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Digital Trends
6 days ago
- Entertainment
- Digital Trends
MindsEye review: an unfinished review for an unfinished game
MindsEye MSRP $60.00 Score Details 'MindsEye is a baffling, busted shooter that squanders a campy sci-fi premise.' Pros Campy sci-fi premise Decent action Cons Dull driving Lifeless world Bizarre side content Horribly optimized Buggy beyond repair 'Why you can trust Digital Trends – We have a 20-year history of testing, reviewing, and rating products, services and apps to help you make a sound buying decision. Find out more about how we test and score products.' Imagine that you're a food critic. You're assigned to review a hot new American bistro downtown. You've been hearing a lot of buzz about it before its grand opening, with the owners even throwing around the word 'revolutionary.' You get there, sit down at a table, and order a simple hamburger. A simple order, but a baseline test to see how well the restaurant has mastered the fundamentals. The waiter comes back 15 minutes later with a plate of raw ground beef. Recommended Videos That's what I feel like as I try to review MindsEye. The debut game from Build a Rocket Boy, a new studio formed by Rockstar veteran Leslie Benzies, has a basic recipe. It's a third-person cover-based shooter with a cinematic sci-fi story. It adds a few extra spices in with the salt and pepper – a dash of gadgetry here, a heavy portion of driving there — but it's a hamburger. Or it would be, at least, had the studio been able to finish cooking it. I couldn't even take my first bite of it before pink meat spilled out of the bun. Check please! I don't know what purpose a traditional review of something as transparently unfinished as MindsEye serves. Sure, there are a few good pieces lying in the scrap heap, but it doesn't make much sense for me to tell you about the car those parts dream to become one day. Rather than spending hours painstakingly dissecting it in carefully considered prose, I feel that it's only right to match MindsEye's sorry state with my own raw, unorganized thoughts. I can't give you a proper review; I can only offer you ground beef. Story Mindseye opens with a cutscene of a drone flying around some vague ruins. Then 'Three years later' flashes on screen as if something of note happened. I'll give some credit to the world here. Redrock, the Las Vegas inspired city where the story goes down, is a fertile ground for technosatire. Rogue AI workers terrorize the streets. A Tesla-like company tries to assert its power over local politicians. Authoritarianism runs rampant. It could have been a perfect game for the moment if it didn't eventually divert from all that weighty commentary to talk about magical orbs. Our hero is Jacob Diaz. Bro has the widest stance I've ever seen, and his mouth is always open. A lot of video games strive to be movies, but that's usually a narrow endgame. Most just want to be Star Wars or The Avengers. MindsEye's ambitions are that of a straight to DVD sequel of an early 2000s action movie. Jacob is like the B-list WWE wrestler in a vehicle made to unsuccessfully launch his acting career. I kind of respect that about it. At the very least, it goes all-in on presentation. There are some suitably cinematic cutscenes, a thumping sci-fi soundtrack, and some enjoyably campy acting from a cast that largely seems to get the game it's in. Anyways, Jacob takes a security job at a big tech company so he can figure out the secret of a pyramid that gave him tech superpowers. I have no idea what Jacob's supposed superpowers are. He mostly just shoots guns. Gameplay The shooting is fine. Look, what do you want me to say? It's hard to totally screw up shooting in a video game these days. You point a reticle at a guy's head, pull the right trigger, he dies. It's unremarkable, but snappy enough to fire off some endorphins. There are, like, five enemy types in total, if I'm being generous: human, human in some armor, robot, humanoid robot, slightly taller humanoid robot. I can't really make out what I'm shooting at when things get dark, which is often. My reticle doesn't change to let me know that I'm hovering over someone. I have to rely on a scan tool that places a big red arrow over my enemies' heads instead. There's a cover system that works about as well as any cover system you'd find in an Xbox 360 game. If there's any highlight here, it's Jacob's drone controllable pal. I can fly it around while I'm in cover and use it to stun enemies or hack robots. The lifeless combat comes together a bit more in the final stretch of the story once I can send it out and blow enemies up with grenades. It's too little too late, but it's something. Enough of that, though: I'd say that 75% of the game is actually just spent driving cars and helicopters to the next objective, often miles away, while characters spout exposition. The cars are 'self-driving' but I still have to control it, so I am canonically the AI, I think. Despite being a lawful security guard, Jacob's car has a feature where it tells him how long it's expected to get to a destination and encourages him to speed up to beat that time. There is no consequence for not doing that and no reward for doing it. But you can not steal a car that is not yours, so don't even think about it bucko. You can not explore Redrock while driving. If you do not stay within the undefined bounds of the mission area while driving, you will get a game over screen. One time I got a game over screen because I was apparently doing an escort mission and walked too far away from the people I didn't know I was supposed to be protecting, because I was never given an objective. I'd say that I got game over screens on most missions for similar reasons. There's a minimap that shows where objectives are, but it only displays roads and most of the action happens in and around buildings, so the minimap is largely blank during actual missions. There is other gameplay too. And I mean that as a threat. There's an instant fail stealth mission where you have to sneak into a facility while avoiding wandering robot guards. I had to restart it after a robot got stuck on a fence, making it impossible to get around its cone of vision. Another has me flying a drone into someone's apartment and looking for clues, but I have to make sure it doesn't take too much damage. Slightly brushing up on a wall gently counts as damage and most of the mission is spent in a very tight air vent. I really do respect the fact that Build a Rocket Boy worked a lot of variety into its story and doesn't repeat any of its missions. It's a much needed change of pace from the completely monotonous driving interludes and the repetitive shootouts, even if it leans heavily on cliché mission tropes. That said, this is the kind of game where every time it introduces a new minigame, you will become conditioned to say 'oh no.' Extra content Before the MindsEye released, Build a Rocket Boy talked a big game about the project including some kind of creative tool that would let fans build and share their own gameplay experiences. That mode does not appear to exist on consoles yet. What is in the game is a 'play' menu, which features a handful of side missions created by Build a Rocket Boy no doubt using the tool. A good chunk of them are very bland 'race through the checkpoint' driving minigames. There is no tangible reward for doing any of them. Sometimes I find portals that contain side missions, not unlike Split Fiction. They supposedly let me live random people's memories. I think maybe that's Jacob's superpower? In one mission, I get to see what it's like to be a criminal. I shoot a bunch of cops with a shotgun while a character I know nothing about barks lines like 'In it to win it!' It lasts about a minute and there's no reward for doing it. A portal to the cop killing dimension now just looms in Jacob's dining room. Another mission tasks me with blowing up cars belonging to some 'gangbangers.' I quit it after I'm killed when a car phases through another and plows into me. 'These are real people's experiences,' Jacob muses. That happens less than halfway through the story. I never find another portal again. When I beat the game, I'm dropped into 'free roam mode' where I can explore Redrock to my heart's content. There is seemingly nothing to do in the world except do the few missions in the 'play' menu. In this mode, I inexplicably control a grey-haired character I have never seen before. He is wearing a bright blue tube top and a gas mask. He has a tattoo on his stomach that says 'Can't drink dust.' I am never told who this man is and I am not allowed to change a single thing about him. He is my hero. I think this is all summed up best by the fact that I get a splash screen when beating the game that tells me to enjoy the additional gameplay experiences, but the word 'additional' is misspelled. Pasta salad recipe I made a really good pasta salad after my first play session. Okay, so get a little bowl and pour in half a cup of olive oil, half a cup of lime juice. Throw in just a little bit of honey. Finely chop up some chiles in adobo sauce and mix all that together. Get a pot of water boiling on the stove and cook some bowtie pasta. While that's happening, get some ground beef or turkey going in a pan. Salt, pepper, cumin, paprika, chile powder, garlic powder, onion powder. Cook it all through. Now get to chopping. Slice up a pint of cherry tomatoes. Dice a red onion. Chop a red pepper. Open up a can of corn and a can of black beans. Now get a salad bowl and combine everything. Pasta, meat, vegetables, corn, beef, and the dressing to top it off. Get some tongs and mix all that together. Top it all off with some scallions and Monterey Jack cheese. Delicious stuff. This cost me around $35 to make and I got multiple meals out of it. MindsEye costs $60. Performance and bugs Sigh. MindsEye feels like a video game released in its alpha state. It is completely unoptimized and even the PS5 Pro's extra power can't save it. It runs at a poor framerate that feels like a new number invented for the game. The constant asset pop-in and jagged shadows make it feel like Pokémon Scarlet and Violet trying to sneak into an Unreal Engine social mixer in a trenchcoat. Game crashes? You betcha! Anyways this is the end of my Mindseye live play through thread. I leave you with this. — Giovanni Colantonio (@ 2025-06-15T06:13:58.552Z Sometimes you will shoot at an enemy and they will vanish into cover instantly. Sometimes an entire squad will just suddenly appear around you. When they are not doing magic tricks, they are often milling around aiming at nothing. One mission had me sniping enemies while stuck in a hole, but then the enemies that were supposed to spawn stopped coming. You can not exit a sniper scope view in this scene, but I realized that you could still open up the weapon wheel and switch to another gun to return to third-person, though Jacob is permanently stuck in aiming stance. I did that and managed to clip my way out of the hole to finish the mission. Every driver on the streets has a death wish and is constantly crashing. One time, I watched a self-driving truck go tumbling down a hill into a crater. Another time, I watched one very slowly inch into a tree and then explode into a fiery blaze. In some way, MindsEye is the most accurate Tesla simulator ever. I posted a video of that tree crash explosion and someone on Bluesky said it reminded them of the Aqua Teen Hunger Force gag where everything explodes when it's thrown at the ground. That's a pretty accurate description of MindsEye as a whole. Look, I could keep going here. Pop over to YouTube or Reddit and you'll find no shortage of bug reels that show you just how busted MindsEye is. Jacob falling through the map, NPCs exploding into a mess of spaghetti limbs, you name it. There's a whole culture in gaming built around turning games like this into fascinations. MindsEye feels destined to be 2025's entry into the 'bad game hall of fame.' Is that such a terrible fate? Ironic success stories like The Room prove that it's sometimes better to be a memorable misfire than a decent slog. I'm sure that's not an outcome that the team at Build a Rocket Boy will be happy about owning. There's palpable ambition fueling MindsEye, but I can feel where it likely clashed with business decisions that forced the project out of the oven prematurely. It's the kind of game that you can only pity, holding some empathy for the artists watching an unrealized dream tumble away like a self-driving truck down a crater. No chef wants to serve you uncooked beef. MindsEye was reviewed on PS5 Pro.
Metro
12-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Metro
Twitch streamer breaks down in laughter trying to promote MindsEye
Even paid Twitch streamers are struggling to promote MindsEye thanks to its rough performance. Some say that any publicity is good publicity, but games like MindsEye prove that isn't the case. It's pre-launch period already gave off odd vibes, with the co-CEO of developer Build A Rocket Boy insinuating that someone had paid for all the negative previews MindsEye had received. Now, the game is officially out and to say its launch has been troubled would be an understatement. It's quickly become the new punching bag for gamers, thanks to numerous bugs and glitches. We'd compare it to Cyberpunk 2077's launch, but at least that game worked on PC. Even the sponsored livestreams of MindsEye are doing more to hurt the game's image than help it, which has led to Build A Rocket Boy cancelling many of them. In a clip shared to Bluesky, streamer CohhCarnage, who has an audience of over 1.6 million on Twitch, revealed he had to cancel a sponsored MindsEye stream shortly before it began. 'My sponsored stream was supposed to start at 8, I opened up MindsEye, and as it was loading, my management contacted me and said, 'The sponsor does not want to do this right now. It would like to reschedule,'''' explained Cohh Carnage, pointing out that this has never happened before in his entire streaming career. Sign up to the GameCentral newsletter for a unique take on the week in gaming, alongside the latest reviews and more. Delivered to your inbox every Saturday morning. The internet is filled with other live reactions that do MindsEye no favours. In one clip shared to the MindsEye subreddit, DarkViperAU couldn't help but break down laughing at the end of his stream, despite being paid to promote the game, as he tried to inform his viewers where they could buy it. In a video on MindsEye's launch by MoistCr1TiKaL, he shares a clip from a stream by Sodapoppin (who has at least nine million Twitch followers) where the game kept crashing, forcing the streamer to read off talking points while he tried to fix it. Ironically, all this negative buzz could encourage sales of MindsEye, since some people will want to experience the game first hand, as it becomes a hit with streamers and their audiences. In a Reddit post, Build A Rocket Boy promised that a hotfix to address performance will arrive for PC by the end of the week and for consoles 'as soon as possible.' Build A Rocket Boy has ambitious long-term plans for MindsEye, as it's meant to incorporate a creation tool that lets you build your own mods and missions. The game's roadmap also promises new quests, multiplayer, and a Hitman crossover. More Trending A redemption arc for MindsEye certainly isn't impossible. Cyberpunk 2077 demonstrated that it's possible to salvage a game's reputation after an incredibly mess launch. However, that not only took years of work, but Cyberpunk 2077 had the benefit of incredibly strong launch sales and a workable PC version that showed the game could be great. Sales for MindsEye haven't been shared yet but while it lacks any formal reviews from outlets (due to no review codes being sent out), word of mouth from players suggests the game wouldn't be that good even if it did work as intended. Nobody should want a game to fail, but it's difficult to be optimistic about MindsEye's chances. Email gamecentral@ leave a comment below, follow us on Twitter. To submit Inbox letters and Reader's Features more easily, without the need to send an email, just use our Submit Stuff page here. For more stories like this, check our Gaming page. MORE: GTA producer's new game Everywhere looks like Roblox for adults MORE: Hitman 3 review – mission mostly accomplished MORE: Cyberpunk 2077 performance on base PS4 and Xbox One S is already a meme factory
Metro
11-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Metro
MindsEye still has no reviews but plenty of bugs in 'disastrous' launch
One of the most important GTA developers has released a new third person action game, but its launch has been marred by performance issues and bugs. Launching a brand new IP at the same time as the Switch 2 launch and the not-E3 season of preview showcases was perhaps not the wisest choice for new third person action game MindsEye, but that's turned out to be only one problem amongst many for the troubled release. MindsEye, developed by Build A Rocket Boy, was released across PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S and PC on Tuesday, June 10, and as you may have noticed, we don't have a review up yet. In fact, no outlets have published reviews at the time of writing, presumably because everyone is in the same boat and hasn't received a review copy yet. Publishers aren't required to give codes to publications but, as has been the case in the past, it can often suggest that they're not entirely confident in the final product and want to avoid negative press. While we'll hold our full judgement for now, the game's launch hasn't exactly gone down well with those that have already bought it. On Steam, the game has a 'mixed' average rating based on over 800 reviews, with some players calling out performance issues and 'extremely restricting' system requirements. Many of these issues have been encapsulated in video clips on social media, which show stuttering problems, glitches where you fall through the floor, distorted faces, characters floating in the air, and crash bugs. 'They really should have delayed MindsEye,' one user on X wrote. 'Was playing it and all of a sudden it crashed. Then my save data got corrupted.' Sign up to the GameCentral newsletter for a unique take on the week in gaming, alongside the latest reviews and more. Delivered to your inbox every Saturday morning. 'MindsEye is a complete technical DISASTER,' another wrote. 'Avoid this game right now at ALL COSTS.' Following the game's launch, Build A Rocket Boy has promised to improve performance across all platforms. 'We understand that the current minimum spec requirements are very high, but our engineering team are working around the clock to improve performance on mainstream hardware as well as consoles by integrating the performance improvements in Unreal Engine V5.6,' a statement reads. 'We will provide patch 3 update timing, including these improvements, within the next 24 hours.' In the run up to launch, MindsEye has had a weird vibe around it. When negative previews began circulating online last month, Build A Rocket Boy's co-CEO Mark Gerhard claimed all the people who reacted negatively to the game were being financed by an unnamed 'someone'. In a response on Discord, Gerhard wrote: 'I just said that there is a concerted effort by some people that don't want to see Leslie [Benzies] or Build A Rocket Boy to be successful that are making a concerted effort to trash the game and the studio. It's pretty easy to see the bots and the repeated replies to any content that we put out.' While he doesn't explicitly state who he is referring to, many have taken this to be a reference to Rockstar Games and/or Take-Two Interactive. Leslie Benzies, the co-founder of Build A Rocket Boy, was previously a lead developer on the GTA series and former president of Rockstar North. He left Rockstar in 2016 but, shortly afterwards, Benzies filed a lawsuit against the company claiming he was unlawfully dismissed and entitled to unpaid royalties. This case came to an end in February 2019 with an undisclosed settlement between Take-Two and Benzies. MindsEye is the studio's first game but Build A Rocket Boy previously announced a massively multiplayer online title called Everywhere, which has been compared to an adult version of Roblox. More Trending While MindsEye was originally going to be one experience within this wider Everywhere package, it has spun out into a separate entity with its own creation suite, called and However, as revealed in an interview with VGC, the developers have said Everywhere will be shown again at some point in the future. 'MindsEye is definitely the thing that people should be focusing on,' assistant game director, Adam Whiting, said. 'But we haven't forgotten about Everywhere, it will re-emerge.' It remains to be seen if MindsEye can overcome these initial launch issues, but for now, you can expect our full review in the coming weeks. Email gamecentral@ leave a comment below, follow us on Twitter. To submit Inbox letters and Reader's Features more easily, without the need to send an email, just use our Submit Stuff page here. For more stories like this, check our Gaming page. MORE: Nintendo Switch 2 officially breaks record for fastest-selling console ever MORE: Nintendo Switch 2 comparison: how do Switch 1 games play on the new console? MORE: Nintendo Switch 2 outsells Switch 1 launch by over 100% but fails to beat PS5
Time of India
11-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Time of India
Leslie Benzies' MindsEye launches to poor reviews and broken gameplay
Leslie Benzies' big return to games was supposed to be exciting. But MindsEye, the debut title from his studio Build A Rocket Boy, has flopped hard at launch. Released on June 10 for PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S, the third-person action game has been hit with a wave of criticism on Steam, where it currently holds a 'Mostly Negative' rating based on over 500 reviews. Many expected a polished experience, especially given Benzies' history with Grand Theft Auto and Red Dead Redemption. But instead, MindsEye is riddled with bugs, optimisation issues, and strange visual glitches. Civilians fly through the air, cars explode at random, and ragdoll physics turn mission NPCs into limbs-first horror shows. Some fans even say the game feels unfinished, branding it a rushed product at full price. Bugs, crashes, and confusion lead to refunds MindsEye is a complete technical this game right now at ALL COSTS.- Locked to 30FPS across all consoles and suffers from constant stutter issues- Messy performance on PC (Unreal Engine 5)- Very buggy across the board- Crash issues for many people on both PC… The most common complaint has been the game's optimisation. Even high-end PCs are struggling to run MindsEye without major stuttering. Crashes are frequent, frame rates are capped at 30fps on consoles, and basic controls like driving and shooting feel clunky. Players have shared footage of game-breaking bugs on social media, with one video showing an entire crowd of NPCs floating mid-air. There is some praise for its story and characters. However, many say MindsEye just isn't ready. One player called it 'a complete technical disaster,' while others have started refunding their purchases within hours of launch. Its low Steam player count, just 3,302 purchases at peak, paints an even bleaker picture, especially when compared to games like The Day Before, which had over 10 times that number. Price and developer response raise more questions MindsEye debuts to 2.8k concurrents on Steam. No reviews yet. One player claimed most of the early game is cutscenes to take you past the 2-hour refund mark. The Discord chat is going great. Most streams are paid so far. At $60 in the US and €60 in Europe, players feel the price tag doesn't match the experience. MindsEye is being compared to other 2025 titles like Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 and Kingdom Come: Deliverance II, which delivered far more polish and value. The criticism grew louder when Build A Rocket Boy's co-CEO claimed negative previews were caused by "paid actors," a comment that didn't sit well with fans. Just days before launch, two top executives reportedly left the studio, fuelling more speculation about the game's troubled development. Now, with weak sales and negative press mounting, MindsEye's long-term future looks uncertain. Many believe that even a wave of patches won't be enough to reverse the damage. Some are already comparing it to Cyberpunk 2077's poor launch, but without the hype or the roadmap. Whether MindsEye can recover depends on how quickly and effectively the developers respond. But for now, the dream return of a GTA legend is looking more like a nightmare.
Time of India
10-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Time of India
Mindseye trophy list: Know how to unlock all achievements
If you are the type of player who loves ticking off every achievement in a game, Mindseye has plenty of trophies waiting for you. The third-person shooter comes from Build A Rocket Boy, the studio formed by former GTA V producer Leslie Benzies. Many were expecting a huge open world like Grand Theft Auto, but Mindseye is actually a more focused and linear game. It will take about 20 hours to complete, which makes the trophy hunt a little easier to manage. There are 30 trophies in total, covering different parts of the campaign. Some trophies will unlock naturally as you move through the story. Others are tied to specific actions, enemy kills, or puzzle solving. A few of them might take some effort, especially the ones hidden behind secret story moments or perfect performance in combat. Still, most of the list is clear and rewarding for players who love exploring every corner. Catch an exclusive MindsEye x @Hitman crossover mission coming now for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and Here's the complete list of all Mindseye trophies and how to unlock them: Platinum Trophy Mindseye – Unlock all other trophies Gold Trophies Sacrifice – Make a story choice that prevents any more deaths Bionic Malfunction – Cause major damage in a key story event Lesser Key of Solomon – Fully upgrade the Companion Drone Sticks and Stones – Collect all main weapons from the campaign Silver Trophies Not So Total Recall – Make a new small friend Swan Songs and Swan Dives – Finish the Greenwood section I Have No Memory Of This Place – Discover the source of the bigger mystery I Spy – Track Conti through the factory level Razed Anatomy – Save Conti after the explosion Smooth Flying – Guide the Pincer Drone to Claudia's apartment without any damage Robin Of Lock Keys – Open Morrison's apartment safe Robotic Blind Spot – Install the ODT device in the Solar Farm Little Jacob – Reroute the prison's power system In Too Deep – Escape from a grave-like situation Rocket Science – Align the satellite system Xenoarchaeologist – Solve all underground puzzles Soldier – Eliminate 100 enemies One Shot, One Kill – Get 50 headshot kills Finisher – Kill 50 stunned enemies Explosive Personality – Eliminate 25 enemies using explosions Bronze Trophies Through a Different Lenz – Enter Redrock for the first time Robin Hood – Save the hacker Good First Impression – Meet the boss and save his life Jazzed On Java – Meet the brains behind the plan We Gotta Be Sneaky Charlie Sneaky – Break into a facility It Looked Bigger in the Photos – Visit Silva's weapon and leave a surprise I Started Last Week – Learn how Redrock works Collect Call – Reach out to a mysterious contact Crushed Lily – Experience a key story moment that shows loss
