If there’s one thing beyond doubt after more than 35 hours with Dune: Awakening, it’s that Funcom has done its homework in crafting the most authentic take on the Dune-iverse imaginable. As a longtime fan of Frank Herbert’s iconic sci-fi setting, that’s an incredible thing to experience more often than not, and my time on Arrakis has been filled with moments of genuine shock. It’s very clever how the harsh environments and empty space are repeatedly used as progression checks, turning what seem like they should be weaknesses into strengths. Other times, that stubborn adherence to established lore results in annoying or just plain boring irritations, like how you’re all but forced to adopt a nomadic lifestyle in a genre where putting down roots and building up your base is one of the fundamentals. There have also been plenty of technical issues and bugs in the days immediately following launch, plus combat hasn’t landed with me much so far (though I’m admittedly still early in crafting my combat build), but on balance my friends and I are having an absolutely awesome time nerding out.

If you’ve ever played a survival game (and have seen a Dune movie) before, you’ll know most of what you need to feel at home among the giant sand worms: you gather materials from the world, build your own ugly-as-heck home, and upgrade your equipment to gain access to more dangerous areas with rarer materials. Like plenty of survival games, including Funcom’s own Conan Exiles or last year’s Once Human, all of this is happening on a server full of similarly sunburnt players in a perpetually online world, where cooperation and limited instances of PvP are both a distinct possibility, and which account for most of its best moments.

Where this game sets itself apart, though, is by just how much it adheres to its legendary setting, and that has a major impact on just about everything you do. For example, intelligent use is made of Arrakis’ harsh environment, which is weaponized against you quite literally every second you stay within its atmosphere. Standing directly in sunlight unprotected will bake you alive in a matter of seconds, sandstorms blow on a regular basis and will kill you if you aren’t able to get to shelter first, and most notably, there’s the issue of those pesky enormous man-eating worms which gobble you up if you dare tread upon their domain for too long. By leaning into the unforgiving world as much as it does, Awakening puts you in a constant battle against the planet itself. So instead of casually trotting around collecting resources at your leisure and settling your own little piece of the world, you’re frantically ducking behind rocks to avoid the sun’s harsh rays and drink what little water you have left, and playing a never-ending game of “the floor is lava” as you rush from one place to another with a shai-hulud hot on your heels.

All of these hazards give you obstacles to overcome. For example, early on you’re unable to leave the tutorial area thanks to a massive gap of empty space where sun exposure or, more likely, a massive worm would certainly kill you if you attempt to go on foot, so you have to craft your first vehicle in order to safely cross it. Later on, you start to encounter places that are too hot or irradiated to explore without proper equipment. There are plenty of examples just like this, where the unique nature of the setting is turned into an interesting mechanic. Similarly, you’re constantly starved for water, which is used both as a crafting material and a resource to keep yourself alive, and usually Awakening is a better, more interesting survival game for it.

But there are other times where this fanatical adherence to Dune conventions can be quite obnoxious, like how you’re encouraged (and in some cases required) to move your base of operations from place to place as you unlock access to higher-level regions. Pulling up stakes means you either have to abandon all you’ve built up to that point or tediously relocate as much of your equipment as you can, piece by piece. Then there’s stuff like the fact that guns are often useless, since many enemies make use of the all-important Holtzman shields that completely protect from ranged attacks. This creates a weird situation where you’re juggling back and forth between guns and melee weapons depending on which enemy is currently running towards you, oftentimes having to choose between addressing the swordsman barreling down on you or the guy a few feet behind him with a chaingun, which can create a really oppressive rhythm to combat. I honestly kinda respect how much Dune: Awakening sticks to its guns by making its guns ineffective to keep with Dune lore, even as it sometimes comes at the expense of me having a good time. Even when this stuff annoys the hell out of me, I can’t help but respect it.

That’s just part of the reason that, like almost every single one of its peers, Dune: Awakening has pretty awful combat. I knew going into a survival MMO that would be the case, but it’s still a particularly bitter pill that never gets any easier to swallow. I’m still quite early in unlocking all the options for battle and seeing some of the more interesting weapons and builds available, but so far gunplay is sloppy, melee combat is repetitive and janky as heck, and I’ve mostly just been trying to get through it as quickly as possible. It’s such a low point in a game I’m otherwise enjoying.

Thankfully, the combat miss is more than made up for by the absolutely stellar survival mechanics, which are some of the most thoughtful and polished I’ve seen in a while. There’s a constant stream of new technologies to research, equipment to craft, and material to hunt for with almost no filler or grind along the way. Every time I’ve collected the right materials to craft the latest shiny thing I want, I’ve immediately had another enticing item to chase, and with unique schematics dropping left and right, I’m always making interesting decisions on whether to spend my rarest materials on a cool item with a special effect versus taking the more conservative route and just crafting common items to save those resources for a rainy day. (It’s bound to rain on Arrakis one of these days.)

It’s especially impressive that they accomplished this loop so well in a desert world where there are no other locations aside from hot sand, and almost no plants or wildlife available to harvest. A major hallmark of survival games is punching trees, and there are no trees on Arrakis – instead you’re making tools to pull water from morning dew collecting in the world at night and by pulling it from the air, which is just really smart and a welcome change of pace that embraces the weird and barren setting, even if it is still essentially the same thing.

When I played the beta for Dune: Awakening, I ran into tons of bugs and hoped the delay of its launch would improve things a bit. That certainly seems to be the case, as I’ve had a significantly more stable experience so far, but even as improved as it is, it’s still fairly troubled in the technical department. I’ve had disconnects, seen entire mountains disappear and reappear before my eyes, and even had a few hours where all sand worms just up and deleted themselves from existence, making everyone on the server swarm to the resources normally protected by their constant threat. It’s not been the smoothest launch by any stretch – but also far from the worst.

After more than 35 hours I still feel like I’m fairly early into my Dune: Awakening adventure, and still have new zones to visit, haven’t gotten very far into the main story, and have only had a few encounters with PvP. There’s a ton for me to do, so look for an update sometime this week as I work my way through to the endgame.

While some longtime Magic: The Gathering players may grumble about Universes Beyond’s growing importance to the game’s release calendar, it’s hard not to feel like it’s getting more eyes on the brand.

The latest Final Fantasy set has sold better than any other through preorders alone, and it’s not even out until this weekend (June 13). There’s also the Secret Lair set to consider on June 9, but that’s a whole other beast.

Still, suppose you picked up a prerelease box at your local game store last weekend, or you’ve got some more boosters on the way this week, you may be wondering which cards are seeing demand, particularly if you’re looking to offload some or just get the sweet satisfaction of owning what’s hot.

Let’s take a deep dive into the best-selling Final Fantasy presold cards right now, all according to the trading card marketplace TCGPlayer.

10: Jumbo Cactuar

I often get excited when I get to preview an upcoming game. Who wouldn’t? Getting to check out a game pre-release, and then getting to share that experience is one of the joys of this job. But when a code for a new build of Ninja Gaiden Ragebound materialized in my inbox, I’m pretty sure I started drooling. It’s a Pavlovian response, really; see, us Ninja Gaiden sickos have been pining for the good old days for a while now, but this year has been like stumbling into an oasis in the desert, only the oasis has air conditioning, a made-to-order menu from your favorite local joint, and an open bar. Ninja Gaiden fans have been wandering these sands for a long time. But this year, it feels like we’re coming home.

I hadn’t played the demo we previewed last time, so Ragebound was a new experience for me. But it felt like slipping into a pair of old shoes. It took a second to get back into the swing of things — I haven’t played a 2D Ninja Gaiden in a hot second — but once I did, it felt like I’d never left. There’s so much to talk about here, but we’ve already done a more traditional preview that looks at the meat and potatoes experience of playing Ragebound, so this time, let’s dig into the nitty gritty. These are the 7 coolest things about Ninja Gaiden Ragebound.

#1: The Guillotine Boost Lets You Bounce on It (and “It” is Everything)

There are a ton of cool mechanics in Ninja Gaiden Ragebound, but I’m starting with the guillotine boost because everything else flows from it. Once you’re in the air, you can jump again when you’re about to make contact with an enemy to both attack them and bounce off of them for another jump. Cool, right?

But it’s not just enemies. You can do this to projectiles, too, and even some enemy attacks. Obviously, you can use the guillotine boost to get to places you wouldn’t otherwise be able to, but you can also use it to bounce between enemies and stay on the attack. I managed to bounce on Gurthka, the boss of the demo’s second level, for a solid few seconds while he was trying to attack me. And those weird samurai spirits with the spears? Just bounce off their attacks and keep going. Is the guillotine boost as cool as the Izuna Drop? No. Nothing is. But it’s pretty close.

#2: Hypercharges Are One-Hit Kills with Style

Okay, so the guillotine boost lets you get to hard-to-reach places, stay on the attack, and style on bosses. But what happens when you need to kill something in a single stroke? Well, that’s where the Hypercharge comes in. You can get Hypercharge by killing enemies with auras. Do so, and you’ll gain a Hypercharge for a few seconds. When you have it , your next attack will kill enemies instantly. To be fair, most enemies in Ragebound die in a single hit. But the ones that don’t? You don’t wanna go toe-to-toe with those cats. In a pinch, you can sacrifice some health to manually Hypercharge, but you’ll want to avoid that if you can. When you’re really cooking, you can chain these together to cut down enemies in rapid succession, or unleash them on a boss to stun them and lay on the hurt, and it feels great. Speaking of which, that brings me to my next point.

#3: Simon Says Is Cool Now

A lot of video games really like Simon Says combat design. You know what I mean; the enemy is a certain color, so you use a specific kind of attack (I’m looking at you, DmC: Devil May Cry), or they’re wielding a specific weapon, so you drop in a stance built to counter that (don’t think I didn’t notice, Ghost of Tsushima). Kinda boring, right?

Ninja Gaiden Ragebound flirts with Simon Says combat design, but it gets away with it because it does it in a cool way. You can still kill anything in the Ragebound demo I played any way you want. But some of those auras that give you Hypercharges? You gotta kill those enemies a certain way if you want that Hypercharge. A blue aura means you gotta slice ‘em up with Kenji’s katana, while a purple aura means you need to use a kunai. Once you get that Hypercharge, you can spend it however you want; but forcing you to match the aura to the right weapon on the fly adds a welcome element of challenge, especially when enemies are only on-screen for a few seconds and you have to react quickly.

#4: Rollin’ with Kumori Rocks

At some unspecified point in Ragebound’s story, our boy Kenji fuses with Kumori. Like any good member of the Hayabusa Clan, he’s pretty upset about cavorting around with a ninja of the Spider Clan, but he shouldn’t be. Palling around with Kumori has a lot of benefits. First, she gives Kenji access to a kunai to deal with enemies at range (and teleport to certain objects in the environment), but also a Spider Weapon. In my demo, that took the shape of a throwable sickle with an arc that reminds me an awful lot of the throwing axes from Castlevania. And she gives you access to the screen-clearing Ragebound Arts. When everything around you absolutely, positively has to die, accept no substitutes. So hey, more toys, right? But that’s not all Kumori brings to the table.

She can also commune with Demon Altars to navigate the otherworld. With her spirit separate from Kenji’s body and traipsing around the otherworld, she can go places he can’t, opening new paths. She also has access to her kunai, even without ki, something Kenji doesn’t have. The downside? She needs to constantly replenish a meter to stay in the otherworld. Otherwise, it’s back to Kenji, and you have to do it again. Sometimes, that means you’ll repeat a section a few times. It also breaks up the action and gives you a new way to play. Pretty cool. Also, Kumori says “Good grief” a lot. I love her.

#5: Exploring is Worth Your Time

One of the things I really appreciate about Ragebound is its purity. It’s not another roguelite in the endless sea of roguelites (thank God); it’s a side-scrolling action game, in the vein of the series’ original trilogy. But that doesn’t mean there’s not stuff worth going off the beaten path for. There are scarabs and crystal skulls to find, and while it was unclear what either of these do (the scarabs serve as currency for Muramasa’s shop, which was not available in my demo, so I can only guess at the goodies he’ll have on offer), it definitely gives you an excuse to explore. My favorite one of these “do an optional bit, get a cool thing” sections was one where I had to navigate a tricky, teleport-y platforming section as Kumori. It took me several tries to get it right (I kept messing up right at the end), but by the time I nailed it, I knew that thing like the back of my hand. And that feels good.

#6: It Rewards Mastery

Oh, and speaking of mastering something, Ninja Gaiden Ragebound wants you to play these levels over and over again as much as you want. Once you’ve beaten one, you can immediately access it again from the map. And each time you play, you’re scored on time, collectibles, number of enemies killed, and your best combo. And if that’s not enough, there are also optional challenges that range from completing levels without being hit to level-specific tasks like killing so many enemies with a lunge attack or beating Ryu Hayabusa himself in the tutorial. I… did not do that one. He Izuna Dropped my ass. It was rad as hell. I’ll get you one day, Ryu.

#7: It Hurts So Good

I wouldn’t call Ninja Gaiden Ragebound easy, per se, but it’s also not impossible on the regular difficulty, either. This series has something of a legacy to maintain when it comes to being hard, and you’ve gotta be kind of a masochist to see the deepest levels of depravity it has to show you. What can I say? I like pain.

Good news for me, then, because beating the demo unlocked a hard version of one of the levels I’d just played. And, uh… it’s a lot harder. There are new enemies! Everything’s on fire! Developer The Game Kitchen has put in something for the sickos, and I appreciate it.

I came out of my time with Ninja Gaiden Ragebound like a man who has just had a fine meal with portions that were far too small. Appreciative, but wanting more. What can I say? I love action games, and this series in particular holds a special place in my heart. I get the shakes when you’re not around, Ninja Gaiden. But it’s so damn good to have you back.

Over the last few years, Steam’s Next Fest has become a valuable showcase of upcoming games, particularly from indie developers. It includes free demos from participating games, livestreams, and interviews with developers that can help shed a light on games made by passionate people.

Next Fest has regularly featured games from indie.io, a publishing platform that works with developers of all shapes and sizes. The latest Next Fest just landed today, will last until June 16, and has 25 different titles from indie.io — the most games the platform has ever had in one Next Fest. You can see the full lineup on this page, and there’s a little something for every type of gamer, including old-school co-op RPGs, rhythm-driven brawlers, spellcrafting roguelites, cozy farming sims, and party games.

There’s a lot to choose from, but we picked what we think are the six standouts of the group that all have playable demos and also show the wide range of options on offer:

Shrine’s Legacy

A clear throwback to the SNES era of 16-bit games, Shrine’s Legacy is an action RPG that follows a pair of heroes on a quest to save the world of Ardemia. You’ll need to find eight elemental magic gems to restore the fabled Sword of the Shrine and use its power to vanquish the evil force that threatens the world. The demo allows you to play a pretty sizable chunk of the game, with two towns, two dungeons, and three boss battles. You’ll get a glimpse at the character-driven story and a sense of the game’s tone, with some goofy moments and dramatic twists mixed in. You can play it in couch co-op where you each control one of the characters, or play it solo and have the game control the second character.

Troublemaker 2: Beyond Dream

Troublemaker 2 is an open-world action-comedy beat-em-up game, which is not a combination of hyphenated words you see very often. It’s the sequel to 2023’s Troublemaker and follows the Parakacuk gang from the original and a band called Beyond Dream through the city of South Jayakarta. The demo drops you into the city in the middle of the game with free roam unlocked, so you’ll have access to the whole city. You can walk around town getting in street brawls, find some side jobs to complete for the local populace, or just chill at the music studio, where you can play rhythm-based minigames. The demo has a total of 12 side quests and minigames (one of which turns you into a cow, so that should give you an idea of the tone).

Don’t Die, Collect Loot

Gotta love a game whose title pretty much spells it out, right? Don’t Die, Collect Loot is an arcade roguelite RPG where you mow through enemies in chaotic bullet-hell combat and gather loot. If you’re the type of person who finds it oddly satisfying watching your EXP bar fill up, then this is the game for you. In fact, you have three bars to watch fill up: your EXP, skill points, and research points. The demo lets you play as one of three classes: the Adventurer, Arcanist, and Beastmaster, each with their own skill trees and gear, and all with overpowered abilities to take advantage of. Whichever class you choose, you’ll tackle the Endless Nightmare mode, a never-ending challenge where the only goal is to last as long as possible and gather as much loot as you can. Perfect your build and compete for a spot on the global leaderboard. If you play the demo during Next Fest, you can face off with the exclusive superboss Alethia and obtain unique items that won’t be available any other time, so don’t miss out.

Mythrealm

Mythrealm is a single-player third-person fantasy RPG where you play as the adventurer Alaris, who has been summoned to this world by a mysterious magic. Demons have caused the wizards of Zelanar to disappear, putting the world in peril. You’ll need to use your wit, skill, and weapons to defeat the demons, rescue the wizards, and save the world. Alaris will start as a novice adventurer, but as she grows, you can choose whether to guide her down the path of a melee warrior, archer, or mage. You’ll also need to utilize jumping and platforming to navigate treacherous environments and find hidden items. The demo lets you explore the first level of Mythrealm, where a legendary warhammer is hidden. Can you find it?

Aris Arcanum

In this Victorian-era, spellcraft-focused roguelite, you are Clyde, a scholar who was on a path to becoming leader of the grand library of Aris. But now, an alien entity that was sealed within the library has twisted the minds of the other scholars, and the library is facing ruin. You must dive into its now-corrupted halls, defeat those who were once your fellow scholars, and face cosmic horrors on the path to cleansing the library. On each run, you’ll craft new spells that can lead to a variety of different builds, encouraging you to test different possibilities to find your favorites. The demo offers a look at an early build of Aris Arcanum, giving you a taste of the gameplay and narrative structure. You’ll also be able to take on an early side quest and face off against a boss encounter, and there’s always more to experiment with on subsequent runs.

Heroes of Mount Dragon

Heroes of Mount Dragon is a side-scrolling brawler developed by RuniQ, a Canadian indie studio largely made up of former employees of Activision, Beenox, and Ubisoft. You’ll choose from one of eight heroes, each of whom can transform into powerful dragons and lay waste to the battlefield. You can play solo or team up with three friends in couch co-op or online, and you’ll need to manage your hero’s unique abilities, dragon transformations, and powerful upgrades to make it through. You can also compete against your friends for supremacy, and you can use devious curses to disrupt them — electrify them, shrink them, or flip their controls. In the demo, you’ll have access to four of the eight heroes and can explore half of the game’s first kingdom (there will be a total of four kingdoms in the final game).

I’ve been curious about MindsEye ever since it was announced, but as the first game from former longtime Grand Theft Auto lead Leslie Benzies has neared release, I’ve become increasingly confused. Benzies’ studio Build A Rocket Boy’s debut game is a linear-action adventure, with GTA-style mechanics used to tell a more direct, cinematic story. But it’s also set in an expansive city that is, in theory, fully explorable. On top of that, it’s also a digital platform that lets players create and publish their own game content, using bespoke tools that were used in-part to build the game itself.

It’s a lot of different layers? But how do they all come together? Can you actually explore MindsEye’s world freely? And what the hell happened to Build A Rocket Boy’s previous project, Everywhere?

These are the questions that were on my mind when I visited Build A Rocket Boy’s studio last week. Now that I’ve seen MindsEye in action, I have a much clearer picture of what it is and what it hopes to achieve. With that in mind, here are ten things you should know about MindsEye.

1) MindsEye is set in the city of Redrock, a near-future spin on Las Vegas

MindsEye’s setting of Redrock is heavily inspired by Las Vegas, a desert city that arose to prominence as a hub for casinos and entertainment. But MindsEye takes place in an imagined near-future where those casinos have been shut down, and Redrock’s economy has shifted into being a haven for tech companies. “You find a lot of companies moving to very specific places in America because of these tax breaks, and it’s also a good place to go and hide,” says Benzies, MindsEye’s director. “There’s a lot of characters, or groups of characters who are hiding from things.”

As a virtual space, Redrock is fully mapped out, with a total map size of 9×9 kilometres, and a playable area measuring 6×6 kilometres. As you’re driving around it, it has a definite GTA-ish feel, with a believable road network, a built-up downtown area, more suburban areas on the fringes, and sparser settlements on the outskirts. “We took a lot of inspiration from Las Vegas, of course, like the population, the way that the different demographics are working,” says executive producer Misha Shmakov. “We have low-income areas, high income areas. So we see different cars, different people there.”

2) MindsEye’s story takes place at a tipping point in society’s relationship with technology

Redrock is essentially a city-wide social experiment, where the residing tech companies have a heavy influence on society and, in some cases, operative control of social institutions. The city is “protected” by AI powered copbots, and citizens are monitored by a centralised surveillance system called ‘CARE’.

These ideas were still far-flung concepts back when MindsEye began development, but have become more relevant as tech-like large-language models have emerged. “A lot of the things that we came up with back then weren’t necessarily mainstream, or even really known about, and we just thought they would be great ways to present the world,” Benzies says.

MindsEye’s story sees Redrock at a crossroads with this technology – one inspired by Benzies’ own perspective on the power and potential pitfalls he sees in real-life technological innovations. “Whenever I jump on and use AI and ask it questions, I am communicating with the most intelligent thing that exists on this planet right now, the collective intelligence of every single human being, and it’s quite friendly to me,” he says. “Used wisely, it’s going to benefit humans. Used wrongly, which so many pieces of technology are, things could go pretty bad for us.

“That’s the question that MindEye poses. What do you think? What’s going to happen? Is it going to end up like this, like, this story we’re telling you. Or is it all going to be happy and light?”

3) You play as Jacob Diaz, an ex-military drone pilot with a shattered memory

In MindsEye’s campaign, you play as Jacob Diaz, a former military drone pilot who has been implanted with a MindsEye chip that allows him to interface with the drone directly. Players enter Diaz’s story after he has left the military and his chip has been decommissioned, a process that left his memory in pieces.

At the story’s outset, Diaz gets a new job as a security guard at Silva Industries, the manufacturer of the MindsEye chip. Through this, Diaz intends to conduct his own investigation of the company and attempt to piece together his past.

It’s a story you experience through a sequence of missions that’ll take you all across Redrock, in a similar fashion to the Mafia games. According to Benzies, the linearity of the experience is a storytelling decision. “It’s sometimes difficult to tell a story in an open world, and you join Jacob at a very set point in his life, and then you leave Jacob at a very set point in his life,” he explains. “If Jacob was to go off and pop into a casino and gamble for three days, it kind of breaks the illusion of being Jacob who’s on a mission.”

4) Missions will involve racing across the city by both land and air, and occasionally shooting enemies with a massive energy cannon

The mission I was shown involves Diaz escorting Silva Industries’ CEO Marco Silva to a campaign rally for Redrock’s mayor. After arriving at the rally via his personal VTOL, and engaging in a heated debate with mayor Vega over his plans to launch a rocket into space, Silva is drugged and abducted by an armed gang, and Diaz must chase them down.

The ensuing mission sees you pursue Diaz’ abductors in a VTOL before continuing the chase in a car, weaving through the desert and barrelling through an ongoing dune buggy race. The vehicle handling is slightly lighter and more arcade-y than GTA, but still has enough weight and inertia that they require skill to control at high-speed, as I learned after repeatedly slamming my car into the boulders strewn across the desert.

The mission culminates in a protracted gunfight through an industrial backlot. At a basic level, combat is a familiar, cover-shooter affair, pressing yourself against cars and shipping crates as you pick off enemies one by one.

Your basic arsenal comprises slightly futuristic variants of familiar firearms like pistols, assaults rifles etc. While these are effective weapons (the shotgun in particular has a satisfying punch to it) they aren’t vastly different from what you’d see in other cover shooters. But later weapons include a massive energy cannon that fires charged, explosive projectiles.

The developers stressed this would not normally be available at this point in the campaign, but I nonetheless enjoyed using it to obliterate cars and send enemies flying, and it was interesting to see how MindsEye’s arsenal will expand over the course of the campaign.

5) Combat is designed to be tactical, with you using a drone to scout enemy placements and hack robots to fight by your side

When you’re not causing havoc with a rocket launcher from the future, MindsEye’s combat is designed to be a more tactical affair than that seen in GTA. Enemies will not only attempt to outgun you, but also outmanoeuvre you too. “Some of them will be more defensive. “Some of them will come and try to push you out of [cover], some of them will try to flank you,” Shmakov says. “They also look at what type of weapon [you] use. If you use a shotgun, they will try to close the distance while others are putting pressure on you.”

Initially, you’ll have to deal with these foes using straight firepower. But eventually, Jacob will regain access to his MindsEye drone, which has several functions. It can scan the environment, highlighting enemy positions. It can stun enemies for a short duration, and it can hack robotic enemies to turn them to your side. You can also deploy these functions either as quickfire abilities, or through direct control of the drone, piloting it into enemy territory to survey the battlefield or disrupt enemies before engaging directly.

6) MindsEye also features optional side-missions that provide more insight into the world of Redrock

Although MindsEye’s campaign is linear, there are side missions. As you follow Jacob’s story, you’ll occasionally encounter optional missions designed to provide a broader understanding of MindsEyes world. “These are narratively extra experiences that relate to the game but are not main story critical,” says Adrian Butchart, creative strategist at Build a Rocket Boy. “We’ve got some that are young Jacob, and some that are just completely different characters that we meet.”

One such example sees you play as Jacob in his military years, while another places you in the role of a member of the Back Niners, a criminal gang embroiled in a deal gone wrong. Both seemed like fairly straightforward combat sequences, but I didn’t see the full extent of how they played out, because these side missions don’t just exist to fill out the backstory, they’re also intended to be a gateway into MindsEye’s more creative side.

7) Build.MindsEye lets you create your own missions and experiences using MindsEye’s own assets

Part of the side content’s role is to introduce players to Build.MindsEye, aka the creative tools. These can actually be accessed at any time during play, and are usable in any area of Redrock. But the portals are designed to showcase what’s possible with the tools, and act as isolated bubbles for experimentation.

The tools themselves are designed balance accessibility with power. Assets like vehicles and characters can be added to the world through a simple drag and drop interface, while you can adjust their size, positions, and mess around with other parameters. Senior Level Designer Josh Mattyas demonstrates this in the side-mission set in Jacob’s past, jumping into build mid-action and adding in several trucks that deploy copbots. Returning to the action, the mission plays out precisely as it would normally, cutscenes and all, but with the copbot trucks integrated. “It’s quite powerful. It’s tempting to throw in all kinds of crazy stuff,” he says.

But Build can be used to construct the entire logic of a level or the ruleset of a game, via a node-based scripting system that Build a Rocket Boy describes as a blend of Unreal Engine Blueprint scripting and Minecraft Redstone. Users can also save groups of assets or scripted elements as stamps, which you can then place with a single click or publish for other people to use.

According to Benzies, the end goal of Build.MindsEye is to give players the tools to create games of blockbuster quality. “There’s nothing really out there that allows you to build triple-A quality content with ease,” he says. “Roblox, great for building in, but it’s bloody difficult, whereas Minecraft is a lot easier, but you’re not really getting that quality. We’re trying to create something in the middle.”

8) Build.MindEye is PC only, but there are plans to bring it to consoles in the future.

On launch, MindsEye Build will only be available on PC. Benzies says this is mainly a control issue. “Controllers are difficult. We will do it on console at some point. We just didn’t have the time to do it properly.” Moreover, if and when Build does arrive on console, it may not function in precisely the same manner as the PC version. “I can see there’s certain things you wouldn’t be able to do, but I think it will still [be able to] make a pretty compelling piece of content.

In the meantime, console players will receive monthly updates of new missions and other content via Play.MindsEye, the same menu that enables access to the existing side missions when you’re not near a portal.

9) While MindsEye’s campaign is linear, you can explore Redrock openly through its “Free Roam” mode

Although MindsEye’s campaign doesn’t let you explore Redrock freely, players can wander around the city as they please through its recently added Free Roam mode. Free Roam takes place after the events of the story, putting you in the role of a character called the Preacher. “You can just explore the city, see what’s happening, like, see what the other gangs are up to, fight them,” Shmakov says. “You will have a functionality where you can just call a car, your car, to come to you.”

It isn’t clear how much there will be to do in Free Roam on launch, but Build a Rocket Boy plans to add more features with future updates. “[It’s] a really big part of our post-launch, because we’ll keep updating it and keep improving on it,” Shmakov says. Part of this may well include making free roam multiplayer. “This is at first, it’s single-player, then we’ll think about how it can evolve.”

10) Build a Rocket Boy plans for MindsEye to build into its larger project, Everywhere

MindsEye is designed to function as a standalone game, but it also forms part of Build A Rocket Boy’s larger project, the massively multiplayer game platform Everywhere. “Everywhere still exists, we just closed it down,” Benzies says. “It was in beta for a while, so we got a load of data from the players. It was a decent-sized community, a very engaged community. So we’ve learned a lot from that. We took all that learning [and] we put it into the Builder Tools.”

Benzies says the tools players can use to build MindsEye are game and genre-agnostic. “Those builder tools don’t really care if it’s MindsEye, if it’s Everywhere, or if it’s any other game. They just work in exactly the same way,” he says. “It doesn’t matter what theme the game is, once you’ve learned the skills of the creator, they’ll just work across anything.”

As for how MindsEye and Everywhere relate, Benzies says the former ties into the overarching narrative of the latter. “MindsEye is a piece of content that probably sits in the middle of our big story,” he says. “So Everywhere will come back online in a slightly different shape, but will be the same thing, and it will all be part of the story.”