You Are Empty - The Stalingrad Chicken Emergency 

Oh hey, You are Empty! I actually played this game, I can actually share some funny story about this game. So, this game wasn't supposed to be like Half Life 2 despite what Civvie thinks, it actually wanted to be a Soviet version of Bioshock before Bioshock. The whole plot was about this scientist who possessed psychic powers and managed to brainwash Stalin to allow him to do these various projects, which created these superhumans to make USSR a super nation. His last project involved this tower where his own body and mind would be connected, but the experiment went wrong and thus everyone was driven mad and transformed into these super mutants, except the main hero who was in a comma. So, the game actually was supposed to have a lot more levels, weapons (like a Machinegun and flamethrower), two branching endings, among various types of enemies each representing a sort of model of a soviet citizen that went mad (Like you would have Butchers, Pioneers a so forth) but what happened is one of the lead developers died. So, it set the whole process way back, and to meet their deadline, the devs essentially had to remove entire levels, enemies, and weapons from the game along with huge chunks of the story.

The word СПИРТ is written on the jar. MC literally drinks medical alcohol the whole game.

"That chicken is not a person" settle down there Diogenes.

"There isn't even any gore, these guys just disappear." Yeah, that's how Stalin likes it.

"You know it's not a man, it's a giant chicken" Actually Civvie, they are featherless and biped, therefore they are men

Civvie: Absolutely losing his tenuous grip on the slender fabric of reality. Katie: haha camera goes zooooooooom.

A game where the NPCs are generally leagues more terrifying than any of the monsters.

Just noticed the moment when Civvie completely loses it starts at almost exactly 8:10.

"Ravenholm" "In the test chamberrrr" "Rather than give you the illusion of choice" Oh my god it's happening

"Non-invasive trans-orbital lobotomy" Pretty sure sending an icepick through one's eye socket is the very definition of invasive.

Jesus, that ending was ballsy, the protagonist saves the entire world and all he gets for it is a major beating and imprisonment where he'll die a slow painful death if he isn't outright executed.

You have no idea how many times I watch this, specifically at 9:30. "What the hell is this" and "the city council yea!" are frequently quoted in our household. Bless you Civvie 11.

"What in this jars anyway?" It's a pure, medical 96% ethyl alcohol. Better than vodka!

Fun fact: this game has a sprint button, but it was disabled for some unknown reason. You can re-enable by editing one of the files.

Loved the tankie joke

"Is this a debriefing or a Nirvana song" bro that was the funniest thing I heard all month no lie, thanks for the laugh

Currently working with one of the devs who made this, a few guys from Wargaming and a guy was on a Stalker dev team. Decent developers, have some stories to tell. Not many guys stayed in gaming industry tbh, god awful hours and sub-par pay. And decent C++ developer can get much more in the enterprise sector. As for the art-direction, that dude worked at 4A if I remember correctly.

There's no flavor of nihilistic depression like former Soviet state nihilistic depression. It's the flavor of Borscht and grain alcohol, but for your brain.

19:04 - Developers actually did quite a good job when they modelled those subway trans. Here in Hungary that time had some subway trans like those and they looked the same. Even the interior of the cars was right modelled.

THE CITY COUNCIL, YEAH! is a line a I'll remember until the day I die.

Finally a video on this unknown masterpiece. I have a thing for these forgotten, shitty, small games. As someone who lived in Poland, with no access to the internet as child, we'd buy these game magazines in kiosk stands. Everytime they included one of these. Painkiller, Ubersoldier, Vivisector: Beast Within, all these have a special place in my heart, just like You are Empty. The boxed version had a really cool little booklet about all the weapons and enemies you encounter, plus a soundtrack disc, how cool is that! For anyone confused about the story: The guy you meet at the end of the game (the one missing his lower half) developed psychokinetic powers during his adolescence by unintentionally controlling animals around him (the flies, the dog bashing it's dead on the glass). He uses that power and his knowledge to become some kinda scientist and (this being the soviet era) develops these implants and other stuff for the government to test on people, such as (and I quote the booklet): - cosmetics that burned womens' faces off (the nurse) - weird food to make chickens bigges (the hens) - welding prosthetics and propellers (the flying welders) - the healing soda and medical alcohol Obviously the implants and other stuff had side effects and made people go insane. The scientist himself was connected to the device so he could in some way use his psychokinetic powers and make the people more obedient for the government and physically stronger, more fit to work, but it didnt work out in the end...or did it? The scientist is a sociopath so he might be in control of the monsters still, he did say it was a success, so you're given a choice - to either replace him and take control of everyone or go back in time and stop the scientist in his tracks. It's a really interesting story and the devs put a lot of work into it (it was just a small team of friends). Recently there's been news and even a steam page for a possible remake of the game titled ''Reminder of Empty''. The cinematics that explain the story can be found here, they are all hand-drawn by a really talented artist: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-gZPHH55St8I.html

Hannibal Lector: “Draw a clock Civvie”

It's like a beautiful mixture of Zeno Clash, The Suffering, and Painkiller, with some Stalker seasoning thrown in. Surreal jank that goes down surprisingly smooth.

That jank o’clock bit was life changing. I feel like I also lost my mind while watching it

This may be the most accurately-translated piece of Slav Jank ever ... everyone else was on board for the jank but the translator was like nah, I'ma just do my job.

“Will work for steam keys, no butt stuff.” The amount of work that goes into your videos is incredible.

19:40 That will forever be engrained in my mind. The way he just walked out of there to just get shot. Omfg ffs

The song he used when he was trippin out because of the Slavjank was unironically good

18:30 "These guys aren't very tankie" That one caught me off guard, lol

I'm sorry, did the movie theater part reveal that the cause of everything was a Russian 5G cell tower?

This game could use a remake, its like Silent Hill but in the USSR and is an FPS game, I really dig the creepy atmosphere

I’m impressed how good the British suicide guy’s voice acting was. Didn’t sound Russian, but damn. Sold it.

There's Jank. There's EuroJank And then there's SlavJank.

This game was sadly rushed out due to the lead developer passing away mid-development, causing the game to be slashed in half due to time restraints and the budget getting put down. There's tons of unused content, such as unused enemies, weapons such as a LMG, a flamethrower and granades, along with entire levels and story sections. And sprinting was planned but disabled in the files as they wanted the idea of the player still dealing with his accident. Including that ending of staying behind was even cut due to time restraints. Little fun fact also, there is no lighting, as this engine does not support shadows. All the "shadows" and "Lighting" is specific scene textures made by hand. The game was panned in the West as well because 2007 was the year of fast-paced FPS games, and did not fit with current trends when COD4, Half Life 2 and Crysis was the shit. Also the English version had an limited release and there is an community still around this game, where they restore content that was cut and share it around. There's also an remake called "Remind of EMPTY" in the works to make it like Stalker but no word of that for an year. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-Xp9l80c1KOA.html There's also some Unity remakes around, one was made 5 months ago with an Demo.

T H E C I T Y C O U N C I L Y E A H

Beria: “Go there, quickly.” Also Beria: **locks the doors, continues to drabble on, and fucking kills himself**

Fact: The game has 0 lighting. It's all textures. EDIT, 2 years later lol: It has lighting/shadows, but judging by the way the game looks/works it's only on non-static models. It migh've been a miss-remembering from back then since I didn't really pay too much attention

the ONE place that has not been CORRUPTED by CAPITALISM *barely controlled laughter* SPAAAAACE! Listen Red Alert 2 was my childhood but Red Alert 3 has the best memes hands down.

Those mutated chickens straight up look like demonic Chocobos from Final Fantasy. I don't know if it was intentional, but as Final Fantasy fan, I kind of liked it.

It's way deeper from a slav perspective. Our farmers use a lot of pesticides and breed farm animals in total enclosure at all times - something I have noticed doesn't happen in the west. Chickens part is a parabole to how full of steroids they pump our chickens at one point they give them too much and GIGA CHICKENS happen.

"City Council" is probably an over-literal translation of "Soviet", i.e. the word Russian word for council-- the basic 'building block' of the Union of SOVIET Socialist Republics' governance, the political entities that Lenin was calling to give ultimate authority to in the phrase 'All power to the Soviets!'. So it's less like the panicking guy was trying to get you to go the guys who set parking ordinances for help combatting the zombie plague, and more like he was telling you to go to The Big Politics Guys In Charge In This Area (Governor if this was an American movie, idk)

I'll say this, I actually LOVE the aesthetic of those cutscenes. It's like Take On Me but spookier

9:30 is the best dialogue section I’ve ever seen in a video game. It just brings me such joy listening to, “the city council, yeah!”

The jank o' clock bit from the setup to the punchline, the effects, the timing. You fucking nailed it. I'm laughing so hard I'm in tears. Solid hannibal reference.

"I guess I spoiled the experience for you" Jokes on you I already waste all my time playing eurojank.

I'd played this horrifying FPS about 8 years ago and the last scene's message was so impressive. The protagonist had sacrificed himself to save his homeland and people against a brainless autocrat's desire and a reckless scientist's madness. If the developer studio would try another newest version for gamers recently, it might have been darkhorse from game sales markets.

“This is the Soviet Russia I know!” This is a weird bit of the Civvie lore.

My head canon is that the protagonist is just completely batshit crazy and hallucinates, killing everyone on his path and eventually becoming so deranged that his madness travels back through time and makes him kill a completely innocent scientist.

I liked this game when it came out. It's like Silent Hill, Call of Cthulhu Dark Corners of the Earth and Half Life 2 had a soviet, deformed baby that also suffers from severe dementia and crippling depression. Edit: love how Tim Curry tries not to laugh in that C&C cinematic

"For Soviets, these guys aren't very Tankie" I hope more than 5 people got that Civvie

So... Kinda noticed no one cared to point out a few obvious things civie misinterpreted. The guys civie named as "miners" are actually street cleaners(pretty sure those pickaxes are meant for breaking ice on the road in winter), helicopter guys are welders, and the healing salves are actually pure medical alchohol flasks(fitting ain't it?). Also i am pretty sure those "sane" npc were meant to be a little off, that was probably meant to represent that they are a little imperfect, warped if you like, and they were probably referred to as "new people" when the tower guy named MC the leader of those.

This was my first Civvie video, and here I am almost 3 years later and still loving the content. Never change, Civvie

Oh yes Eastern European depression my favorite

I love that clip of Tim Curry almost cracking during that beautiful line.

1:44 that's the funniest death sound in the history of games. "EEGH [thump]" its like something out of a cartoon.

"I say that like I understand what's going on." My daily battlecry.

"this might be the citizen kane of slavjank" That would be pathologic 2.

19:33 whoever programmed the animations here deserves something

10:04 that stutter was so genuine and perfect

"shoutout to the five people who got that joke" love ya civvie

16:48 This is a soda machine. They were everywhere and cheap as all hell. The problem was that they used actual glasses. They were rinsed between use, but nowa days it suspected that a lot of people caught god knows what by using them. Oh and I was also told that the soda was really good.

The chicken bit always makes me laugh my ass off

the exposed steam pipes inflicted more damage than both barrels of the shotgun. Exceptional

"It's a person, a human person!" I don't know if that's a callback to Vivisector but even if it isn't, i love that.

"OH GOD LOOK OUT HE'S FROM JERSEY" How dare you

Not every day you see a game this jank that still shows signs of being made with a lot of love

This game would look amazing with FEAR's lighting.

They need to make a sequel "You Are Full"

Silly Civvie, we eastern european countries sure have a way of bringing out all the vibrant colors of grey!

The "What is the time?" bit is, for some reason, very unsettling and forcing me to have existentialism conversations with myself. Well done.

The atomic heart beta looks great. Edit: something I noticed when Civvie smacked the guy in the back of the head with the wrench is that the SMG gunners are dressed like early Soviet paratroopers.

Okay I’m pretty early in the video so I don’t know if he’ll mention it later, but the nurses and the other enemies aren’t actually taller than you. The player character is physically hunched and hobbled from the car crash. I love that little touch because it makes the player feel depowered while providing a reason for enemies to be larger than you furthering that sense of danger

19:23 That guy looks like the Chad from the Virgin vs Chad memes.

That scene with the puppy was a blow to the feels.

you know a game is good when you can't tell what's jank and what's intentional

13:56 - That's actually a quote from the novel "1984", specifically from the novel-within-a-novel "The Theory and Practice of Oligarchical Collectivism" that explains how exactly the dystopian world works.

What fucking 'what is the time' thing, yes, more of that. Very cool.

I actually laughed hard at that Tankie joke, bravo comrade.

3:45 C96 was a relic even in 1955.

its pure alcohol in the jars C2H5OH

I love slav games like this, they remind me so much of Looking Glass titles in a way. How they go out of their way to add stuff in literally just because they want to. The fact that wheelchairs roll from certain directions, the different sounds for each item hitting different surfaces, the heavy ragdolls, the pickups tracking where they should be on physics objects, it's beautiful jank: a true labor of love the likes of which we'll never see again in this business juggernaut gaming's become.

This is my personal favorite editing wise on this channel.

Another fun fact: reflections in the water are made by placing the same object upside down under the ground and makin it visible through the water. Also, it's pure ethanol in the jars. It's written on them in russian.

We finally got a peak at what "Katie" looks like.

Civvie likes the “Unnecessarily dark and flatly ridiculous?” I can finally understand why his skits and characters are the way that they are.

The "sub" in submachinegun is in refrence to it's caliber. So it is still a machinegun!

The intro is secretly leaked footage of the Soviet viersion of "Take on me"...It's called, "Give to us, Comrade"

"See a lot of these comments are copied and pasted. Whole references, memes, so it gets a little confusing" It's all spiraling back, I don't think Civvie ever TRULY came back from the Kreed

I never in my life would've thought I'd see Civvie tackle the dementia clock test.

23:46 “A man chooses, a slave obeys”

1:13 "Light bulbs" The correct term is "Nixie tubes."

This game was 3 euros at a bootleg DVD store when I was 11 and that's 3 euros I'll never get back.

Katie never change your humor, that part with the zooming was perfect.

1:07 the pro postal callback is gold

I love how well civvie uses his being locked away in god knows where to make these videos incredible. The clock drawing test is my favorite bit by far

Tbh playing around with the whole "New Soviet Man" phylosophy that Stalin at one point tried to push through it kinda interesting.

Holy shit I can't believe someone else played this glorious jankfest, let alone made a video on it. I bought it because I liked the title and the box art, then ended up playing this vodka fueled fever dream to it's finish. It was weird enough to be interesting, jank enough to be endearing, but not jank enough to be unplayable. I hope this causes a resurgence and everyone buys it.

whenever im sad i just play the mutated chicken part and feel better instantly

22:32 God I fucking love that Tim Curry Clip

When you have played E.Y.E. Vampire The Mascarade and Pathologic nothing is janked enough now