brett todd of gamespot gave the game a rating of 1.5 out of 10, stating "it's hard to imagine how anybody could make the stalin-era soviet union less appealing than it was in reality, but "you are empty" sure does the trick." todd described the game as an "atrocity" and a "painful exercise in shooter stupidity." todd opined the english translations from the original russian are "awful", the game has a slow, boring pace, the monsters are "mostly ripped off from other games" (mentioning "doom", "painkiller", "serious sam", "silent hill", and "redneck rampage"), and the missions are "geared around hunts for keys and levers." todd did say that "some of the music can be effectively creepy." todd ended his review by saying, "the nihilistic name of the game is never explained. now move on with your life and try to pretend that games like "you are empty" don't exist."