MindsEye’s Open-World City of Redrock is All Bark and No…

As players progress through Jacob Diaz’s story in MindsEye, 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 in MindsEye looks 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.

The Unwritten Rules of MindsEye Explained

As players navigate MindsEye’s story and side content throughout the city of Redrock, these unwritten rules can be particularly handy to learn.

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By Anthony Bussing

MindsEye’s City of Redrock Falls Victim to a Common Open World Criticism

With MindsEye’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 dedicated free-roam game mode in MindsEye, 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 in MindsEye’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 Redrock MindsEye, but the other custom game modes also lack worthwhile rewards. Despite MindsEye’s Build.MindsEye creation tools giving 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 of MindsEye doesn’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 through post-launch updates for MindsEye. For starters, the following features could go a long way toward encouraging players to dive deep into MindsEye’s open world:

New, permanent progression systems like upgrades for the safe house, playable characters, weapons, vehicles, and cosmetics could incentivize players to explore free-roam mode on a long-term basis.
Dynamic events could make the game’s world feel more interactive and immersive, improving the game’s replayability.
Rewards for participating in side missions and custom games could promote engagement with custom game modes for builders, while also challenging players to achieve high scores.

The developers at Build a Rocket Boy games studio have already revealed plans to expand MindsEye into a much larger franchise; unfortunately, it remains to be seen if these tentative plans will still be realized, given MindsEye’s controversial launch. If a comeback story is still in the cards for MindsEye, 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.

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