However bad your week has been, at least you're not one of the devs on MindsEye. The new shooter is suffering from a host of issues, some of which are addressed in a hotfix, but the game's hopes are dwindling.
Coming from Leslie Benzies, a former producer on the Grand Theft Auto series, and his studio Build a Rocket Boy, MindsEye garnered considerable interest. Throw in Hitman publisher IO Interactive, and this became one to watch.
Sadly, what's arrived on store shelves isn't what anyone was hoping for. Flawed and rife with glitches, the reception has been cold thus far. In an effort to address problems, patches are being rolled out, the first of which fixes performance problems on PS5, Xbox Series X and PC, and reduces difficulty on the absurdly hard CPR minigame.
MindsEye devs have brought forward the timeline for patches to counter all the negative critique and word-of-mouth, but the team has a steep mountain to climb here. The game's MetaCritic score is sitting at 43%, which is distinctly unappealing, while there are currently just over 500 players trying it out on Steam.
And MindsEye's all-time high for Steam, at time of writing? 1,393. Even for a fresh property, those are not good numbers for the scale of this release and the pedigree behind it. Described as having "best-in-class cinematics, high octane driving, and explosive combat," MindsEye just isn't delivering.
Problems were becoming apparent around launch when sponsored streams started falling apart. One of the streamers kept laughing as they played and discussed the project, while another's scheduled look at the sci-fi action-adventure was apparently called off.
"As it was loading, my management contacted me and said, 'The sponsor does not want to do this right now,'" they stated while on camera.
Recovery isn't impossible in these situations, but it requires prolonged investment, and there's always a risk of it not paying off. However MindsEye ends up, this launch will certainly be remembered.
