[COLUMN] MindsEye Is the Most Baffling AAA Game In Years | by Marty Sliva

You might already know about MindsEye. It was the highly publicized first game from Build a Rocket Boy, the new studio founded by former Rockstar folks, including Leslie Benzies. The game was initially conceived as a free-to-play experience couched inside of the metaverse/user-generated content (UGC) platform Everywhere. But plans changed, Everywhere seems to be going nowhere, and what we’re left with is a full-priced sci-fi action-adventure game that straddles the line between classic Rockstar open-world, Naughty Dog-esque cinematic adventure, and a complete and utter disaster.

Then again, you might not already know about MindsEye. Despite its development pedigree, despite it being published by IO Interactive, and despite its prominent placement at various Game Awards/Summer Game Fest showcases, MindsEye launched without any critics being sent advanced code for coverage – usually a sign of little faith in a final product. Word is also out that layoffs at the studio are already in the process– a sad ending to a completely baffling story, and one that I have no doubt someone is already chronicling for a documentary or longform feature.

At first glance, MindsEye has the trappings of a traditional Rockstar open-world game – the third-person cover-based shooting, the urban sprawl you traverse on wheels, the clear cutscene-mission-cutscene structure. But when you zoom in a bit and examine each of those with a critical eye, the entire house of cards crumbles before you.

The combat is about as bare bones as you’ll find in a third-person shooter. Enemies come in the Neapolitan flavor trio of dudes, dudes with armor, and robots, which are pretty much just dudes with slightly more armor. They have zero sense of survival instinct or planning, opting instead to slowly shuffle towards you while firing back in your general direction.

Which isn’t the worst strategy, considering your arsenal is equally as bland – a pistol, a few automatic rifles, and a shotgun that doesn’t quite feel right. As far as I can tell, there are no melee attacks in MindsEye, no grenades or throwables, and no context-sensitive attacks. You do have a little drone that accompanies you on many missions, and you can occasionally use it to zap foes or hack other robots, but if I’m being honest, I constantly forgot that this little guy existed. Sorry, little guy.

The mixture of brain-dead enemies and an arsenal that most certainly does not spark joy pair well with the completely forgettable combat arenas peppered with a smattering of waist-high cover spots. You can really feel the UGC roots here, as most encounters unfold in spaces that are about as fun to traverse as my player-created levels were in older Tony Hawk games. Reader, let me assure you – those skate parks were not fun.

Speaking of traversal, a huge chunk of MindsEye has you behind the wheel of a car driving across Redrock City, the game’s slightly futuristic take on Las Vegas. On paper, this is a great setting for a story like this. On a surface level, MindsEye captures a lot of Vegas’ juxtaposed charm and grime well – opulent casinos and a lovely orb line the main strip, while poverty-stricken neighborhoods are pushed further and further outside the city limits into the harsh desert. But these are all superficial, as the game might exude the most “look, but don’t touch” energy of any AAA project in years.

The entire place feels like a completely flat Hollywood backdrop, which is fitting considering how limited your freedom is whenever you’re driving around. I’m not exaggerating when I say that well-over half of MindsEye’s 8-hour runtime is spent driving back and forth across Redrock City with literally nothing else to do besides slowly making your way towards one of the four main destinations you’re constantly ping-ponging between. There are no radio stations to surf through in your vehicles, meaning that you’re either listening to an NPC deliver an exposition dump, or making the drive in complete silence.

Don’t think about getting out of whatever vehicle your in and trying to hop into one that looks a bit more fun to drive – missions will force you to drive the prescribed set of wheels, you’ll be unable to open any other car doors, and they’ll often toss up a fail screen if you even think about slightly veering off the beaten path.

Thankfully that last part isn’t as bad as it sounds, because there is literally nothing to do during the main campaign while exploring the city aside from b-lining to your next destination. No collectables, no fun ramps or diversions, and no incentive to explore the city whatsoever. Even once I unlocked the ability to enter free roam mode near the end of the campaign, it felt like I was driving around a dead MMO that was just days away from having its servers shut down for good.

And I cannot emphasize enough just how much time you’ll spend driving several miles back and forth between the small handful of main locations in the game. The vehicle physics are bonkers, especially if you think about taking a shortcut off road through the desert. And the in-game GPS was constantly borking out and sending me far out of my way, which I couldn’t confirm until it was too late thanks to a lack of any kind map you can pull up of the full city. 

I haven’t really touched on the main story yet. You play as Jacob, a veteran trying to make sense of a strange occurrence in his past and how it’s related to a Tesla-esque company’s cutting-edge research. The Elon Musk stand-in is named Marco Silva, which shares far too many letters in common with my own name for comfort. There’s a government conspiracy, an alien invasion, and a cliffhanger that I’m quite positive will never see a resolution. While the story certainly isn’t good, I did enjoy some of the performances, and the cutscenes were displayed with a level of care and craftsmanship not found throughout most of the other facets of the game. So there you go.

I go into every new game with fresh eyes, wanting to like it. I’m able to find enjoyment in the midst of a somewhat-messy experience – my love of Slitterhead and Wanted Dead should prove that. But when it comes to MindsEye, there’s no diamond in the rough. There’s no reward for sticking it out through the bad times. Once you crack through the janky crust, you’re left with a core that’s simply boring, which is a fate far worse than being bad.