2025 has been full of well-received games, from smaller hits like Despelote and Metal Eden to titans from larger studios like Ghost of Yotei and Death Stranding 2: On the Beach. But, as always, stinkers are inevitable. Popular review aggregate website Metacritic has released a list of these ill-formed titles, and the lowest-ranked one of them all shouldn’t surprise people who have been paying attention.
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Metacritic’s list has a ton of relatively unknown titles that likely won’t be familiar to most of the gaming public, but many people have undoubtedly heard of MindsEye, the open-world game unfortunate enough to take home the award for the worst-reviewed game of 2025. It came in at an average score of 28, nine full points behind the second game on the list. The other games on the list (and their average review scores) are as follows:
- MindsEye (28)
- Fire Emblem Shadows (37)
- Blood of Mehran (38)
- Spy Drops (39)
- Gore Doctor (40)
- Tamagotchi Plaza – Nintendo Switch 2 Edition (43)
- Ambulance Life: A Paramedic Simulator (44)
- QUByte Classics: Glover (44)
- Scar-Lead Salvation (44)
- Fast & Furious: Arcade Edition (45)
The number of reviews from critics also probably contributed to MindsEye‘s “win” here. Even though many sites weren’t sent review codes ahead of launch, MindsEye was covered more than the other games, by far. There are 32 MindsEye reviews from various outlets, while the other nine games have an average of around 11 reviews attached to them (many of them have even less than that). It’s also the biggest game of the lot, a byproduct of it being from a studio led by former Rockstar Games talent and published by Hitman studio IO Interactive. It was even shown at various events like Summer Game Fest and had a fairly robust ad campaign. No other game on that list had this level of pre-launch notoriety.
MindsEye Has Been Patched Heavily Since Launch
Radioactive word of mouth, low review scores, bizarre accusations of sabotage, and widespread refunds shellacked studio Build A Rocket Boy around the title’s June launch, but that wasn’t the end of it. It faced layoffs following its poor sales, leading to 250 to 300 people losing their jobs and tough criticism directed at the developer’s leadership where some claim to have had to “adapt to [the] every whim” of those in charge.
MindsEye was heavily berated at launch for its stunted open world, numerous bugs, terrible enemy AI, bewildering endgame, repetitive gunplay, and predictable story. Updates are likely not going to markedly change some or most of these aspects, but Build A Rocket Boy has deployed a few of them with the aim of trying to right the ship. The team has rebalanced the difficulty, made cover shooting smoother, added the ability to skip cutscenes and long drives to missions, tweaked aim assist, dropped in new side activities, spliced in additional checkpoints, phased out some frustrating turret cars, cranked up ammo drops, and much, much more.
These large updates haven’t turned the game’s perception around and likely aren’t enough to put MindsEye in a position to deserve a noticeably more positive reception. Regardless, Build A Rocket Boy has thanked players for their input in the post for its last update by noting “every bit of feedback, positive, negative, or in between, has helped [the team] improve the game and keep it moving in the right direction.” It remains to be seen if this slight course correction will be noticed when all is said and done. Regardless, it hasn’t stopped the team from earning such a dubious honor.
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