PLATFORM: PC, PS4/5, XBOX ONE/SERIES (REVIEWED) | RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW
Cast as a private investigator whose daughter’s mind has been stolen by an intergalactic scourge known as The Ascended, your character, M.C. Fox, is severely injured at the start of the game and confined to a wheelchair. Hiring a crew to help him, Fox transfers his own consciousness into a robotic body so that he can get back on his feet and save his daughter. Things don’t really go too much deeper than that, but at least this gives a reason for the abilities that Fox will learn on his journey.
Initially equipped with a gun and a melee weapon (a nice nod to its influences, Castlevania and Metroid), Fox will acquire a bunch of special abilities – both combat and traversal-based – during the course of the game that help him to complete his mission. His crew are responsible for providing these upgrades, but they demand payment for their services. Money drops from defeated enemies, but upgrades are ridiculously expensive and saving up enough coin to unlock a new toy can be a real grind. While a few of them really do make a difference, your efforts often feel unrewarded as several costly upgrades don’t seem to really have too much impact on your abilities.
The game’s world is split across a handful of self-contained areas, removing the interconnected map structure which by now has become a staple of the genre. It makes backtracking a little cumbersome, and with no way to mark your map with areas that you want to revisit, it can be difficult to keep track of anything you might have missed. Overall, despite a couple of issues, the gameplay in general is very solid. The controls are responsive, areas are well-designed, the artwork is decent, and there’s a nice variety of enemies who require different strategies to defeat, keeping you on your toes as you explore the map. The underwhelming upgrades and map structure hold Mindseize back from achieving its full potential, though.
