The former president of Rockstar North, Leslie Benzies, and a development team that includes a few other ex-GTA employees at Build a Rocket Boy studios, debuted an interesting trailer for upcoming project MindsEye, a game within a bigger game, known as Everywhere. Let me explain.
Everywhere, currently in development by Build a Rocket Boy, is a highly ambitious title. Think of it as a mashup between Roblox, Dreams and Fortnite. It’s an entirely new IP that can be best described as a free-to-play, open world and open-ended MMO title.
The game consists of multiple facets including a social space, à la PlayStation Home, a third-person shooter, multiplayer vehicular racing game, and finally a creation tool for player-created content. It’s a little bit of everything, everywhere, all at once. Hmmm, sounds familiar.
As such, giving us a little taste of what’s to come, MindsEye is a sort of in-game narrative-driven, sci-fi thriller experience, that is exclusively playable only in Everywhere. Despite this, Build a Rocket Boy stresses that MindsEye and Everywhere are “two distinct AAA products.” Further describing it as a “high-octane, triple-A, story-driven action-adventure game, set in a world of futuristic corporations, conspiracy theories, and sinister new technologies.”
Little else is known about the title except that it features Alex Hernandez of Mafia 3 fame in the lead role. It will also be released in parts, a bit like episodic content, with every part featuring distinct gameplay components. Meaning, while the first part is entirely narrative-driven and single-player focused; episode two, however, will feature multiplayer content. Also, its assets and mechanics will be made available to players for use in their own creations. Wild.
While incredibly ambitious, I can count at least two problems Everywhere may encounter once it’s released. First, there’s a sore lack of identity, an all-important factor when trying to get players coming back for more. Second, we all know the old adage of “A jack of all trades is a master of none.”
I fear shooting for the stars and trying to cater for everyone could lead to sub-par gameplay mechanics that, in turn, will see the game crash and burn. However, if well executed, it could also work entirely in its favour.
For now, Everywhere is slated for release on PC later this year, while MindsEye has no planned release date, meaning it could debut at the same time as Everywhere, or arrive on a later date. Interesting.
