MindsEye’s Rocky Launch And Studio Fallout
MindsEye arrived on Steam only a few months ago, but its disastrous launch has already made it one of 2025’s most notorious PC releases. Developed by Build A Rocket Boy, the game set out to be a third person action adventure wrapped in a broader metaverse style platform. Instead, players were met with a messy mix of bugs, dull missions, clumsy combat and an over the top story that never really came together.
The response from both players and critics was overwhelmingly negative. Reviews described MindsEye as unfinished and unpleasant to play, and its technical performance left a lot to be desired even on capable gaming PCs. Rather than a smooth cinematic shooter, it felt like a work in progress that had been pushed out the door too early.
Things got worse behind the scenes. Studio boss Leslie Benzies reportedly blamed the game’s failure on supposed saboteurs, which did not go over well with the community or former staff. Not long after launch the studio laid off more than a hundred employees. Some of those developers later accused Build A Rocket Boy of crunch, poor management and a lack of direction, claiming that Benzies never clearly decided what kind of game MindsEye was supposed to be.
For players just looking for a solid PC action game, all of this drama translated into one simple outcome. MindsEye was not worth the asking price at launch.
Performance Patches And Gameplay Improvements
Since that blowout release, Build A Rocket Boy has been trying to drag MindsEye back into playable shape. The game has already received six notable updates that aim to smooth things out and improve performance on PC.
Among the more important changes are improvements to frame rate stability and AI behavior. Earlier versions of the game were plagued by stuttering, odd enemy reactions and encounters that felt messy rather than challenging. The recent patches focus on tightening combat, tweaking encounters and improving animation so firefights look and feel more responsive.
One small but telling example is the addition of a basic dodge roll. In most modern third person shooters this kind of evasive move is standard, especially for players using mouse and keyboard who expect quick ways to reposition in a fight. MindsEye launched without it, which made combat feel stiff and limited. Later updates finally added dodge rolling, bringing the game closer to what PC players would consider minimum viable controls for an action title.
The latest patch continues this trend. It brings more performance updates aimed at making the game run better and look smoother, especially in busier combat sequences. AI and animation are refined, encounters are rebalanced and the overall feel of gunfights has been adjusted to reduce frustration. None of this suddenly turns MindsEye into a must play shooter, but it does move it away from the completely broken state many players saw at launch.
There have also been changes to how content is structured. Earlier updates removed the free roam mode and shifted focus toward more curated missions, while pushing the idea that MindsEye is now powered by Arcadia, the name for its creation and side content tools. This is meant to highlight the game’s user generated and side mission content, though that side of the game was originally just as heavily criticized as the main story.
Free Starter Pack: Try MindsEye At Its Best
To tempt players back in and give newcomers a safer way to try the game, Build A Rocket Boy has released a free starter pack on Steam. Rather than a simple demo built from scratch, this pack slices off specific missions and side content from the full game so you can see how MindsEye handles on your own hardware without paying for the full version.
The highlight of the starter pack is a single campaign mission: Robin Hood. Interestingly, this is mission seven in the full story, not the opening chapter. That is a deliberate choice. Reviewers who disliked almost everything else about MindsEye still singled out Robin Hood as one of the few sequences that was actually fun.
The mission starts with a stealth section in a trailer park that is at least functional, then ramps up into a sandstorm car chase where you pursue a truck across the desert. After that you get a street gunfight and a final set piece where you ride shotgun and mow down pursuing vehicles with a machine gun. None of this reinvents the wheel. If you have played big open world games in the last decade, you will recognise every beat. But it is one of the rare places where MindsEye’s pacing, visuals and action line up well enough to create a decent chunk of gameplay.
By offering this mission for free, Build A Rocket Boy is effectively saying: this is MindsEye at its current best. The upside for PC players is that you no longer have to gamble full price just to see that one decent mission in an otherwise very shaky game. You can install the starter pack, test performance on your system, and judge both the gunplay and the technical state for yourself.
Alongside the main mission, the free pack also includes 14 Arcadia missions. These are side activities built using MindsEye’s internal creation tools. At launch these side missions were widely criticised as some of the weakest content in the game, but months have passed and several updates have been released. There is at least a chance that some of them now offer more polished sandbox style challenges or experimental scenarios for players to mess around in.
Build A Rocket Boy says the starter pack will be updated regularly with new ways to play. That probably means the Robin Hood mission could be swapped out for another story mission in the future, and Arcadia content will rotate over time. If you are curious about MindsEye’s current state, or you just want to see how far a high profile flop can be patched, it is worth grabbing the free pack while Robin Hood is included.
For PC gamers who track performance, patches and post launch turnarounds, MindsEye is an interesting case study. It shows how rough a major release can be and how much work is required just to reach a baseline of acceptability. The free starter pack lets you peek behind the curtain without spending anything, and that alone makes it more attractive now than it ever was on day one.
Original article and image: https://www.pcgamer.com/games/action/mindseye-developer-offers-a-starter-pack-that-lets-you-try-the-beleaguered-action-games-best-mission-for-free-though-you-should-imagine-air-quotes-the-size-of-skyscrapers-around-the-word-best/
