stalin, had become a world leader in science and technology. Its next major leap involved the creation of a massive antenna tower capable of broadcasting a psychic signal that would transform the Soviet population into superhumans. However, the experiment proved disastrous, as the signal ended up killing the population or turning them into insane mutants.

Occasionally, animated monochrome cutscenes are shown that tell the story of the chief scientist behind the project. As a child, he discovered he possessed psychic abilities that allowed him to control other living beings, such as animals or even people. Having become a scientific prodigy, he devises plans to expand his power and broadcast it to the entire world, aiming to initiate a "great transformation."

A demo was showcased at the 2003 Russian Game Developers Conference (KRI), where the game won the award for Best Game Without a Publisher.

At E3 2006, the developers of You Are Empty gave a private demonstration of the game to GameSpot, which showed interest in the physics engine, commenting that it might "have some unexpected consequences."

The game received unfavorable reviews from critics. On the review aggregator GameRankings, the game had an average score of 40% based on 15 reviews. On Metacritic, the game had an average score of 34 out of 100, based on 14 reviews.

5 out of 10, stating "It's hard to imagine how anybody could make the Stalin-era Soviet Union less appealing than it was in reality, but You Are Empty sure does the trick." Todd described the game as an "atrocity" and a "painful exercise in shooter stupidity." Todd opined the English translations from the original Russian are "awful", the game has a slow, boring pace, the monsters are "mostly ripped off from other games" (mentioning Doom, Painkiller, Serious Sam, Silent Hill, and Redneck Rampage), and the missions are "geared around hunts for keys and levers." Todd did say that "some of the music can be effectively creepy."