MindsEye devs drop a massive patch amid ‘relaunch’ efforts, but I feel no amount of updates will save this sinking ship

Trying their best to save what they can, MindsEye devs at Build-a-Rocket-Boy have released its fourth major update. This comes as BARB reportedly wishes to “relaunch” the game, which is one of the worst-received gaming disasters in the industry’s history.

As per IGN, MindsEye Update 4 is a 15GB-sized patch on PC, about 7GB on the PS5, and 12GB on Xbox Series S and X. It includes a ton of improvements and fixes, most notably to its performance, combat, and AI behavior. PC was targeted as the primary platform for this Update, given that about half of the entire patch is exclusive to that version of the game. Dozens of bugs were seemingly fixed, too, while animations, dialogue, and other bits of the game were refined and updated to appear more natural.

And this would all be fine and dandy if MindsEye weren’t an unsalvageable game, whose many faults are going to need a lot of time (and, most importantly, a lot of money) to bounce back. If this were another case of No Man’s Sky, where a small, private company shuts up and starts fixing things, I’d say there’s hope for it.

But we’re talking about a title which was the first game published by IO Interactive’s new publishing branch, and one which has already gone through a series of layoffs and staff cuts. Despite ambitious internal promises from director Leslie Benzies and talks of a potential “relaunch,” players have already had their fill of this attempt at a game.

Additionally, MindsEye and BARB would have to have a creative vision, understand their position, and figure out how to set the game on the right path with continuous effort. Instead, Benzies claimed the game didn’t fail because of its own lack of merit, but rather “internal and external sabotage,” which prevented the title from ever reaching the greatness it was meant to.

All things considered, I don’t see a grand redemption for MindsEye. Benzies and BARB should try to make the game at least somewhat playable and move on, taking what they’ve learned with MindsEye and ensuring it never happens again.

Not all redemption arcs have to be centered around making that one failure a success and sticking it to the “saboteurs.”

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