“Open world game that doesn’t need or particularly want to be an open world game” feels like a niche subgenre, but I guess it’s a niche big enough to contain L.A. Noire and several Mafia games—and now MindsEye as well.
The GTA-like shooter from the studio headed by a former GTA producer had a launch you could call troubled, or considering all the layoffs that followed, maybe catastrophic is the right word. Post-launch updates have arrived, however, the latest of which is Update 5. Developer Build a Rocket Boy has added two of the most-requested features—a dodge roll and the option to shoulder-swap—though players clamoring for a melee attack will have to keep waiting for that one.
Unusually, this update also removes a feature. As the patch notes put it, “Free Roam is taking a short break but will return soon.” The free-roam mode wasn’t a well-loved part of MindsEye, forcing you to play as a character players dubbed “Can’t Drink Dust Guy” because he’s an old man in a gas mask and inexplicable outfit with the words CAN’T DRINK DUST written across his bare stomach—the first of many baffling choices. MindsEye’s free-roam mode cut you loose in an open city where you could only drive a single car, then get out of it to do missions like shooting guys in car parks for minimal reward. And basically that was it.
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Finally, there’s Arcadia. As the patch notes try to explain, “Play.MindsEye is now ARCADIA, and Build.MindsEye is now Build.ARCADIA on PC.” Which is not a helpful explanation. In-game, it’s noted that Arcadia is “Build A Rocket Boy’s powerful, no code creation tool. New content will be delivered regularly from Build A Rocket Boy and also from our talented crew of player creators.” So I guess Arcadia is a rebranding of Everywhere, the neverending user-generated sandbox the studio originally promised before pivoting to make MindsEye its focus.
Maybe it’ll deliver on that particularly high-concept idea, and I hope when it does it brings Can’t Drink Dust Guy back with it.
