Hello! You might know me from past roles as “I’m So Glad I Gave Redfall A Second Chance” and a 9/10 STALKER 2 review that declared “The Heart of Chornobyl Beats Stronger Than Ever“. I’m something of a gaming optimist, and that means that I often enjoy games that few others do. I mean, I have 1,000+ hours in Fallout 76.
It might, therefore, come as no surprise to learn that I recently jumped into MindsEye, more than six months after release, to see what all the fuss was about. In the same vein, you might not be too shocked to learn that I enjoyed MindsEye and came away with very few complaints about the entire hoo-haa.
Here’s my full MindsEye review, now that the game has had time to shape up and the studio has had time to settle into a few more controversies – enjoy!
Is MindsEye As Bad As Everyone Says?
Anyone who is anyone knows the basic story of MindsEye. It emerged in June 2025 to a woeful reception and was pulled to pieces by everyone from top-tier critics to the average gamers that make up the bulk of the industry. It was slated, abandoned immediately, and was found in bargain bins within just a few days of release.
Technically, it was a farce. The game was riddled with performance issues and bugs, and it felt empty and devoid of any real incentive to play. Build a Rocket Boy, the game’s developer, went on a weird offensive, declaring they’d been sabotaged and swearing litigation from the rooftops.
Fast forward to now, and that sentiment hasn’t changed. In February, the studio’s co-CEO revealed an alleged €1 million plot to bring down BARB and MindsEye, but gamers everywhere argued that it was more the terrible game bombing that brought the company down and spurred layoffs to happen.
But that’s enough of that.
This past weekend, as I write this, I poured almost ten hours into MindsEye. I purchased it on sale on Steam for a princely £27 and dove headfirst into what I expected would be one of the worst games I’d ever played. But coming out of the other end of two five-hour sessions, I found myself quite impressed.
Quite impressed, indeed.
MindsEye is not only not as bad as everyone seems to think, but… It’s pretty good. And no, dipping back to my earlier statements about paid campaigns, I’m not being funded by BARB, Leslie Benzies, or Mark Gerhard to say these things.
What’s Wrong with MindsEye?
In my opinion, MindsEye has come on in leaps and bounds since its release in June 2025. The updates BARB has released in the months that followed the game’s launch have had an impact, and while almost nobody on Earth is playing the game now, it seems to be receiving much more positive feedback than it did when it launched.
For instance, Steam’s recent review rating, at the time of writing, was ‘Mostly Positive’, while the all-time rating was ‘Mixed’.
I wasn’t sure what I’d be getting into when I booted MindsEye for the first time, but right out the gate, I was presented with sumptuous visuals, a massive world, phenomenal character models, and stellar acting.
I’d come to learn that the massive world was mostly a cosmetic palette for the ‘Arcadia’ UGC platform and couldn’t be explored at will, but I’ve got no issues with a linear, single-player game, so there we are.
I had no idea what the story in MindsEye entailed, but I found myself pulled in and engaged from the get-go. It’s a cyberpunk-style, Assassin’s Creed-themed (at times) tale of technology taking over, otherworldly entities influencing the human race, and vicious, conspiracy-bound cabals running things from the shadows.
In a nutshell, the story is genuinely good and keeps you guessing as things unravel in a very cinematic fashion.
I need to give some huge props to Alex Hernandez, who plays Jacob Diaz, the game’s protagonist. His career was derailed after MindsEye imploded at launch, which is unfair, given that he also suffered when Mafia III, another game that he fronted, launched in 2016.
Hernandez plays a solid character in Diaz, and his delivery was superb, coming away as one of the defining, redeeming factors of the game. There wasn’t a single character I felt wasn’t well played, and there was a decent amount of banter and humor woven into the game’s fabric, too.
But what’s wrong with MindsEye? Well, I had a save bug that reverted me a few hours (but I was able to resolve it). I also had some visual issues early on that resulted in black flashes and dots appearing across the screen every few seconds, but that problem seemed to tidy itself up.
Aside from that? Some minor animation issues with background characters, and whenever I ran down a staircase, I seemed to always get stuck on the guardrail.
But that’s about it. Honestly.
The Best Side of MindsEye
I delved into the ‘ARCADIA’ platform for a few minutes and found it woefully complex, despite the game’s insistence that you can create your own games and modes in ‘minutes’, so that won’t be covered here. I also played some of the content created by BARB and other users, which is confined to races and missions that usually require you to survive against waves or eliminate a number of enemies.
They’re great for a few minutes of entertainment, but it doesn’t go much deeper than that.
The core campaign was the shining gem in the game’s makeup, though. I found the combat to be engaging enough, if a little simple. It’s mostly confined to running somewhere in a straight-ish line and fighting endless scores of enemies, but it’s diverse enough that I didn’t mind how toned down it was.
The pacing is fine, and you can be creeping around a location in one mission and solving tricky puzzles in the next. You might find yourself zipping across the skyline of Red Rock City in a ‘sky car’ in one sequence, while fighting for your life in an ancient, underground facility in the next.
It’s not entirely unpredictable, and it all wraps up quite nicely. The writing is, in my opinion, better than you’ll see in some AAA games, and the acting, as I’ve mentioned, was the redeeming factor in MindsEye. I was especially a fan of Hunter Morrison, played by Dominic Burgess, an eccentric genius with a pea-sized prostate who offers nice comedic relief at times.
Sure, 9.5 hours is a little slim, but I’ve definitely paid more for less in the past.
Let’s sum up.
MindsEye Review: Verdict
MindsEye represents a misunderstood game, in my eyes. It offers a sumptuous visual palette, an intriguing story, and some marvellous characters backed by solid acting, but it’s delivered amid technical issues, a short adventure, and a marred reputation that won’t ever go away from the game’s developer.
I fear that it’ll go mostly forgotten as time advances, and it’ll forever be known as one of those games that, in hindsight, many more people should have experienced before tarring it with a nasty brush.
I think I’m relatively alone when I say this, but with how the game ended, I genuinely hope we get a sequel.
What did you think about MindsEye, if you played it? Let us know your thoughts on the Insider Gaming Discord server.
For more Insider Gaming coverage, check out our HumanitZ 1.0 review
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Grant's adoration for gaming started on the Amstrad CPC in 1996. Now, he's a multi-platform expert gamer with a deep love for the industry, a passion for esports, and more…
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