MindsEye actor Alex Hernandez has reflected on the release of Build a Rocket Boy’s debut, and expressed his distaste for titles launching unfinished.
The open world PS5 game attracted disastrous reviews this month, and is comfortably the worst rated release of the year so far.
We scored it a 3/10 in our MindsEye PS5 review, describing it as a “futuristic faceplant”.
And speaking with the YouTube channel Check It TV, the star – who plays main character Jacob Diaz in the game – said the final product wasn’t what he was expecting.
“There’s something to be said about the model of studios releasing games [unfinished]. It’s not the QA – I met the QA testers and they seemed competent at their job. But for whatever reason the company decides to release something with these issues and then takes care of it post-release. Obviously we’re not the first game to do that, Cyberpunk 2077 is a notorious example. And as a gamer, as a consumer, I don’t love that.”
Hernandez explained that “he’s not a business man” and so he doesn’t understand why the decision was made to launch the title in such a state, but he argued it’s important for companies to be honest with their consumers.
“I think it does more long-term harm to your reputation to release something in a state of less than 100% and then charge 100% of the price,” he said.
Despite the outcome, Hernandez only had good things to say about the process of making the game.
“I loved working on it. I loved the people I was with; the cast itself was great. Everyone showed up and gave their all and was a decent human being with no assholes, which I’m really grateful for. I had a blast working on it.”
The interview is well worth watching, as Hernandez comes across genuine and candid throughout. Unfortunately, though, MindsEye will go down in history as one of the worst high-profile PS5 games ever released.
For the team at Build a Rocket Boy, that means significant redundancies, as it’s clear the studio bit off much more than it could chew. As for whether the game will ever get fixed, it’s looking unlikely.