As players progress through Jacob Diaz’s story inMindsEye, the main missions will briefly take players into different parts of the city of Redrock. In this fictional,near-future sci-fi dystopia, AI and other autonomous technologies have become integral to society, for better or worse, and this reality manifests in many ways throughout the city for players to witness.
However, while the open-world city of Redrock inMindsEyelooks interesting from a distance during the high-speed chases and firefights in the cinematic story missions, there isn’t much for players to sink their teeth into once players dive into the dedicated free-roam mode. In other words,MindsEye’s open world is all bark and no bite, as its unique setting and worldbuilding are ultimately squandered by a lack of incentives to explore it.
MindsEye’s City of Redrock Falls Victim to a Common Open World Criticism
WithMindsEye’s city of Redrock being an open world, it’s a natural instinct for players to want to explore this city at their earliest convenience. However, while Redrock looks quite interesting on the surface level, it’s arguably an empty world without many incentives for players to explore it.
MindsEye’s Free-Roam and Custom Game Modes Squander the Game’s Open-World Potential
In the dedicatedfree-roam game mode inMindsEye, players are put in the shoes of a new playable character who notably has none of the gear that players have previously unlocked for Jacob Diaz throughout the game’s story mode. This wouldn’t be such a harsh transition if not for the lack of collectibles and progression systems in the free-roam mode. More specifically, there currently aren’t any character/gear upgrades to unlock throughout the free-roam mode.
While there are new weapons to collect from raiding enemy outposts inMindsEye’s free-roam mode, players won’t get to keep these weapons after exiting the game.
Not only does the free-roam mode do little to incentivize players to fully explore the city of RedrockMindsEye, but the other custom game modes also lack worthwhile rewards. DespiteMindsEye’s Build.MindsEye creation toolsgiving players the freedom to make a wide variety of UGC throughout the city, the lack of meaningful rewards for engaging with these custom game modes is awkward for both creators and participants.
How MindsEye Can Make Its Open World One Worth Exploring
While it’s justifiable that the main story ofMindsEyedoesn’t fully explore every single inch of the game’s massive open world, players might be surprised to find out the hard way that the game’s dedicated free-roam and custom game modes also squander the city’s potential. However, given that the foundations of an expansive and stylish open world are already readily available, Build a Rocket Boy games studio shouldn’t shy away from the task of helping the city of Redrock reach its full potential throughpost-launch updates forMindsEye. For starters, the following features could go a long way toward encouraging players to dive deep intoMindsEye’s open world:
The developers at Build a Rocket Boy games studio have already revealed plans to expandMindsEyeinto a much larger franchise; unfortunately, it remains to be seen if these tentative plans will still be realized, givenMindsEye’s controversial launch. If a comeback story is still in the cards forMindsEye, then aside from addressing the game’s performance issues, one area that could use a lot more love is the open-world city of Redrock.
