Despite a poor reception, weak sales, and losing publisher IO Interactive, developer Build a Rocket Boy hasn’t given up on its open world shooter MindsEye. Which might be commendable, were it not for the multiple rounds of layoffs, the wild conspiracy theories emanating from its executives, and allegations from former workers that spy tech was covertly installed on their machines.
But whatever’s going on in and around the studio, MindsEye itself is still receiving updates. And the most recent update adds quite a lot of stuff, though whether it’s stuff everybody wants is another matter.
Described as “one of the biggest yet” by BARB in a Steam post, Update 8 brings a major new component to MindsEye—multiplayer. Specifically, it adds a team-based mode called “grenade football”, in which players apparently “swap their boots for launchers and bring the firepower to the pitch.”
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Contrary to what this implies, grenade football participants do not in fact wear the launchers on their feet (though that would arguably make for a more interesting spectacle). Instead, grenade football is basically Rocket League without the cars, with players in red or blue jumpsuits running around a pitch blasting a giant ball at each other’s nets.
There’s a video of grenade football in action below. Like so much else about MindsEye (certainly post-launch MindsEye) it looks very basic and rough around the edges. The ball, which is far too large to actually fit in the launchers, just kind of disappears into them when a player collects it, so reading where the ball is and who currently possesses it is tricky.
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There’s also the question of who you’re going to play Grenade Football with. At the time of writing, MindsEye had attracted a peak of 36 concurrent players in the previous 24 hours. Which I suppose is enough to get a game or two of Grenade Football going—just. But if you are interested in checking it out, I’d recommend doing so promptly.
In short, I don’t think the developers of Rematch have much to worry about. But that isn’t everything the update adds. Alongside the addition of multiplayer, the update also introduces some extra racing circuits, a raft of social features to help players interact across the game, and further improvements to the singleplayer.
These are what I’m most intrigued by. The update reworks numerous elements of the vanilla game. Improvements include better enemy physics when being hit by explosions, difficulty adjustments to various missions, a general overhaul to AI pathing and behaviour, improved vehicle handling, and animation transitions between moving, combat, and interactions.
I couldn’t care less about all the clearly doomed multiplayer and metaverse stuff BARB seems hellbent on adding. But I would like it if the basic campaign was half-decent to play. Aside from Grand Theft Auto 6 looming over the horizon, there aren’t many games of this ilk being made anymore.
Hence, while the launch version of MindsEye was undeniably terrible, I’ve no objection to seeing it improved. There are some questions over how BARB is attempting to improve MindsEye, however. Earlier this month, former MindsEye developers protested at a fan event being held at the studio in the wake of yet more layoffs and the secret surveillance scandal, as the Independent Workers of Great Britain Union claimed that BARB was “handing over work, both paid and unpaid, from the BARB workforce to the BARB fanbase, during a game sector job crisis.”
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