"You are empty" is, well, empty of anything fun or innovative. Dont waste your time with this game.
The game starts you off in an abandon hospital; having just woken up from a coma, you slowly but surly make you way around the place, trying to figure what happened to everyone, when you realize the hospital is not so abandon as you thought.
From this moment on, the game stays exactly the same, up until the very end. You shoot your way through the same enemies over and over again, in environments that don’t seem to change much, with weapons you could find in just any old shooter game from the 90’s.
I’ll admit the first few levels are a bit fun, and sometimes even scary, but the excitement quickly dies out, and apathy takes its place. The gameplay is of any other shooter, just walk in a pretty much straight line and shoot any unlucky mutant that happens to cross your path, and there are a lot of unlucky mutants. The game’s story unfolds, as you progress through the game, in short cut-scenes between the levels. These cut-scene are perhaps the best part of “You Are Empty”, probably because of they really seem to fit the era and the setting of the game. Let’s talk graphics. “You Are Empty” looks decent enough to pass as a recent low budget game, and the physics work pretty well (not a lot of destructive environments, but awesome rag-doll effect). The only problem is that the game’s engine seems to be a little underpowered for the game itself. In the highest settings, the game slows down in big open spaces or when the action gets a little intense. I know what you’re thinking, maybe it’s just a problem with my PC, but I doubt that nVidia’s 8800 GTS video-card can’t handle the low quality of the game’s graphics.
Another thing that bothered me is the fact the every type of enemy looks exactly the same, like they came off a production line. It’s like you’re fighting the same five guys over and over again, and when the same type of enemy appears in large groups, its just plain lame.
The one positive thing in “You Are Empty” is the background music. I did like most of the in-game soundtrack and I found myself, from time to time, sitting and listening to the music (when no one was shooting at me).
The voice dubbing was the exact opposite; instead on the original Russian voices, every character you talk to (all the three of them) talks in a funny British accent, which sounds a bit out of place in Moscow of the 1950’s. None of the voices match the lips of the characters, and the dialog itself is dry and emotionless.
If you are looking for an old-school shooter, with a nice little story as a side-dish, don’t waste your time playing “You Are Empty”; all you’ll get is a boring, linear experience and an empty feeling deep inside.