I’ve spent over 12 hours immersed in MindsEye, the latest semi-open-world action game from ex-Grand Theft Auto producer Leslie Benzies. I completed it, trudging through its disappointing ending after enduring numerous bugs, performance issues, and tedious phone calls. Still, if you asked, “Who is MindsEye for?” I’d be at a loss. Perhaps it’s for those fascinated by squandered resources and talent?

MindsEye is too linear to excel as an open-world game, yet too expansive and dull to succeed as a fast-paced action game. It’s a medley of ideas—some intriguing, many flawed—shaped into something resembling games you’ve played but lacking their charm. It’s bad in the worst way, not in a bold, memorable failure but as an expensive, mediocre, and forgettable endeavor.

So, what is MindsEye?

In MindsEye, you step into the shoes of Jacob Diaz, a former soldier with a peculiar cybernetic brain implant. During a mission gone wrong, many perish, and Diaz and his implant are largely blamed. Years later, he joins Silva Corp, the company behind the implant, located in Redrock City, a Las Vegas-like setting. Diaz seeks answers from Silva Corp, leading to a tangled plot involving AI, a malevolent general, wealthy tech moguls, interdimensional beings, and super robots.

This might sound thrilling or exciting, yet MindsEye manages to transform this wild plot into one of the dullest experiences I’ve had in years.

What occupied most of my time in MindsEye? It wasn’t engaging in the game’s lackluster cover-based combat, reminiscent of GTA V. Nor was it thrilling chase scenes against police or robots. Instead, about 60% of the game involves driving to locations and chatting about past, current, and future events. It’s a tedious method for delivering exposition and fleshing out the world.

True, GTA games often include drive-and-talk sequences, but they’re brief and interspersed within explosive missions in interactive worlds. Conversely, in MindsEye, you can’t even commandeer random vehicles during missions. When my car got stuck on a rock, I tried to take a parked car. No luck. I shot a car, and the driver fled, but I still couldn’t get in. Meanwhile, a character on the phone criticized my delay in reaching the next mundane cutscene.

A beautiful but boring playground

Credit to developer Build A Rocket Boy: MindsEye is visually stunning. The character models are top-notch, textures are impressive, and the lighting is realistic in some areas. Although performance suffers, especially with multiple cars on screen, Redrock City is well-rendered. During the 12- to 15-hour campaign, I observed campers, abandoned sites, police aiding accident victims, and more.

Unfortunately, there’s little incentive to explore the city in MindsEye. You can’t even engage with police to raise a wanted level. It’s a beautifully crafted playground as interactive as a Las Vegas photo on your phone.

Multiplatform

MindsEye

• BACK OF THE BOX QUOTE

  "Well, you gotta play something while waiting for GTA 6?"

• TYPE OF GAME

  Semi-open action-adventure game with weird minigames and content creation tools.

• LIKED

  Redrock City looks nice, character models are cool, it's not very long.

• DISLIKED

  Combat is dull, driving is a chore, too many phone calls, open world is wasted, very buggy.

• DEVELOPER

  Build A Rocket Boy

• PLATFORMS

  PS5, Xbox Series X/S, PC

• RELEASE DATE

  June 10, 2025

• PLAYED

  Around 14 hours. Finished main campaign. Checked out open-world mode.

Upon completing MindsEye, you’re treated to a final cutscene that resolves none of the game’s many plot threads, followed by a post-credits scene that—considering the poor reviews and reported layoffs—feels overly optimistic. Yes, more MindsEye content is anticipated…

Indeed, since the game includes (or will include) user-generated missions set in Redrock City using MindsEye’s assets. The idea is for PC players to create new missions and game types, with the developers selecting the best to share. For now, it’s missions from the MindsEye team, appearing in the campaign, offering brief diversions from driving and chatting to engage in mercenary missions or confront police. I found these missions unappealing, and I doubt many fans will create future content for me.

Here’s your reward: A bad open world

Completing MindsEye unlocks an open-world mode to explore Redrock City freely. However, you’re stuck as a peculiar character in a gas mask, navigating a city filled with mundane, generic missions. It feels like a last-minute addition, anticipating complaints about the absence of an open-world mode.

The mode’s haphazard nature is evident: your character mimics Jacob’s sounds, and there’s no map when pausing.

What do you do in this mode? Mainly, you drive to marked spots, defeat 20 enemies, retrieve an item, and return it. Or, you race through 40 checkpoints in overly long races. These missions lack voice acting, new music, or features. It feels like playing an unfinished mod of MindsEye. This is your reward for completing the game. Congratulations! You can drive through a dull city with no radio and uninspired missions. You still can’t steal most cars, being stuck with a white hatchback.

As I mentioned at the start, I’m clueless about the target audience for this game, and I doubt it will find one. Maybe after updates, MindsEye will run smoother with fewer bugs. But that won’t make it any less dull, bland, and forgettable. MindsEye is a bad game, not even bad enough to be entertaining. It’s just bad, likely to fade into obscurity, only recalled briefly when its servers shut down unceremoniously.

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