Uh Oh. ‘MindsEye’ Isn’t Off to a Great Start on Steam

If you caught the IOI Showcase last Friday, then you likely remember IO Interactive’s first shot at a Summer Game Fest livestream event as a bit… bizarre. Plagued by audio issues, awkward banter, and an audience quick to hit the bar before the panel, one YouTube commenter summed up the entire showcase well: “Classic E3 cringe.” Yes, we lost the Electronic Entertainment Expo, but its legacy lives on through this incredibly bizarre presser. Unfortunately, the IOI Showcase was a bit of an omen for IO Interactive’s latest release: MindsEye.

Billed as an open-world action-adventure romp that grants players the opportunity to create their own experiences, IO Interactive published the title soon after the show. The game is now live as of yesterday, June 10th. Unfortunately, early Steam reviews suggest MindsEye will be a stain on IO’s good name.

‘MindsEye’ is ‘a rushed, broken mess’

Developed by studio Build A Rocket Boy, MindsEye is the first title part of the company’s Everywhere platform. The game focuses on a cyberpunk-esque city where advanced AI, drones, and other near-future technology has a tight leash on the local populace. An idea that’s interesting in theory, especially given its focus on an open-ended gameplay approach where players can complete missions any way they deign fit. But if you felt that MindsEye looked a bit generic during the IOI Showcase, well, come collect your prize. Reviews seem to suggest that the game was not quite ready for release.

“I went into MindsEye with decent expectations—it looked like a promising semi-open world experience with good visuals. Unfortunately, that’s about where the positives end,” one Steam reviewer wrote. “The AI in MindsEye is shockingly bad. Enemy behavior is erratic and laughable, and NPCs feel like they’re stuck in a game from 2010—not 2025. It seriously breaks immersion and makes encounters more annoying than engaging.”

Another player called the game “a rushed, broken mess,” a product “shoved out the door just to cash in.” While that reviewer genuinely enjoyed the game’s cutscene visuals, music, and story, he noted MindsEye‘s passionless voice acting and immersion-breaking AI.

“Cars constantly crash into each other, and nothing happens. No panic, no one gets out, no police, no reaction. You can ram into traffic, and the worst you’ll see is some generic damage modeling—that’s it,” he said. “The world feels empty, even though people are technically walking around. The game keeps pushing you from one cutscene to the next—normally I love linear, cinematic games. But here it feels like they’re rushing players past the 2-hour refund window. Clever tactic—scummy execution.”

Some hold out hope for the game’s future

Other complaints abound. One player called the game “clunky” and its gunplay “buggy.” Another said MindsEye launched completely unoptimized. A third stressed that MindsEye “could be a good game” with post-launch content updates and support, but that player isn’t holding their breath. In the end, they asked Steam for their money back.

“Refunding it, there is just not enough in here to justify $60,” that user wrote. “On top of the piss poor performance and bugs, I think what I have learned is if a AAA title releasing in 2025 is promised to be huge and is under 50gigs to install, nine times out of ten is going to be a mess.”

For the record, MindsEye currently has a “Mixed” review score on Steam, tallied from over 900 reviews. Per SteamDB, 57.5% of MindsEye reviews are negative. Positive reviewers are generally much more forgiving of the game’s flaws and issues. Or suggest the game will be better over time akin to Cyberpunk 2077. This was the case for one reviewer, who reminded others that Cyberpunk “got better with patches and free gameplay content.” That user concluded customers should “wait for patches and especially for a sale.” Another player who left a positive review stressed that the game “was never promised to be a GTA clone/competitor,” calling MindsEye‘s gameplay “not bad but not great either.”

“I would say watch some reviews and or wait for a sale if you are unsure. It’s easy to hate on the game as the marketing and release build up of this has been an absolute train wreck,” that reviewer noted. “I wouldn’t pay full price as a lot of what this game is designed to do is built on the promise of whats to come, e.g.: the community-built content in the level editor.”

MindsEye is out now on PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X|S. The game retails for $59.99, hence some of the ire at its state on Steam.