Mindjack

The concept of Mindjack is pretty original, the hacking of the mind of NPC's and other players. Also the possibility to join someone in his singleplayer run to work against him is cool, but the gameplay is a bit too buggy to be very good. The graphics are also a bit mediocre.

If you can look past the lack of polish and horrible graphics, there's a compelling and unique take on cover-based shooters here, along with an interesting lesson on how games deal with plot. It's a rewarding little game, if you can hack it.

A great concept brimming with unexplored potential anchored by dull shooter mechanics.

Don't just skip the cinematics, skip Mindjack altogether. Playing this game made me wish it were as easy to enjoy a crummy videogame as it is a B-movie, but really, Mindjack is worse than that. It's more like a student film.

Poor balancing. [Mar 2011, p.96]

Mindjack fails miserably in almost all fields, from gameplay and graphics to story.

A good concept doesn't always evolve into a good game. That's MindJack, an interesting game with good concept, poor controls, bad AI and poor storytelling.

Mindjack teaches us that a good concept doesn't always evolve into a good game. Square Enix should really think about all the mistakes they've made if they ever want to create a successor.

Mindjack's chilling vision of the future is smothered by awkward controls and poor storytelling.

Myriad control problems, brain dead AI, and a cringe-worthy storyline make Mindjack a shooter worth skipping.

Enemy AI is dim as hell (foes will often run right by you to attack a comrade as you shoot them in the back of the head at point blank range), the wonky cover system often has you shooting bullets into nothingness even when it appears they should be hitting your targets, and there's no way to pause the game.

If you desperately want to try something new and are willing to put up with a totally disappointing production, maybe you'll want this when it drops down to a budget price.

Mindjack's shtick, the ability to hack an opponent to fight on your side, is not interesting enough to overlook its dreadful cover and combat systems, boring characters, unresponsive AI, and bland level design. Its only saving grace is its unique multiplayer component that allows you to hack into someone else's game to cause all sorts of trouble.

Feelplus has been so single-minded in their efforts to create a unique drop-in/out multiplayer concept, they forgot the importance of welding it onto a singleplayer game that's worth replaying and buddying-up for in the first place. And without other humans running through your game, helping, hindering – or just making things interesting at all – you're stuck playing a mind-numbing shell of a game. Or, as the case will be, not playing it. [Mar 2011, p.79]

Linear and boring shooter with unpleasant lack of checkpoints, low IQ enemies and ill-managed main feature – mind capturing. [Issue#201]

Bland weapons and generic enemies. [Spring 2011, p.111]

Mindjack has a couple of good ideas, but their poor implementation is not enough to save this mediocre action game.

Sometime a good idea can shape-up a good game. That's not the case. Multiplayer in Mindjack could've saved the day, but all the other stuff will give you only an enormous headache.

But despite its enormous potential, Mindjack is ultimately a frustrating and forgettable shooter with horrible presentation, clumsy controls and a plodding campaign.

Generic game making at its worst. [Issue#202, p.91]

A complete waste of good ideas. There's really no reason why you should bother buying this mess.

We love the idea of controlling defeated enemies' minds and using these subservient souls as combat partners or diversionary sitting ducks, but the execution here is simply irredeemable. [April 2011, p.75]

The bottom line is the more I played Mindjack, the more I wanted to stop playing Mindjack. I made it through to the end, but it wasn't without a lot of head-scratching, hair-pulling, and obscenity-laced tirades.

Mindjack is a sheer disappointment.

A laughable game that should have never seen the light of day.

This futuristic actiongame is so bad on so many levels that it almost looks like they did it on purpose. Gameplay, graphics and presentation: it's all terrible.

Mindjack may of aroused my mind prior to its release with some interesting concepts, however the repetitive, uninspired gameplay becomes so tedious that playing the game simply bored me out of my mind. Definitely better alternatives out there.

There really isn't much fun to be had here. Not even in a masochistic way.

Mindjack's execution is just ludicrously poor at times.