Well, it looks like the rocket didn’t quite leave the launch pad.

MindsEye, the ambitious debut game from Build a Rocket Boy — a studio founded by ex-GTA producer Leslie Benzies — was supposed to land like a Hollywood blockbuster. Instead, it’s skidded into early access hell wearing flip-flops and a blindfold.

Despite touting a game big enough to rival Rockstar’s crown jewels, MindsEye managed to launch without a single traditional review from major outlets. That’s right — zero. Zilch. Not even an early code for media. Which, if you know how games work, is either a red flag or the entire matador waving it in your face.

And players? They’re not thrilled either.

Out of nearly 1,300 reviews on Steam, nearly 800 are negative, dragging its approval rating to a dismal 59.46%. Most of the complaints boil down to the usual suspects: janky performance, unstable framerates, and AI so dumb it might mistake a wall for a motorway. The game has bugs, glitches, and NPCs who behave like they’re moonwalking through a power outage.

https://t.co/EnZKR1vFyT

— MindsEye (@MindsEyeGame) June 11, 2025

In response, the studio has jumped into full-blown damage control, promising that their engineers are, quote, “working around the clock” — probably on intravenous caffeine — to patch up the mess. An X article from the studio thanked players for being “pioneers” (because nothing screams frontier spirit like 25fps on a PS5 Pro) and promised optimisation fixes using Unreal Engine 5.6. Patch #3 is coming soon, allegedly within 24 hours.

Console players, however, are lighting torches.

One PS5 Pro user reported the game ran at a measly 25 frames per second, stating the experience was “pure chaos”. Another pointed out that Spider-Man 2 delivers buttery-smooth traversal with ray tracing — so what’s MindsEye’s excuse? “Cutscenes are alright,” someone added. “City looks okay. But gameplay? No spark. And the bugs? Full circus act.”

I'm currently playing MINDSEYE and I can confirm this Game has the absolute worst stuttering issues pic.twitter.com/fAuZ0Z04Zq

— NikTek (@NikTekOfficial) June 10, 2025

The first 3 hours of #Mindseye was a rollercoaster

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This was/is tomorrow's intro for our early review, but I've not seen anyone posting glitches like this yet.

This is on PS5 :/ pic.twitter.com/uVGqfA3h9Z

— McTannen (@Mctannen) June 10, 2025

My second combat encounter in #MindsEye… The AI has become self-aware and is now committing suicide: pic.twitter.com/391R23S0Oa

— Jesse Gomez @ IGN (@ItsJesseGomez) June 10, 2025

Then came the conspiracy theories — from the developers themselves.

Co-CEO Mark Gerhard decided to go full Reddit sleuth on the company Discord, suggesting — without any proof — that the negative reactions were the result of a smear campaign funded by…someone. “Doesn’t take much to guess who,” he said, like a Bond villain on a budget. After some well-earned internet backlash, Gerhard walked his comments back faster than a guilty dog, claiming he never meant to say people were paid — just that bot farms were possibly involved.

Of course. Because when a game crashes and burns, it’s never the engine — it’s always the bots.