Horrendous advertising apart, GTA-alike MindsEye looks as if the proper tonic to tide you over earlier than stepping again into Rockstar’s modernised imaginative and prescient of Vice Metropolis subsequent 12 months. And while, sure, in some ways MindsEye does seem spiritually linked with Grand Theft Auto there may be greater than meets the attention on this thematically dense sci-fi story. Right here’s fifteen issues to know before you purchase MindsEye.
Developed by Construct a Rocket Boy
A family title Construct a Rocket Boy shouldn’t be. Nevertheless, the studio’s founder – Leslie Benzies – near-enough each gamer on the planet is conscious of; the legendary video games he produced while working at Rockstar very a lot are family: Pink Useless Redemption and the everlasting money cow Grand Theft Auto V each radiate Benzies’ DNA. Following his break up from Rockstar, he, and quite a few alumni relocated to Edinburgh and fashioned the brand new studio beneath Leslie’s management. MindsEye is its first recreation.
What’s MindsEye?
Given Benzies’ pedigree, it’s maybe unsurprising the fast resemblance MindsEye shares with Grand Theft Auto. Sunlit streets of a caricatured American metropolis, gun-toting protagonists who’re ostensibly good between all their murdering, themes of crime, greed, and corruption, the similarities go on. But, MindsEye isn’t cookie-cut out of Rockstar’s blueprint although. No, MindsEye is a extra centered action-adventure thriller, presenting awestriking cinematic set items between linear mission design and tightly curated narrative supply. Oh, and there’s a distinctly sci-fi, Cyberpunk edge to the expertise; themes which GTA has by no means tackled.
What’s the story?
MindsEye follows the story of Jacob Diaz, an elite former soldier with that tried-and-tested video gamiest of issues: amnesia. Embedded with a neural implant – dubbed a MindsEye – he travels to abandon metropolis Redrock haunted by visages of his former self, of covert missions, and situations which he believes modified his life without end. His mission to uncover solutions results in discoveries of corruption, greed, militaristic management, and the freewheeling energy of disingenuous authorities.
Who’s Jacob Diaz?
The origin of Jacob’s neural implant is a thriller to be unravelled by the participant. Someway this skull-mounted machine is fracturing his reminiscences, with flashbacks of an particularly haunting mission tormenting him day by day. Motivated by righting company wrongdoing, Diaz feels unemblazoned by the nameless supply of his implant, so utilizing abilities from his past-life as a solider – his weapon dealing with, fight manoeuvres, stealth functionality, tactical acumen, and automobile management – he confidently prices headfirst into the town of Redrock, not sure of the size of enemy which awaits. Nevertheless, latest reviews point out that driving mechanics really feel stiff, in order that’s one thing to maintain in thoughts.
What sort of metropolis is Redrock?
A scorching hub of blue-chip tech, Redrock’s near-future visage of optimism and wealth is nothing however a desert mirage. Company oppression and synthetic intelligence outline its denizen’s on a regular basis lives, exemplified most negatively within the metropolis’s over-exuberant automated robotic police drive. Redrock’s political governors are entangled with the nefarious tech mogul on the helm of this AI police corp too, with their joint corruption steering Redrock – and, presumably, the world at massive – in direction of a brand new, unfounded section of human evolution. Nevertheless, in keeping with latest reviews, the sport is riddled with bugs, so let’s hope these will likely be ironed out by the point the sport launches.
NPCs affect the story
There’re numerous different inhabitants nestled inside Redrock’s streets, all following their very own motivations, and most harbouring darkish secrets and techniques. These tertiary characters Jacob encounters alongside the way in which are working to resolve their very own predicaments, so for Jacob – and thus you the participant – belief is a significant component. Who precisely are Jacob’s allies? Whom ought to he watch from the shadows? In a approach, the connection Jacob has with the folks he meets is an allegorical microcosm to what’s occurring within the metropolis at massive; can anybody – AI included – be trusted? The place is the dividing line between human betterment and totalitarian management?
Fight overview
There’s a component of GTA affect in MindsEye’s fight positive, however there’s a tactical depth right here greater than Rockstar has ever tried. The setting, for instance, performs a big half in how Jacob approaches encounters. Utilising environment, reaching elevated vantage factors, and in search of environmental exploits are essential to gaining the sting in battle. Enemies painting a spread of ways and realized behaviours, so tactically the participant should all the time assume dynamically and be ready to alter their technique. Weapon-wise, the standard fayre of pistols, shotguns, assault rifles, sniper rifles, rocket launchers, et cetera, together with just a few thriller prototype weapons, are in Jacob’s knowledgeable palms, however this being a near-future timeline – with neural implant tech a actuality – anticipate to see some Cyberpunk-esque modifications make their option to Jacob’s arsenal too. Nevertheless, in keeping with latest reviews, enemy encounters lack depth, with foes merely charging on the participant.
Excessive-tech devices and neural-related skills
The poster youngster for Jacob’s high-tech gadgetry is his drone companion which we see quite a few situations of him launching from his backpack, presumably the hovering machine folded up neatly like a parachute prior. The drone assists in scanning, exploring, and stealth, in addition to lending a serving to hand in fight. The drone is upgradeable too, with manoeuvrability increasing its usefulness as Jacob burrows deeper down the rabbit gap. Neural hacking can also be a factor for Jacob, giving him capacity to tamper with digital programs from afar. Augmented imaginative and prescient is a 3rd capacity Jacob possesses, giving him a contemporary perspective on the world. All in all, this raft of weapons and gadgetry ought to give gamers quite a few methods to method any given state of affairs.
MindsEye’s themes
Benzies has been clear to level out that MindsEye’s story is heavy on thematic components, and we’ve touched upon quite a few of these themes on this function already: company dominance, the trepidation inherent in AI over-reliance; technological dependence and its affect on freewill and over-surveillance. Corruption, energy, greed, lies, morality; MindsEye’s world is formed by repression, a promise of safety mired by political overreach. These themes are prescient to the real-life of right now however pushed to the intense. It’ll be attention-grabbing to see simply how believably MindsEye’s themes land.
Fake Open World
Redrock is a sprawl; a various metropolis divided up into distinct districts which gamers are free to discover with Jacob. Quite a few factions function all through the town too, some NPCs eager on furthering the town’s tech-reliant future, while others are underground resistance forces hellbent on exposing company greed and corruption. Mission construction is claimed to be linear, and narrative design is promised to be tight; how this suits in with the fake open world – one which’ll function interactive components and an evolving panorama – is tough to know. One attention-grabbing function is Arcadia, a content material creation mode accessed via a portal, out there solely on PC at launch, which permits gamers to develop encounters throughout the map.
Slicing-edge cinematography
Construct a Rocket Boy are tremendous centered on delivering a genre-defining cinematic expertise with real looking character animations and emotionally dense storytelling. It isn’t nearly lifelike digicam angles – though grounding the expertise with true-to-life vantage factors is vital – however portraying complicated feelings and character growth earnestly.
15-hour runtime
It could shock you to be taught that finishing MindsEye’s important marketing campaign will solely set you again roughly fifteen hours. This comparatively streamlined runtime reinforces the studio’s dedication to crafting a tightly choreographed story, moderately than permitting gamers to dictate the pacing or construction via branching or nonlinear narratives. The web result’s the staff ought to hopefully stability rigidity constructing moments with bombastic set items successfully.
Launch date, platforms, and worth
MindsEye is releasing to PlayStation 5, Xbox Sequence X|S, and PC through Steam on 10th June 2025, and is priced at $59.99 / £54.99. Put up-launch content material is just a little hazy on the minute however there may be hypothesis that DLC expansions together with a possible multiplayer mode are coming.
Pre-order for deluxe content material
Pre-orders are reside now, and do you have to pull the set off previous to MindsEye’s launch you then’ll get your palms on a ton of deluxe content material. Deluxe weapon skins, and “future” skins for Jacob’s vest, his Sedan, and drone companion. Additionally bundled in is a premium cross which incorporates an “unique” pack comprising “unique” variations of these just-listed skins, plus an intriguing horde mode mission and entry to seasonal content material because it comes afterward within the 12 months and into 2026.
PC necessities
Official necessities to run MindsEye in your rig at a minimal embody an Intel Core i5-12400F / AMD Ryzen 5 5600X, Nvidia GeForce GTX 2060 / AMD Radeon RX 5600 XT 6GB VRAM GPU, and 16GB RAM. For the really useful settings, it’s confirmed that you just’ll want Intel Core i7-13700K / AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D, Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070 / AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT 8GB VRAM GPU and 16 GB of RAM. 70 GB of storage is predicted.
