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It used to be the case that if a game launched in a truly dreadful state, the developers would swiftly abandon it and move on to the next project. However, in our glorious age of post-launch patches, the potential for renewal is ever prevalent. Developers can release a game in the worst state imaginable and pull it back with a flurry of fixes and updates until people return to it and declare it a rags-to-riches success. Just look at the most notable examples, Cyberpunk 2077 and No Man’s Sky, to see this idea executed to perfection.
Of course, not all of the worst game launches in the past decade have been treated to such dedication from their developers. Some try, others claim they will but never do, and a handful genuinely commit to delivering the intended experience, if only to regain the goodwill they lost. A prime example of the latter is 2025’s worst game of the year and, frankly, the worst game ever made, MindsEye. Its developer is so intent on convincing us all that it is actually a great game that it has embarked on a fruitless endeavor to save it. However, no matter how many updates it releases, I’m not sure it is a game worth saving in the first place.
MindsEye Is Making A Comeback
Image Courtesy Of Build A Rocket Boy
If you thought that MindsEye, the utterly disastrous open-world title that managed to garner the worst Metacritic score of 2025, had simply faded into the background, never to be mentioned again, you’d be wrong. In fact, despite the negative reactions to it when it was first announced, the abysmal reception to its laughably embarrassing launch, and the complete lack of interest post-launch, developer Build a Rocket Boy is insistent that we all hop aboard the MindsEye hype train as it releases patch after patch.
The game has actually received a substantial number of updates since it launched back in 2025, with the developer attempting to fix some of the more prominent bugs and issues plaguing the otherwise awful experience. Admittedly, it is admirable that Build a Rocket Boy wants to get the game to a playable state so that the handful of people playing the game (it was under 20 according to SteamDB the last time I checked) can enjoy the boring campaign without crashing, seeing characters’ faces melt, and falling through the world every time they move an inch.
However, it appears that, despite all of the negativity surrounding MindsEye, it will undergo some form of redemption arc. Naturally, it remains to be seen just how grand a redemption it will be, especially after a large portion of Build a Rocket Boy’s staff were laid off after the game underperformed commercially and critically. Nevertheless, the fact that the developer, and more eagerly, it would seem, its CEO, Leslie Benzies, wants MindsEye to become the next Cyberpunk 2077 or No Man’s Sky is utterly baffling to me. It isn’t just that it feels like an insurmountable task; it’s that MindsEye simply doesn’t deserve the redemption it seeks.
MindsEye Doesn’t Deserve A Redemption Arc
I mentioned earlier that in the pre-post-launch patch era (that’s a mouthful), awful games were simply abandoned, left to sit at the bottom of bargain bins, ridiculed forever. While, in some cases, that felt like an unfortunate fate, the abysmal state of the game was due to rushed development or an insufficient budget; in others, it was the right choice. Some games are simply not worth saving, whether it’s due to underbaked ideas that, even if they were to be fully fleshed out, would still be boring, or an inconsistent game design at odds with itself and eternally unfun.
MindsEye firmly sits in the latter of these camps, a game that is fundamentally broken at its core. Its entire foundation would need to be not just overhauled, but remade from the ground up for it to be even a competent experience. MindsEye proports to be an open-world experience, but there’s simply nothing to do in said world, its occasionally visually appealing landscapes giving way to empty streets and unresponsive NPCs. It is a world that isn’t meant to be explored, one not designed to be played in, but rather to serve as a background akin to the deceptive matte paintings of old Hollywood films
Its story is nonsensical, lacking any form of bite, and largely boring, despite a fairly remarkable performance from the ever underutilized and underrated Alex Hernandez. Its gunplay is nowhere near good enough to compete with even the worst in the genre, lacking basic features like grenades, stealth, and melee combat. MindsEye’s mission structure is rigid and formulaic, enemy AI is outrageously pathetic, and the side content is laughably bad. You can’t even switch cars, despite one of the only things you’ll do in MindsEye being driving. If you crash your car, you fail the mission; if you drive too far away from the predetermined route, you fail the mission; if you do anything even remotely fun, well, you get the idea.
MindsEye Is Better Off Dead
Image Courtesy of Build a Rocket Boy
MindsEye isn’t just bad, it’s rotten to its very core. There’s nothing to redeem here. Even if Build a Rocket Boy were to fix the aforementioned issues, MindsEye would just end up a competent third-person open-world shooter akin to the dreadful Saints Row reboot. This isn’t the same as the overly ambitious No Man’s Sky, which overpromised and underdelivered, because, despite being disappointing, its foundations lay the path for an experience unlike anything we’d seen before. It isn’t the same as Cyberpunk 2077 either, because its story was incredible, and its world, combat, and exploration genuinely unique, albeit held back by poor performance.
MindsEye isn’t going to be the next Cyberpunk 2077 as much as it was never going to be the next Grand Theft Auto. I hate being so unbelievably negative about a game, but the investment required to turn Leslie Benzies’ dream into a reality is far too great and risks the entire studio shutting down. Rather than wasting the time and money required to “save” MindsEye, Build a Rocket Boy should look to the future, invest in a smaller project that it can actually deliver to a decent standard. It needs to earn back the sliver of goodwill it had before MindsEye came out, prove that its debut game was a fluke, and show it has so much more to offer the world. Because, frankly, the world would be better off without MindsEye.
Do you think MindsEye deserves another chance? Leave a comment below or join the conversation below in the ComicBook Forum!