You Are Empty

The game takes place in the alternate 1950s . After World War II, the Soviet Union became the most powerful nation in the world. The people are striving for a “bright tomorrow”, construction projects are boiling all over the USSR, the army is stronger than ever.

It would seem that very soon the time of the universal bright future will come - Communism. The only missing link in the communist system is the ideal builders of the "bright tomorrow." But one Soviet scientist already has a plan for how to fill this shortcoming: just to remake (artificially improve) people physiologically with the help of special radiation. Check this method is solved in one large Soviet city.

The main character is a Soviet officer living and serving in this city. Once, returning home, he gets under the car and, as a result of this, falls into a coma . While he is unconscious in the hospital, the Emitter (a device in the form of a giant tower, radiating the waves that caused the mutation ) begins to work. However, the experiment failed for unknown reasons. The radiation changed people not at all as expected, and the whole city was plunged into chaos. Most of the inhabitants disappeared, the rest turned into mutants, which became the only inhabitants of the deserted streets. Shortly after the disaster, the protagonist comes to life in the hospital. He was lucky, there was no mutation with him, he did not die and kept his mind. Now he, left alone with the crazed citizens, will have to face a real nightmare, find out and, if possible, correct what happened.

As a result, the main character comes to the Emitter, where he meets the scientist who created the device (the moments of his life were shown throughout the game in video inserts) and became one with him. The creator tells the main character that he is the very unique person who can change the fate of humanity, and invites him to go back in time to prevent a monstrous mistake and prevent the Transformer from appearing. The hero agrees.

Time goes back. He wakes up in his apartment. Now knowing what to do, he puts on his uniform, takes a pistol, and sneaks into a meeting of a scientist with Comrade Stalin (it was at this meeting that the leader gave the go-ahead to conduct the experiment). At this meeting, he kills a scientist, but he himself is beaten by soldiers. The fate of the hero remains unknown, but humanity continued to exist, as it was originally intended in the present universe.

The game also has music of that time:

1. Leonid Utesov - March of the Merry Guys
2. USSR VR Choir - Hymn to Communism
3. Anatoly Korolev, ans. Friendship - Planet Celina
4. Music from KF Goalkeeper (Performance 1937) - Sports march
5. Railway Ensemble of Songs and Dances of K. Lebedev - Komsomolsk Locomotive
6. Chorus BP - The entire planet is getting younger

It was based on the soundtrack written by composer Dimitry Dyachenko in the Ambient genre:

Also in the game was used an excerpt "Speeches at a meeting of voters in the Kuntsevo electoral district of Moscow" 1937 Nikita Khrushchev

"You are Empty" has a classic gameplay in the style of "Retro", similar to "Metro-2", "Stalker" and "Nevsky Titbit". The player walks through the locations, kills opponents, solves simple tasks, such as finding the key to open the desired door. There are few enemies in the game, but they are very diverse. When a player receives serious damage, the screen becomes completely dark, which greatly complicates the game. (Radeon graphics card bug)

Enemies can fight with each other or act as a team: for example, the watchmen very effectively attack together with Pavlov’s dogs and chickens, and Chekists and zombie Red Army soldiers cover the attacking road workers and firefighters - melee fighters. A similar combat bond exists between assemblers, steelmakers, welders and blacksmiths. But for example, Madmen often fight with dogs and nurses, attack NKVD employees, this can be seen at the very beginning of the game, if you look out the window of a hospital ward. Watchmen shoot firefighters, and Chekists in collective farmers. Perhaps among the monsters, too, there are some warring factions. The paratroopers, being one of the most powerful opponents in the game, are fighting with everyone, as well as being a desired goal for everyone else, which, incidentally, is not surprising.

In this game, you can see the peeling entrances of urban suburbs, and monumental buildings in the city center, with richly decorated rooms, and courtyards of residential buildings with cast-iron fences. The player will visit the cinema, metro plants and factories, engine repair depot (with an almost forgotten turning circle for locomotives ), an opera house, a collective farm, a cable car, even a hospital - all attributes of the post-war Soviet Union.

You Are Empty was voted the best game without a publisher at the 2003 Gaming Developers Conference ^[1] and the best debut at KRI-2004 ^[2] . Also, the game was among the contenders for the conference prizes in 2005 in the categories “The most non-standard project”, “The best game graphics” and “The best technology” ^[3] .

At the 1st Territory of the Games exhibition in October 2006, organized with the participation of the Gameplay magazine, You Are Empty was awarded the diploma as the Best FPS ^{[4] [5]} .

• "You are Empty" on 1C website