If I were to mention the words "DRM-Free" and "preservation," the first thing to spring to mind would likely be GOG, the digital storefront previously owned by the Polish company CD Projekt.

It's worth highlighting, though, that it isn't the only company working hard to bring back old PC games without DRM, with the lesser-known storefront ZOOM also doing a wonderful job over the years to ensure a long list of obscure computer titles are available commercially and typically in much better shape than when they originally released.

Case in point, the storefront has just announced that later this year it will release You Are Empty: Absolute Edition on ZOOM, Steam, and the Epic Games Store, a revival of the Ukrainian first-person PC shooter (developed by Mandel ArtPlains and Digital Spray Studios and published by 1C Company) from 2006.

If you look up You Are Empty online, it's safe to say you will find no shortage of negative reviews of the game. Taking place in an alternate-history 1950s Soviet Kyiv, patrolled by horrific creatures, the title was heavily criticised by most Western publications upon release, with Gamespot saying at the start of its review: "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." Ouch!

Among the common complaints, highlighted by GameSpot and other publications such as IGN, were the slow movement speed (the game wasn't designed with a sprint function in mind), its simple and repetitive "Doom-era progression structure," its unfunny humour, and its uninspired monster designs, with the one saving grace being the music, which was praised as "effectively creepy"

I should note, however, that the game did get some positive press, with a website called GamingNexus stating that it is "much more than the latest Half-Life clone," praising the "ambience and mood." Since then, the game has been the subject of a few videos online investigating whether the title is really as bad as people say.

As mentioned, ZOOM's revival doesn't look like a lazy refresh to capitalise on the game's notoriety among fans of janky shooters, but seems to have had real work put in. Not only has it apparently been revitalised for modern systems with controller support and achievements, but ZOOM has also improved loading times, fixed countless rendering bugs and crashes from the original release, and teased a bunch of new QOL fixes like the ability to sprint.

You Are Empty: Absolute Edition will launch on October 27th, 2026 (the 20th anniversary of the game's release). It is expected to cost $7.99.