You Are Empty is a first-person shooter video game based in a fictionalized postwar Soviet Union. The game begins with the protagonist waking up in a ruined hospital, and it soon becomes clear that the populace has been afflicted by mutation and madness. He then must battle to stay alive and unravel the mystery.
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what the fuck is going on with the character animations lmao
You are Empty is one of those games that always has intrigued me. Hell, old easterm europe PC Games have always been interesting to me.
It's a FPS set in the old Stallingrad era with an ambiguous story to tell. It really pays homeage to the Half Life series, specially Half Life 2. The inspiration is clear. The level design is linear, no word is said outside cutscenes or key moments in the game. Though, there are notes you can read that can help you progress through the game and also give a glimpse of the overall story this game has to tell.
Talking about the level design, is surprisingly good. As I said, taking inspiration from Half Life 2 structure they did a great job not making it just a flat linear grandious setpiece, but giving a lot of live to the shooting encounter. There is a lot of backtracking and this is the moment I felt a sprint button was needed. But the levels never got boring for me.
For what I can understand in the story: The Sovier Union is going to a secret war. So they are using people to be artificially superior physically with the power of strange circular metal device implantlented device in their back. Reminds me a lot of what the concept of "Übermensch" or Superman. Specially considering the era.
The gameplay is weird. It's not "Eurojank" but it will probably be something that you are not use to. The main character run like he's in space, really slow. Not to mention there's no sprint key. Yes, you can't sprint or run faster. The levels are linear though, so it comes across as a decent balance.
The weapons are nice, they are based on real life guns like the MouserC96 and PPSh-41 (also being one of the best in the game). The shooting itself feels oddly basic, there isn't any kind of recoil or extra feed that makes you believe those guns are powerful.
What does sell the game in my opinion is it's oppressive atmosphere. Gray skies , abandoned cities, the posters scattered through the city, the architecture, radio propaganda. Everything adds to the experience. The soundtrack is also nice, they are only present in some action scenes and it fits decent enough. Most of the game is silent.
There are cutscenes after you finish a chapter, they don't tell you directly what is happening through exposition. In fact, is very vague and worse if you don't understand much Russian, only for the details. An english dub is present to accomodate people overseas like me. And god it is awful.
English isn't my first language, so it was a hard time listening to these dudes talking a nonsense script in a strange accent. But I won't be harsh with the dub, since it was probably made by a pair of friends with a very limited budget.
Technical wise is uninmpressive, but not a disaster. It lacks dynamic lighting, and some components that games were starting to use. One thing I can say is that they really, really wanted to emphatize on the physics of the objects. Specially at the start of the game.
I've been playing this game with a fairly old PC, from 2013 to be exact running Windows 10. Not what could consider "High-end" or anything. But the game never gave me any technical related problems outside of crashing when I either quit the game or wait to much on the menu.
The best way to play it in my opinion is the build from abandonware: https://www.myabandonware.com/game/you-are-empty-f1j. It includes a couple of patches and removes the infamous Starforce DRM. That set DRM can screw your PC badly, so don't try installing it if you have a physical copy or something.
There is also a 16:9 that fixes the cutscenes and the UI elements. You can find it at https://www.pcgamingwiki.com/wiki/You_Are_Empty
So, in short. It's a decent time, lasting about 4 hours to complete. Ain't awful by any means but it's nothing impressive outside of the atmosphere and cutscenes.
It's a FPS set in the old Stallingrad era with an ambiguous story to tell. It really pays homeage to the Half Life series, specially Half Life 2. The inspiration is clear. The level design is linear, no word is said outside cutscenes or key moments in the game. Though, there are notes you can read that can help you progress through the game and also give a glimpse of the overall story this game has to tell.
Talking about the level design, is surprisingly good. As I said, taking inspiration from Half Life 2 structure they did a great job not making it just a flat linear grandious setpiece, but giving a lot of live to the shooting encounter. There is a lot of backtracking and this is the moment I felt a sprint button was needed. But the levels never got boring for me.
For what I can understand in the story: The Sovier Union is going to a secret war. So they are using people to be artificially superior physically with the power of strange circular metal device implantlented device in their back. Reminds me a lot of what the concept of "Übermensch" or Superman. Specially considering the era.
The gameplay is weird. It's not "Eurojank" but it will probably be something that you are not use to. The main character run like he's in space, really slow. Not to mention there's no sprint key. Yes, you can't sprint or run faster. The levels are linear though, so it comes across as a decent balance.
The weapons are nice, they are based on real life guns like the MouserC96 and PPSh-41 (also being one of the best in the game). The shooting itself feels oddly basic, there isn't any kind of recoil or extra feed that makes you believe those guns are powerful.
What does sell the game in my opinion is it's oppressive atmosphere. Gray skies , abandoned cities, the posters scattered through the city, the architecture, radio propaganda. Everything adds to the experience. The soundtrack is also nice, they are only present in some action scenes and it fits decent enough. Most of the game is silent.
There are cutscenes after you finish a chapter, they don't tell you directly what is happening through exposition. In fact, is very vague and worse if you don't understand much Russian, only for the details. An english dub is present to accomodate people overseas like me. And god it is awful.
English isn't my first language, so it was a hard time listening to these dudes talking a nonsense script in a strange accent. But I won't be harsh with the dub, since it was probably made by a pair of friends with a very limited budget.
Technical wise is uninmpressive, but not a disaster. It lacks dynamic lighting, and some components that games were starting to use. One thing I can say is that they really, really wanted to emphatize on the physics of the objects. Specially at the start of the game.
I've been playing this game with a fairly old PC, from 2013 to be exact running Windows 10. Not what could consider "High-end" or anything. But the game never gave me any technical related problems outside of crashing when I either quit the game or wait to much on the menu.
The best way to play it in my opinion is the build from abandonware: https://www.myabandonware.com/game/you-are-empty-f1j. It includes a couple of patches and removes the infamous Starforce DRM. That set DRM can screw your PC badly, so don't try installing it if you have a physical copy or something.
There is also a 16:9 that fixes the cutscenes and the UI elements. You can find it at https://www.pcgamingwiki.com/wiki/You_Are_Empty
So, in short. It's a decent time, lasting about 4 hours to complete. Ain't awful by any means but it's nothing impressive outside of the atmosphere and cutscenes.
Очевидно, что сейчас игра на первый взгляд кажется залежавшимся куском говна. Уверен и в год выхода какого-то разъеба не было. И всё же.
Охуенный дизайн. Очень атмосферные локации. Отличная работа проведена над дизайном противников: совковые типажи, превращенные в фантасмагоричных ебак, оч хорошо врезаются в память (особенно красноармеец-мертвец, мое почтение, наверное один из самых крутых по внешке противников в играх ever). Катсцены сперва сбивают с толку, но все же выглядят стильно и задают нужный настрой. Саундтрек - пушечка, особенно тот трек с хором, вообще отвал башки жопы.
Вышеперечисленное складывает очень давящую атмосферу. Причем уникальную, со всеми этими колхозами, ДК, коммуналками и тд.
Но игра недоделана. Вот буквально. Оч много багов, торможений, технических проблем с запуском игры. Много костылей (если нужно куда-то спрыгнуть с высоты - там обязательно будут ящики для меньшей высоты и аптечки). В каких-то моментах банально нет текстур, ты просто ходишь по черным или серым плоскостям. Это при том, что в остальном игра уделяет много внимания деталям.
Как шутер - пиздец дуболомный. Почему нет бега - вообще хз.
Плюс постепенно игра заебывает. Она проходится не так уж и долго, но по ощущениям пиздец какой-то. Мб просто я утенок.
Видно что амбиции были гигантские (можете глянуть комментарии об изначальных идеях, веселое чтиво). Разрабы действительно горели своей идеей. Но чего-то где-то не хватило. Игра все еще достойная и необычная, но объективно - категории Б, а то и ниже. Строго на любителя жанра или интересующимся советской эстетикой.
Охуенный дизайн. Очень атмосферные локации. Отличная работа проведена над дизайном противников: совковые типажи, превращенные в фантасмагоричных ебак, оч хорошо врезаются в память (особенно красноармеец-мертвец, мое почтение, наверное один из самых крутых по внешке противников в играх ever). Катсцены сперва сбивают с толку, но все же выглядят стильно и задают нужный настрой. Саундтрек - пушечка, особенно тот трек с хором, вообще отвал башки жопы.
Вышеперечисленное складывает очень давящую атмосферу. Причем уникальную, со всеми этими колхозами, ДК, коммуналками и тд.
Но игра недоделана. Вот буквально. Оч много багов, торможений, технических проблем с запуском игры. Много костылей (если нужно куда-то спрыгнуть с высоты - там обязательно будут ящики для меньшей высоты и аптечки). В каких-то моментах банально нет текстур, ты просто ходишь по черным или серым плоскостям. Это при том, что в остальном игра уделяет много внимания деталям.
Как шутер - пиздец дуболомный. Почему нет бега - вообще хз.
Плюс постепенно игра заебывает. Она проходится не так уж и долго, но по ощущениям пиздец какой-то. Мб просто я утенок.
Видно что амбиции были гигантские (можете глянуть комментарии об изначальных идеях, веселое чтиво). Разрабы действительно горели своей идеей. Но чего-то где-то не хватило. Игра все еще достойная и необычная, но объективно - категории Б, а то и ниже. Строго на любителя жанра или интересующимся советской эстетикой.
slavjank heaven
bro why tf is the main cover a skeleton guy
"You are empty", same as the story of the game.Atmosphere is nice tho