“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.
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.
