From hype project to disaster: Why the new game from the former GTA creator has received disastrous ratings and become the officially worst game of 2025.
You may have guessed it after our review, but now it’s official: Mindseye has secured the inglorious title of the worst-rated game of 2025. What started as an ambitious prestige project from a former GTA creator has now become a prime example of how not to do things.
Criticism is pouring in from all sides
Mindseye, developed by Build a Rocket Boy under the direction of Leslie Benzies, was supposed to set new standards as a cinematic action adventure. Expectations were high, after all, Benzies is known for legendary open-world experiences.
But even the launch on June 10, 2025, was anything but smooth– and the first reactions from the community were not long in coming. Shortly after its release, Mindseye was punished with a miserable user score on Steam – and now the critics’ reviews are in, after the publisher refused to give review copies to the press.
With a Metascore of 43, Mindseye is currently the worst-rated game of the year, behind titles such as Ambulance Life: A Paramedic Simulator, which at least managed to score 44 points.
The worst video game releases of 2025 (according to Metacritic)
- Mindseye (43 Metascore)
- Ambulance Life: A Paramedic Simulator (44 Metascore)
- Captain Blood (50 Metascore)
- Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour (53 Metascore)
- Neptunia Riders VS Dogoos (54 Metascore)
What the critics say
GamesRadar+ (40/100)
With a mediocre story and lackluster gameplay that wastes the potential of its Big Tech and AI science fiction premise, MindsEye is a thoroughly disappointing action-adventure game that neither satisfies as a throwback to an old genre nor provides a solid foundation for further development.
GameReactor UK (40/100):
If there was one thing I never thought I would write about Leslie Benzies’ first self-developed game, it was that it would be perceived as uninspired and generic. At least I thought that originality and attitude would be present here, even if it seemed unfinished beforehand.
That’s not the case, and it’s easy to see that MindsEye was not only released about six months too early, but also resembles a ten-year-old GTA copy whose elements are largely unpolished.
IGN (40/100):
If the performance is stable and you’re blasting your way through robots, MindsEye can pass as a decent action shooter for a few minutes. The near-future setting and driving feel are also impressive. However, the flashy graphics and cutscenes can’t hide the game’s obvious lack of substance.
MindsEye has a lot of ambition but few original ideas, and its rigid mission design makes the open world largely pointless – and is repeatedly undermined by boring combat, annoying AI enemies, poor frame rates, and bugs.
Add to that the insultingly unfinished free-roaming component, and it’s clear that the game just wasn’t ready for release. If you had your eye on MindsEye, you should reconsider.
Mindseye will go down in history as a cautionary tale that big names and big budgets are no guarantee of quality. It remains to be seen whether Build a Rocket Boy can turn things around with patches and turn it into No Man’s Sky 2.0. For now, the advice is to stay away until something fundamental changes – or unless you’re really into disaster tourism.
