What do crumbling society, giant chickens, and existential dread have in common? Surprisingly, two things, but we’re going to talk about the game today. If you ever thought that Half-Life andSilent Hillcould be combined into a great game, you’d be correct! You Are Empty is the unfortunate case of a brilliant game that does just about everything right, except for the stuff that you need to sell well.
For one, it launched with horrendous, driver-layer self-installing DRM software known as Starforce — which somehow still exists despite being capable of legitimately destroying Windows 10 and 11 operating systems, something that the company behind it has allegedly no regrets on. Charming, eh? As if terrible DRM wasn’t bad enough, it was also published in the West by … Atari. Mid-2000s Atari, no less. Oof. The final kicker being that the only time it would be sold any way besides standard retail boxed copies is a single Indie Gala bundle that was free of the DRM.
So yeah, I had to go through a few hoops to experience this game, and that’s a shame, because You Are Empty deserves far more credit for punching above its weight. This humble Ukranian game from 2006 stands tall as a legitimately outstanding first-person survival shooter for its time. I could only dream of a modern release with this much variety and artistry in its design, more than a decade beforeAtomic Heartand twice as brutally Eastern European in its design.
You Are Empty opens with a propaganda-art aesthetic cutscene, depicting our hero, a nameless Soviet guard, getting in a car accident. When he comes to, the hospital is full of nothing but ghoulish nurses and patients straight out of Konami’s iconic horror series, only for things to get escalatingly weirder from there. When you arrive at a large, industrial chicken farm, the farmers have all gone Children of the Corn levels of crazy, while the birds themselves have put humans on the menu.
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Your consolation amid the constant near-death experiences is the relief of finding a shotgun almost as powerful as theSuper Shotgunof Doom fame. There’s also a rapid-fire nail gun that’d fit right at home in a Metro game, offering a less damaging but faster firing alternative to the pistol. Just like the enemies, every gun is extremely purposeful, interlocking into multiple roles.
The crazed shotgun farmer is great at forcing the player to have to either close in or retreat, depending on what a level requires. Your starting pistol doubles as a highly accurate sniping weapon, while the actual sniper rifle is secretly a precision-point BFG that can knock most enemies on their rears in a single shot. Animal enemies are all about aggression, while humans typically attempt to flank you from any direction.
Yes, any direction — there are flying helicopter welder men enemies, and they buzz like bugs as they swoop in to solder you to death. While each enemy type has only a single model, it works like a classic FPS, ensuring you immediately identify the threat they present. When you finally encounter one of the ghoulish Soviet snipers, it looks like the Crypt Keeper himself is out to put a cap in you. I also have to shout out the Quake-esque fire axe that the demented fire marshals wield. The attention to detail in functionality and visual design is nothing short of incredible. Nothing here looks or sounds like something you’ve seen before, yet it clicks all the same.
All of this plays out over marvelously weaved-together levels that, while linear, never feel like they’re forcing you down a path. Each new location flows so near-seamlessly that you can tell Valve’s level design philosophy is in full effect. They’ll go so far as to also do the Valve trope of making you want for a weapon right before giving it to you, yet that isn’t even getting close to the level of eccentricity on display.
All health sources can be broken if you aren’t careful, but also, because it’s the Soviet Union … actually obtaining clean water will heal you for twenty points. There are water dispensers in nearly every level, ensuring you can regularly hydrate. Despite all enemies having fairly hit-scan heavy weapons like the player, they actually put in the effort to make each gun fire awkwardly and off-target, like cheaply assembled equipment, yet still kept the satisfying impact when you land a shot.
Physics is incorporated everywhere without a gratuitous physics puzzle to get in your way, ensuring hilarious ragdolls and mishaps. There are radios blaring propaganda jingles and folk music in these haunted, collapsing locations full of nothing but twisted humans.
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And the cutscenes, my word, the cutscenes. There are two kinds in You Are Empty. First are the abstract and wordless propaganda art ones, like the intro, which detail not only your backstory but what seems to be the origins of the main antagonist, who I won’t spoil. The other kind are the most absurd, poorly translated, incoherently animated abominations ever put to 3D graphics, and I love them for it.
It’s well known among the game’s fans that You Are Empty had to cut some corners before release — there are fully functional weapons and enemies still in the code, along with unfinished levels meant to be included. It’s genuinely incredible that it rarely feels like anything is missing, but in these moments, the jank is on a level only rivaled by the original Resident Evil. All the actors are clearly placeholders, which fortunately rarely comes up, as the majority of the story is wordlessly told through environmental art and text logs that are far better translated.
The real shame of it all is the developers have said for years that they’d gladly do a proper remaster or remake of some kind, but it’s never come ot pass. While I wasn’t able to find the exact reason why in my research, I doubt the licensing issues with Atari have helped improve prospects for the game.
You Are Empty deserves to be more than abandonware. It’s a fantastic slice of mid-00s shooting and survival horror that works so exceedingly well despite the unenviably circumstances it was released under. It’s worth tracking down, but I would love to see a proper re-release that gives this game a real chance at success. These devlopers should’ve had the opportunity to make more games, and I only hope that, wherever they are now, they know that not everyone has forgotten about You Are Empty.
