My first impressions of You Are Empty were that it was average at most. The first ten or so minutes of Digital Spray’s new shooter felt like your typical zombie killer. All hell had broken loose, the population had been transformed into mindless maniacs, and the only way out was through. In many ways, it reminded me of Half-Life 2.

You Are Empty is also one of the best examples of how first impressions aren’t always the most important. Once I got into the game proper, I realized it was much more than the latest Half-Life clone. I previewed You Are Empty a while ago and really enjoyed it, and while the final build is virtually unchanged, it’s still a surprisingly fun game.

The premise is the first thing that looks boilerplate on the surface, but has a lot more nuance than you’d expect. Yes, it is the standard kill the zombies excuse, but with some creative spice. The game isn’t just another post-apocalyptic vision of the future, but an image of a potential past. It takes place in 1950’s Russia, where communism has begun to spread throughout the world and the zombifying experiment gone wrong was an attempt to cement the hold of Marxist philosophy. The story stays somewhat ambiguous throughout the game and only toward the end do you get the whole picture.

So, it has a rather creative take on a stale formula. So what’s so special about it? To sum it up in one word, I’d say art.

Digital Spray is based in Russia and the hometown influence is quite apparent. Every aspect of the environments is uncannily realistic; You Are Empty somehow avoids the hackneyed “video game” feel that plagues so many other so-called realistic shooters. Wandering the desolate, crumbling streets of 1950’s Russia evoked a sense of loneliness and isolation I haven’t felt in a game for years. Propaganda posters were plastered across the walls. Patriotic tunes, marred by static, played on the occasional radio. Everywhere, there were the signs of a society in collapse. It reminded me of the opening scenes of 28 Days Later, where the main character walks the abandoned, dilapidated streets of London. Resident Evil 4’s dingy village is also a good comparison.

At one point I was making my way through a hazardous factory, fending off the attacks of cybernetically enhanced steelworkers. I made it to the roof, where I had a great view of the surrounding countryside. Soot and ash blew in the wind, and the sun bled through the overcast sky. In the distance was a tall building, its face torn away, exposing jagged brick, mortar and girders. Striking scenery to be sure, but I actually got to explore that building, and look out from the bombed out rooms I had seen from the outside. Nearly every location in the game has this attention to detail and emotional impact.

And the kicker? All of this artistry is done without a scrap of shading. There isn’t an ounce of bump mapping, normal embossing or parallax effects on any of the environments. There isn’t even any bloom lighting. It’s all done with good old fashioned polygons and flat texture maps. In some ways, You Are Empty is more chilling and evocative than Half Life 2 ever was. Even the cutscenes are done very tastefully; they look like some kind of stark European art film, with a shaky animation style and eccentric directing. As I mentioned, they tell the story but keep it mysterious up to the end. There’s something to be said about putting your home country experience into your art, and Digital Spray has done a spectacular job. I can only imagine how I would feel if a twisted game designer made a creepy version of Columbus Ohio.

In many ways, the visual style of You Are Empty saves it from being mediocre. T...

This is the only fair review I've seen for this game. Thanks for writing it.

I bought this game just because it looked so weird, and I am finding it to be tremendous fun. As you say, it has a really remarkable atmosphere. I grew up during the cold war, so the USSR was always a sinister mystery for me, and the chance to wander around in an incredible virtual museum of Soviet industrial architecture makes the game's flaws completely forgettable.

The atmosphere shows a really beautiful attention to detail. I smashed one of the windows in the hopital, the glass actually broke and I could hear the wind whistling through the broken window! The physics is not bad at all.

The demented translations just add to the effect. I can't believe "Give me your iron piece!" hasn't become a meme!


How this flawed but very unique and artisticly sophisticated game got such awful reviews really puzzles me. I think the mainstream game reviewers have been getting more cliquish and narrow-minded.