Fancy playing a poorly received game that’s suddenly being recommended as an “interactive movie” that’s “perfect for your Thanksgiving weekend” despite Steam tagging it as a futuristic third-person shooter? Blown all your cash on hot Black Friday bargains? Well, have I got news for you: you can now play Mindseye, one of the worst-reviewed action games of the year, for free. A small chunk of it, at least. But maybe that’s enough.
Released in June 2025 by Build a Rocket Boy, the cataclysmic state of Mindseye at launch echoed the struggles of a certain other dystopian sci-fi shooter in Cyberpunk 2077. Things went so awry that the studio laid off hundreds of staff, with its founder (and former GTA producer) Leslie Benzies claiming that its poor state and reception wasn’t the fault of lackluster leadership, as those now suing the company would wager, but instead by some malevolent force that generated “a concerted effort to trash the game…”
But the dismal launch of Mindseye hasn’t caused it to go quietly into the night. While the ongoing studio drama has seen team members accuse higher-ups of gaslighting and searching for “saboteurs” inside the company, alongside redundancies, those who remain are putting together fairly consistent updates in the hopes of turning the fortunes of the ambitious project around. And with a free demo of sorts now available along Update 6, if you really have nothing better to do, now’s the time to check it out. Not that it’s going anywhere, mind you.
The Mindseye free starter pack lets you experience “an action-packed mission in the campaign” and even “preview a selection of playable content that is delivered regularly through Arcadia,” which is essentially a showcase of missions and challenges made with the player-made content creation tools Mindseye was initially meant to demonstrate.
This new, free gateway to Mindseye dropped along Update 6, which itself brings “a mix of stability, performance, and content updates across the campaign” that is presumably reflected in the free build. There are also claims of improved animation and AI behaviour, as well as a “tightening” of encounters, among other fixes. It’s a long one, so you might want to check out the full Mindseye Update 6 patch notes if you’re desperate for some reading material.
Clocking in at just under 50GB, the free starter pack is a sizeable demo that walks you through the Robin Hood campaign mission before you’re left to take on the 14 Arcadia offerings. Though with the main quest lasting apparently 15 minutes after a 15-minute shader cache session, as per one early Steam review, you might spend longer downloading this than actually playing it.
With free-roam removed as part of the earlier post-launch updates, don’t expect this dystopian GTA-like to let you mow down pedestrians on your own time, whether you play for free or pay out of pocket to bolster the coffers of the Hitman developer’s publishing arm. Let’s at least hope the upcoming Hitman x Eminem deal brings some new blood (money) to the World of Assassination to keep things going until 007 First Light drops in March.
If you happen to like the direction Mindseye is going after trying the free starter pack, and truthfully believe we’re on the cusp of another great revival in the same vein as Cyberpunk 2077, Final Fantasy 14, or No Man’s Sky, there’s even a sale. You can get the rest of Mindseye for 50% off right now, bringing it down to a slightly more reasonable $29.99 / £27.49. How that isn’t a permanent price cut at this point is beyond me.