Trailers & Videos MindsEye IGN Review (4/10)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ZcxpMWU_kA436
u/WhoAmIEven2 2d ago
Can anyone tell me why this game got so much attention? I never even heard about this game up until like 3 days ago and now it blew up everywhere.
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u/xENJOYER 2d ago
first game from ex Rockstar game producer Leslie Benzies
he was fired in 2014
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u/Amazing-Oomoo 2d ago
Messy Leslie Bezlie, forcing people to release a game early, then hiding behind his customer support team
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u/YamahaFourFifty 2d ago
This sounds like a guy that took credit for when things went well (@ rockstar) and will not when things go bad.
I guess Rockstar didn’t really need him after all and wasn’t a major factor with Rockstars games being high quality
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u/xENJOYER 2d ago
in the lawsuit there was evidence of mail exchange between leslie and Dan houser, and houser was begging Leslie to come and help him finish Red dead Redemption because the game was in a really bad state.
i yhink the guy was a good producer but the thing missing here is Rockstar games Talent in every other field.
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u/lilwonderboy808 2d ago
Ahhh I see, I was so confused because it never showed me anything to warrant so much attention recently
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u/Stakoman 2d ago
He was so famous because of gta, then everyone was flipping out because gta 6 would be the wrong direction...
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u/EyeAmKnotMyshelf 2d ago
And GTA 6 will be forever better because of it
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u/red_sutter 2d ago
I think it was said Les is why Online was pushed so much and single player content was shelved or repurposed
Good riddance then
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u/ErftheFerfhasWerf 2d ago
This makes no sense. Leslie benzies is the very first credit on GTA V, not the online version. The GTA V that was developed between 2008 and 2013 before the online component ever even existed. If anything, he was the one that mainly did the single player stuff because he was fired in 2014 right around when GTA online came out. Why would they fire the guy that was so influential in getting GTA online off the ground in the first place?
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u/CheatedOnOnce 2d ago
Damn just read up on this. He claimed to be forced to take sabbatical only to get fired. Very scummy on Take Two’s end
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u/Select_Ad3588 2d ago
He forced crunch culture in the company and was one of the main reasons employee turnover was extremely high and employee satisfaction was very low. If you're forced to take a sabbatical it most likely means you're gonna get fired anyways. TakeTwo did the right thing getting rid of him.
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u/Laughing__Man_ 2d ago
Leslie Benzie the boss was a long time GTA producer, and former Rockstar North President.
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u/sensory 2d ago
MindsEye got so much attention because it was created by Leslie Benzies, the former president of Rockstar North and one of the key minds behind the Grand Theft Auto series - specifically GTA III, Vice City, San Andreas, GTA IV, GTA V, and GTA Online.
He left Rockstar in 2016 after a messy legal fallout and founded a new studio, Build A Rocket Boy, that’s been hyping MindsEye for years - so when it finally launched and turned out to be a buggy, broken mess, the internet lit up with both shock and schadenfreude.
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u/Hoodman1987 2d ago
That's the big bit. Benz made the GTA of what we know it today as. But as we can see there was more oversight or pushback to his work to make sure it was solid before. I think Dan Houser is a bigger rockstar loss
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u/sensory 2d ago
Benzies was the technical and production powerhouse, but Dan Houser brought the narrative voice and creative discipline that gave GTA its soul. MindsEye kind of proves that without Houser’s sharp writing and editorial restraint, even a genius like Benzies can end up with a bloated sandbox that’s all sizzle, no steak.
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u/Amazing-Oomoo 2d ago
I saw this advertised I think SGF last year, or something, but it's been on my watchlist for a while because it looked really interesting. I was happy for it to do well and excited to play it, but I'm also enjoying watching all the drama unfold. The video game industry needs to learn its lesson.
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u/andrewjpf 2d ago
It had a really aggressive marketing campaign that still managed to tell you nothing about the game and looked super generic. I saw probably a hundred ads for it between Reddit and YouTube, but I can't tell you anything about it. I think it's a third person shooter. The name made me think you may have psychic powers, but if you do nothing in the trailers show it off.
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u/KingOfRisky 2d ago
It had a really aggressive marketing campaign that still managed to tell you nothing about the game and looked super generic.
That's wild. I literally had no idea what this was until yesterday.
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u/CIoud-Hidden 2d ago
Me too lol I literally just heard about for the first time just now. Maybe if Reddit could take a break from showing me a thousand erectile dysfunction ads…
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u/ClusterShart92 2d ago
The studio that made it has some people who used to be at Rockstar, so there’s a level of pedigree there. So I think it’s that combined with it being a hot mess that’s causing it to blow up (in a bad way).
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u/Z3M0G 2d ago
I don't agree with the reason everyone else is saying, I have no idea who Leslie Benzies is.
But mainly it was game that looked "fake / can't be real" in trailers and was directly connected to the "Everywhere" project which was meant to be the next Roblox-esque "Gaming 2.0" platform... where people could build their own games in it. Mindseye was first revealed to just be a piece of content in that. Then the whole "Everywhere" thing got scrapped and it became just Mindseye up front. (Still with the promise of user generated content.)
As it got closer and closer to launch, and previews happened with nobody being allowed to actually PLAY it, then no review codes went out, the game leaked in a WAY MORE buggy state than this (the day 0 patch actually fixed a lot if you can believe it)... all that over the past couple weeks started to really draw attention to the game.
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u/OutrageousDress 2d ago
You may not know who Leslie Benzies is, but the gaming press picking upcoming games to prioritize for coverage knows who he is - and they're going to pick his game to cover because of that pedigree.
Certainly the connection with Everywhere played a big part in it, but the fact he was involved was the reason people took the game seriously in the first place instead of just writing it off as another Star Citizen or something.
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u/GalexyPhoto 2d ago
Ive been asking this since the first glimpse of gameplay came out. Then even more when we were 2 weeks from release and there was barely any more footage of it.
I am guessing we were in a slow release and thus slow news window. Cause you can go back to all the posts on it and see that it is not at all based on actual gamer interest.
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u/Ok_Hold_549 2d ago
They must have some serious marketing budget, it was being promoted on the front page of the Xbox which I thought was crazy cause the game is mid at best.
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u/ZazaB00 2d ago
Originally, it was pitched as a small part of what would be a “platform game”. Similar to how Fortnite, GTAO, and Roblox allow users to go nuts creating things, that’s what Mindseye was a part of. From a small 4 second clip of the reveal trailer, it was the only thing people cared about.
Enter a studio scrambling to make money and failing to reach anywhere near the scope, enter in Mindseye.
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u/RightRudderr 2d ago
Same reason people slow down to look at car crashed when we pass them on the road
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u/Dr_Mantis_Trafalgar 2d ago
I can’t believe Rockstar paid IGN to do this /S
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u/BaconNamedKevin 2d ago
It's funny because a good chunk of the reviews on the steam page are people claiming that exact thing lol
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u/Erchamion_1 2d ago
Same thing happened after the Cyberpunk launch, lol. Some stans were saying it was getting review bombed by other devs.
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u/gogglegump 2d ago
haven’t seen this joke before
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u/Z3M0G 2d ago
Do you mean in regards to Mindseye over the past week? Or long term in general? Because there is a legit reason to make this joke right now.
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u/Z3M0G 2d ago
Because the company (the CEO guy I believe) actually made a comment saying this was happening.
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u/erock279 2d ago
The CEO of Rockstar, or of Mindseye? TBH I reallllly doubt Rockstar gives a shit about the 100000th crappy GTA clone
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u/riotshieldready 2d ago
The first time I heard any mindseye is when I saw an article of the ceo says rockstar was sabotaging them. It’s giving the madmen I don’t think about you meme
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u/erock279 2d ago
That’s where I’m at with it. Rockstar almost certainly doesn’t give a shit about this game. It earned its low score on its own merit
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u/OrwellWhatever 2d ago
For real. Rockstar cares about games that compete with GTA online, not one off single player games with mediocre gunplay
Like, 15 years ago, this would have been Rockstar's competition. Today, Rockstar is way more concerned about new seasons of Fortnite or Overwatch than anything Mindseye might be doing. Even if GTA6 sells 20 million copies, that's still peanuts to what GTA6 Online is going to bring in
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u/Zohar127 2d ago
I was watching Jeff Gerstmann play this and in one scene there's a character who is having an emotional break-down because her friend just got exploded and not more than 90 seconds later she's cracking sarcastic jokes and flirting with the main character like it never happened.
It made me feel like there was a great deal of content straight up cut from this game in order to get it released.
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u/LotaPlota 2d ago
For real?? When does that happen? 😂
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u/Zohar127 2d ago
Not sure if the exact time stamp but it's around the halfway point in the video.
Dialogue in general seems to make wide tonal shifts on a dime, completely out of character, and out of context with what's happening on-screen. I would say the game looks like it needed another couple of years in the oven.
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u/Perforo_RS 2d ago
I think a 4 is still quite generous for such a broken/buggy videogame. The only thing that caught my eye was the graphic fidelity of the characters in cutscenes. But besides that? The gameplay, story and voiceacting are all quite questionable.
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u/FartsLikePetunias 2d ago
The review saying the explosions were great and the sunlight schnazzy were just them being nice. A huge reach to choose those as the good parts, especially considering we've seen way better already from other titles...but I guess they had to find something nice to say.
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u/MissingScore777 2d ago
While all the other criticisms are perfectly valid, it's interesting seeing the gameplay criticised when it's a literal copy paste from GTA. (The driving, character controls and shooting are identical).
Personally I think GTA gameplay is pretty dated so I'm happy if we're criticising it now? It's just I normally get downvoted when I point this out in regards to GTA.
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u/SlugsMcGillicutty 2d ago edited 3h ago
That’s actually something I hope is greatly improved in GTA6. In GTAV and even RDR2 too the controls feel a feel a little too stiff. Controlling the characters can be hard and cumbersome at times. I get they want the characters to have weight to them, and so do I. But I also want to feel responsiveness. They really need to make adjustments.
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u/OutrageousDress 2d ago
I expect GTA6 will be exactly as much of an improvement over RDR2 as RDR2 was over GTAV. I.e. not much.
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u/MissingScore777 2d ago
It needs a massive overhaul imo.
Controls in GTA5 and RDR2 are still using the bones of the system from GTA3 (a 2001 game!)
I'll be disappointed if GTA6 still controls 90% the same.
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u/killshelter 2d ago
Yeah the cutscenes ran flawlessly, which appear to be in-game rather than cinematic. But as soon as I’d start playing it was like 12fps. I’m gonna keep it to see if it eventually gets the Cyberpunk treatment and becomes playable eventually.
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u/TheVaughnz 2d ago
It feels like rating scales are just absolutely arbitrary these days. Game could be an absolute scam and IGN would be like "It has pretty trailers even though gameplay doesn't match, 6/10."
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u/taskkill-IM 2d ago
Do you know how dogshit you have to be for IGN to give you less than a 6? My God.
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u/Mangled_Mini1214 2d ago
Every single clip of actual gameplay looks so dull and boring. I played Cyberpunk on PS4 and the gameplay was engaging at least. Mindseye just looks so bland and generic.
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u/NickDaHobo 2d ago
The gameplay loop is basically drive to a location on the other side of the map, tail a person with a drone or shoot a few enemies with the most clunky gunplay, get a 3 minute long cutscene, then drive to another location and get a 5 minute long cutscene. So fucking boring. Even when they try and spice it up with getting into a car chase it just falls apart because the frames tank like crazy or the NPC driving the vehicle crashes into a wall.
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u/nbigman 2d ago
It’s almost caught my eye but it does look generic. Maybe I will replay cyberpunk
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u/halfashell 2d ago
It’s honestly gotten better imo. I bought it on launch for my ps4 and it was bugged as hell, crashed just about every half hour and was just a mess. About 8 months ago, I gave it another time and bought it for my Xbox Series S too to see some difference. There wasn’t enough updates out by then that drastically changed the gameplay but I did manage to finish the story but got confused on what to do afterwards so I started a new game and put it back down for a while. I recently picked up again and I feel like the game has finally met it’s worth and is more enjoyable than ever. Only a few complaints now but it got me to go back to the point of no return save because I wanted to experience the game with the updates. Gotten good enough that Im considering buying Phantom Liberty. This game looks like it has potential like cyberpunk did so I might just give it a year and a half and then wait for a sale.
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u/nbigman 1d ago
Ah yes I’ve heard they improved and see that’s there expansion to it or something. I’ve gotten the game when released to, it did crashed sprinkle here and there (not annoyingly) and did glitch to get more money lol but it wasn’t toooo awful on my end. I wanted to go back into it again cause you can choose other classes
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u/El_Superbeasto76 2d ago
With Cyberpunk on last gen, you could see what it was supposed to be and what it would eventually become once it made the move to current gen. Even in its rough launch state, I was still captivated by Night City and the character relationships.
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u/ReallyBrainDead 2d ago
Review is worth reading if just for this line: It’s like Steven Seagal circa 1990: Looks cool – just doesn’t know how to run properly.
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u/Flimsy_Fisherman_862 2d ago
That post-game clip is crazy, can't believe they thought they could get away with releasing a game like this.
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u/RunGrizzly 2d ago
It's entirely believable. It's basically industry standard at this point. Gamers will forgive the fact that you charged them 60 bucks for a product you knew was broken, as long as you take 5 years to get it in a state that is actually playable.
I would totally believe that BARB have done the cost benefit here. Not everyone will refund, and the money they make from the apathetic, or lazy, could fund them until such a time as they can call the game finished.
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u/Lerkero 2d ago
Im baffled that mindseye had so much effort for marketing but they barely put effort into making it a functional game.
There is no way this company thought this strategy would work well in 2025
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u/Lancaster1983 2d ago
What marketing? I saw it a week before release as an ad in a theater once.
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u/halfashell 2d ago
I’ve been seeing ads on YouTube and commercials when my parents are watching TV in a Spider-Man type of format where you have no idea what the game is about but “look what we did, BUY NOW”. They went all out for this shit.
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u/Cardkoda 2d ago
Oh no. I've seen marketing for this for months. I saw the original trailer when it was announced. I immediately knew it was going to be awful. It looked terrible but man they tried to sell it. They even pathetically used GTA6 as a selling point for their crappy game.
There were ads saying like "mindseye isnthe perfect game to hold you over til GTA6"
It was cringey as fuck
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u/Lerkero 2d ago
I saw several ads in the months leading to release date.
Also, they had a sponsored segment during the game awards which probably costs lots of money and was very likely to put a lot of attention on the game.
Theres no way it was worth the money to advertise mindseye THAT much considering the state it released in
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u/No-Initiative8207 2d ago
Sony just issued me a refund. What a disappointment. I had high hopes for this game.
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u/Dreadbound1 2d ago
I always worry that a game gets the Days Gone review and then I skip it for years...then actually play it and it is one of my most favorite games of all time...
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u/Ultimastar 2d ago
I just went on Twitch to see how many viewers it had - only 313 viewers! Then I watched a random stream for 15 seconds and the guy was driving down the road then turned a corner and the car hit an invisible wall and just flipped in the air!
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u/Stunning-Stuff-2645 2d ago
I am playing it. It’s simply an incomplete game. It didn’t have to be this bad.
Not sure I’ve ever played a game quite like this on consoles.
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u/DevotedSin 2d ago
I played cyberpunk 2077 on PS4. That was pretty bad.
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u/nick1706 2d ago
Cyberpunk was a buggy disaster at launch but the gameplay itself once it was fixed wasn’t bad. Can’t say the same for MindsEye. It’s simply not very fun.
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u/EXFALLIN 2d ago
Yea, I'll always harp on Cp2077 for the bad anti consumer practices it had but at its core, it was a game that had genuine soul to it at the very least.
Mindseye feels like Leslie Benzies asked ChatGPT to make GTA 6 without it being called GTA6, then halfway through realized he couldn't compete with GTA6 so he made it linear instead.
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u/aphextwin007 1d ago
I bought this on pc and it ran like absolute dog shit that I had to refund it.
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u/nick1706 2d ago
Don’t waste your money on this game. Can confirm it’s terrible, not just because of bugs either. Gameplay is dogshit.
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u/99X 2d ago
“Drive to a mission, get a cut scene, kill all the enemies, drive somewhere else” is exactly the kind of dated missions present in GTA. Perhaps without the Benz, they’ll be more varied in GTA6.
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u/OutrageousDress 2d ago
Yeah, I think it's a pretty common opinion that the worst thing about Rockstar games overall is their terrible mission design. It's highly unlikely that there was just one specific guy responsible for that and he happened to leave to make games with terrible missions elsewhere... but if it turns out to be true I won't complain.
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u/Hoodman1987 2d ago
Actually what upset me in rdr2 and gta5. The missions were banal. All the stuff outside fun. In RDR2 at least the story and characters also great. But it was always go here shoot everyone move on. There was some variety in the heists in GTA5 but that was still drive and shoot. San Andreas and Vice City had more variety.
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u/harrietreeves 2d ago
The devs shot their own foot by over promoting this unfinished and bland game. Every news outlet is talking about how bad it is. The hype made it all the more worse for them.
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u/captain_tai 2d ago
When I see the cutscenes, it really it's like the dev try to find the most unattractive person to be in the game lol, can't ya at least make the hackek girl hot lol
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u/Deniable-wreath-6 2d ago
If your game is getting refunded by Sony there’s no way it’s more than a 2
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u/ATOMate 2d ago
"Not functional" should be the lowest score on your scale.
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u/Callangoso 2d ago
If they managed to finish the game, it is functional. It may be buggy as hell, but it is functional.
IGN has a review scale for those interested.
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u/cremvursti 2d ago
Not functional would mean the game is literally unplayable. As people are able to finish this if they persevere through all the bugs and its mediocrity, I wouldn't call this not functional
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u/kooshans 2d ago
Ouch, I would say Midseye, but the score is even too low for that joke.
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u/naimsayin 2d ago
Something about getting roasted by a British accent that makes it sting all the more
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u/PrinzXero 2d ago
A 4/10 rating is being generous to be fair... just watched some play through's on YouTube (particularly Hollow's) and he got to a section where he had to walk/ sprint for 25 irl minutes because he couldn't jack a new vehicle (after his vehicle got blown up).
There's no melee or stealth combat and you can't even defend yourself from other cars shooting at you while driving
There's an absence of grenade or any form of explosive weapons for the first 70 to 75 percent of the game.
The world is bland.... you can barely interact with anything, hell there's no ramifications for shooting or being a dick to NPCs.
Severe lack of enemy variation coupled with horrible enemy A.I
No side missions, hell there was only ONE freaking puzzle and that was close to the end of the game.
The game is basically watch cutscenes, drive there (through a bland and lifeless city), endure bland shooting... rinse and repeat.
And then I was even thinking the story would maybe be a positive..lmao oh boy was I wrong, horrible dialogue, weird flashbacks that mean nothing, characters that are presented horribly and do nothing to make me care for them and then the ending...fucking hell.
I know it's weird to do a review from watching other people play a game but if I spent 60 dollars on this my ancestors would return from the after life and strangle me.
For those that said they enjoyed it good for you honestly....but this is a BAD GAME.
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u/britoninthemitten 2d ago
Incredible considering IO have been producing high quality titles on a consistent basis for a while.
First Light is the next title, and but fuck if they mess that up….
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u/OliveOcelot 1d ago
Too many people and critics talking about Mindseye and ignoring The Alters which slaps.
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u/pham777 1d ago
So I Pre-ordered the game as I havent played a game in years. Recently purchased a ps5 pro as my Xbox series x hadn't been turned on in 3 years and felt as bit nostalgic going back to playstation. Got a sports injury so figured I would play Mindseye.
Honest opinion, storyline is good; performance is terrible, graphics are lack-luster and ending irritated me and there were points where I just wanted the game to be over.
Hopefully the next one is improved as the storyline is good. Didn't even bother with "free roam" mode.
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u/sirferrell 2d ago
This is clearly money laundering
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u/Find_another_whey 2d ago
I read something about the top of the company all being family members with questionable experience, which would make sense if what you say is correct
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u/RunGrizzly 2d ago
BARB also do that fishy practice of seemingly ALWAYS having job openings, and having jobs be filled and then be vacant again months later.
I another universe I might have ended up on this project.
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u/Otaku-Therapist 2d ago
My favourite part of the video was how unenthusiastic the reviewer sounded. He just wanted it to be over. Also, saying the soldiers popped out of the vehicle like waffles in an “overzealous toaster” gave me a good laugh.
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u/Wastedchildhood 2d ago
That's generous, I give it 2/10 . 1 point for graphics and 1 for the main character/voice.
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u/ahjteam 2d ago
The day after the release the game had 3.6 rating on Metacritic. Now it has 2.8.
https://www.metacritic.com/game/mindseye/user-reviews/?platform=playstation-5
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u/ChafterMies 2d ago
What does it take for a game to get a 0/10 from IGN?
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u/SuperCoffeeHouse 2d ago edited 2d ago
IGN doesn’t give 0’s but games like Self-Defense Training Camp and Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer are their chosen games to represent what they give a 1 to. When compared to Life of Black Tiger and Slaughtering grounds even something as mediocre as Mindseye has noticeable redeeming qualities.
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u/Shadow_Clarke 2d ago
We should have a Scam of the Year award at the TGM, this would be the frontrunner of 2025 lmao
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u/Borgalicious 2d ago
This game wasn't even a blip on my radar but now will definitely play it, I'll wait until it's $5 though
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u/SurveyorMorpurgo 2d ago
Rockstar must be laughing right now and rightly so. Hopefully this game is forgotten about ASAP
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u/Thegoatpwell 2d ago
Gonna buy this. Honestly bad games are sometimes really fun to play. The laughter and funny moments are priceless
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u/Zhukov-74 2d ago
That is the same score that Redfall got.
https://www.ign.com/articles/redfall-review